Panasonic RRXS400 Digital Audio Recorder Review

As a fledgling podcaster, a lot of the recordings that I make will be at home, which my trusty Blue Snowball microphone can handle with ease. However when you need to go out and about in order to record, it's not always practical to be carrying laptops and microphones with you.

There are many digital audio recorders out there in the marketplace, I opted for this model, as I work at a Panasonic dealer, and have found the quality of their recorders over the years to be very good.

This recorder stands out from the entry level models in the range as it offers extra functionality and a higher standard of recording quality compared to the basic recorders.

The RRXS400 has numerous recording modes, giving MP3 quality ranging from 32kbps to 320kbps or the option to record in linear PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) for higher quality again, with 44.1kHz and 48kHz recording modes on offer.

Of course recording in higher quality takes up more recording memory, the internal 2GB memory can store up to 3 hours of recording in PCM 44.1kHz mode and up to 135 and a half hours in 32kbps mode. If you want to expand the memory there is a micro SD card slot that allows for up to 16GB of extra recording space to be added.

The recorder has a built in stereo microphone, and there are line in and headphone jacks for connecting to external devices. The RRXS400 also has a USB connector (which also acts as a charger) to enable copying to and from a Mac or PC, as the machine supports WMA and MP3 playback it also doubles up as a music player.

There are options to edit on the recorder itself, which might be handy, you can divide, join and erase segments, but I think I prefer editing on the Mac.

Having had a brief play with it, I am really impressed with recording quality, it's hard to judge the recording quality through the recorder's in built loudspeaker, but when played back on the computer the results are excellent.

This will be a very handy little gadget to take when I have to travel in order to get my footage, and at £49.99 I think it's a real bargain.

Panasonic Announce New Lumix GX1

Panasonic have announced yet another addition to their ever growing family of G series system cameras.

The DMCGX1 will hit stores in the next few weeks and design wise it looks like a cross between the Lumix DMCGF1 and the DMCLX5.

In keeping with the retro styling of the camera, Panasonic seem to have gone back to the 1990's for the concept of this promotional video.

The camera looks cool though!

Panasonic Announce New X Series Micro 4/3 Lenses

Panasonic have announced two new additions in their expanding range of micro four thirds lenses.

The unique aspect of the new X Series lenses is that they are the worlds first interchangeable lenses to feature a power zoom.

While micro four thirds lenses are renowned for being small in size, because of the power zoom the lenses are significantly smaller than those currently available.

Comparison:

Standard 14-42mm Kit Lens

X Series 14-42mm Power Zoom Lens

The two lenses are a 14-42mm general purpose lens, and a 45-175mm tele photo lens, both lenses feature Panasonic's Power O.I.S. image stabilisation system to prevent image blur, even on maximum zoom.

X Series 45-175mm Power Zoom Tele Photo Lens

Having purchased my Lumix DMCG3 with the standard 14-42mm lens, I doubt very much if I wil invest in the X series equivalent, however the option of a compact tele photo lens would prove a very welcome addition to my micro four thirds collection.

Giving The Panasonic 20mm Pancake Lens A Workout

In a few rare moments of spare time I have been trying out my new Panasonic HH020 pancake lens.

First Few DMCG3 Test Shots

As a follow up to my review of the Panasonic DMCG3, I thought I would post some early efforts.

ISO 160, F7.1, 1/500

This first shot was taken using the Creative Control feature, in the Expressive setting, which offers a pop art style colour effect.

I chose to get in close to the bark to capture the detail, and push the background into soft focus.

ISO 160, F5.6, 1/250

The next shot was taken using Intelligent Auto mode.

I nearly squished this little dude, as I rushed to get home as it had started to rain. But I couldn't resist having a go at capturing a shot.

The camera selected all the settings for me.

ISO 160, F8.0, 1/400

This was also taken in Intelligent Auto mode, and I thought I would put the camera in to monochrome mode to ad a touch of atmosphere.

Grumpy Old Man

This last shot was taken in Grumpy Bugger mode :)

Panasonic Lumix DMCG3 Review

After having seen a pre-production version at Panasonic UK last month, the waiting is over...... and it was worth the wait!

This latest addition to Panasonic's G series range is the successor to the phenomenally successful DMCG2.

The camera body is significantly smaller than the G2, but still has a good ergonomic feel, in size it sits between the G2 and the slightly slimmer GF2. Unlike the GF2, The G3 retains the 3 inch free angle touch screen and an improved electronic viewfinder.

New improvements include an amazing Light Speed 0.1 second auto focus, pin point focus mode for super accurate focusing, an incredible 20 frames per second burst shooting mode (resolution is reduced from 16 megapixels to 4 megapixels), full screen touch focusing, 1920 x 1080i resolution HD video, a new stereo microphone, and intelligent auto plus, which allows for fine tuning of colour preferences, but retaining the point and shoot simplicity of the standard intelligent auto mode.

The camera is available in a kit with a lumix 14-42mm lens or body only. The body is available in choice of black, red or white finishes.

There are eleven micro four thirds lenses currently available from Panasonic at the time of writing, with adaptors available to enable use of Leica R mount and M mount lenses, and an adaptor to allow the use of full size four thirds lenses

I have only had it a day, so I haven't had too much time to play with it, but the experience so far is great. There are some really neat touches, like the peripheral de-focus feature, which allows you to pick out an area on the touch screen to focus on, and the camera does the job of blurring the surrounding area for you, creating artistic looking shots within seconds.

I love this camera, it's small enough to be practical to carry around, but with all the creative control and quality of a bigger SLR camera.

Panasonic Lumix G Series Overview

I was recently invited to Panasonic UK headquarters in Bracknell to take a look at the company's range of G series multi lens cameras.

The innovative compact design delivers SLR quality photographs in a much more conveniently sized package.

Taken on a 25 second exposure in shutter priority mode.

In order to make the cameras smaller Panasonic have removed the conventional mirror box used in standard single lens reflex cameras. Seasoned photographers will know that the mirror box enables the user to see exactly what the lens is seeing. In order to keep this useful facility Panasonic have included a "Live View" button which gives the same end result using the camera's sensor.

Speaking of sensors, the G series cameras have a sensor 9 times bigger than that of standard compact cameras giving superlative picture quality.

For anyone contemplating buying an SLR camera, but are put off by the bulkiness, the G series range are the perfect solution. Also for compact camera users (such as myself) they offer the ability to achieve beautiful photographs without necessarily needing to know all of the techniques used by those with years of photography knowledge.

Intelligent Auto mode gives stunning results just by pointing and shooting. Also on offer are creative modes which enable users to create more artistic photos using simple icons to indicate the type of shots available.

And for those seeking more control over the camera there are program, aperture, shutter and full manual modes, as well as custom modes and scene modes.

There are four models in the current range; G2 (entry level offering 720p movies), GF2 (slimline), G3 (step up to 1080i movies) and GH2 (flagship model). Panasonic, at the time of writing offer 11 different micro four thirds lenses, ranging from a 14mm pancake lens, fish eye, wide angle, macro, 3D, to a range of telephoto lenses including a whopping  100mm - 300mm (200mm - 600mm 35mm equivalent) lens.

Taken at F2.5 in aperture priority mode

Other manufacturers including Leica and Olympus also offer a range of micro four thirds lenses, and there are also adaptors to enable other lenses to be used.

The G series cameras also offer the ability to record movies in HD quality with very impressive results.

The range of G series cameras are available here

I think I need to start saving some money!

Panasonic DMRBS880 Blu Ray Recorder Review

I bought this a couple of weeks ago as our freeview reception was getting progressively worse.

Thankfully when we moved house a while ago I decided to ask our satellite dish installer to put in two extra cables incase we wanted to have sky+ or freesat+.

After a brief crash course in mastering the art of fitting F-connectors to the sat cables, the setup was simplicity itself. The tuning process took a matter of minutes, with only a prompt to enter your postcode in order to receive the correct regional broadcasts, needed to complete the initial setup.

Timer recording is very simple. Using the onboard TV guide you can record up to a week in advance, with the choice of single or series timer options available. The machine will even suggest new programmes to record based on the ones that you like to watch. And with a fairly substantial 500GB of hard drive capacity there's room enough for 76 hours of HD recordings and approximately 360 hour of standard definition content in SP mode. The machine can also pause and rewind (up to 2 hours) of live TV.

With its twin tuners the machine gives the handy facility of recording two programmes simultaneously, and, at the time of writing there are four high definition channels available to record from (BBC HD, BBC One HD, ITV1 HD and Channel 4 HD). The programmes are recorded to the hard drive in DR mode, which efficiently compresses the data to a relatively low bit rate, but retains high definition resolution, which gives exemplary playback, especially from HD sources. DR mode also records subtitles and audio description, which can be turned on or off after recording.

Another neat feature is the ability to copy jpeg photos, music CDs and camcorder content in both standard definition and in the AVCHD high definition format, as used by Panasonic, Sony and others. The machine has a gracenote database as used in iTunes, so that your music stored on the machine's hard drive has the artist, track and album names automatically added to make them easy to find.

Blu Ray playback is stunning, Panasonic's PHL (Panasonic Hollywood Labs) chroma processor creates a faithful pixel perfect reproduction of your favourite Blu Ray discs. It also does a decent job of upscaling from standard definition DVDs, the BBC's "The Tudors" looks sharp, well defined and colourful played back from a DVD disc.

And if you thought that the audio side of things has been overlooked, you are very mistaken! With the BS880 connected to my Sony 7.1 amplifier, the Daft Punk fuelled soundtrack to "Tron: Legacy" sounds amazing. Also selected programmes from the HD channels are presented (and recorded) in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, something that most Freeview HD machines cannot offer.

This machine is certainly not the cheapest recorder on the market, but it's definitely one of the best.