We got three camcorders in our review center, SDR-T50, S50 and H85. This review applies to all of them as the models are same apart from the storage options. S50 has no internal memory but takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards. The T50 and H85 can store all those memory cards too but the former also has 4 gigs of internal memory and the latter has an 80 gig hard drive. We were surprised to see that size doesn’t change much even with the presence of hard drive. All three are very compact and feature 70x optical zoom lens and an enhanced optical zoom of 78x. This enhanced zoom uses the extra pixels on the CCD sensor to increase magnification which is different than a digital zoom that degrades quality. This is a very long zoom range and it also has very good optical image stabilization but you are  [...]

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Panasonic SDR-T50 looks like a tiny telescope which captures SD video as well! The optical image stabilization is very good (but you still want to use a tripod) and with the 70x zoom lens you will have no problems getting close to the subject. There are full manual controls, 4 GB internal flash based internal memory for storage and you can put in more through SHXC, SDHC or SD memory cards. The video quality of Panasonic SDR-T50 is just OK but that is not unexpected from a SD camcorder. Video clips in low light are poor because of the heavy noise. There are no jacks for external headphones or mic. Panasonic SDR-T50 is an inexpensive camcorder and has an easy to use interface for capturing SD video along with the megazoom lens. If you are expecting good quality SD video, then you will be disappointed.  [...]

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