The HS100 features Panasonic's new 3MOS sensor. With about 2 times the light-receiving area of a CCD sensor, this high-sensitivity, high-precision imaging element captures vibrant, faithful color and provides an outstanding performance in low lighting. The 3MOS system uses separate MOS sensors to capture the red, green and blue light components, so no light is wasted. You capture rich, expressive video with vivid colors and super-fine details that make your images come alive.
We took the advanced imaging circuitry used in Panasonic professional equipment and adapted it for home use. The result is the HD Advanced Pure Color Engine, a high-speed processing unit that handles huge volumes of data and virtually doubles the dynamic range. This advanced imaging engine helps prevent blown highlights and blocked shadows, so the images you capture on video look just the way they do in real life.
HS100 also introduces a new high-performance Leica lens in which both resolution and contrast have been improved by refinements to our low-dispersion lens and aspherical lens. The lens is highly refractive too, making it possible to pack a powerful 12x zoom into a compact body. A multi-coating process applied to all lens surfaces helps suppress ghosts and flaring, so you get sharp, crisp images even in strong outdoor lighting. The superb rendering ability of this advanced camcorder lens makes it ideal for capturing expressive full-HD images.
The manual ring gives you easy, fingertip control over the focus, zoom and exposure settings. You'll find using the ring a much more intuitive, comfortable, user-friendly process than accessing a menu screen. With the manual ring and manual operation, the HS100 is a pleasure to use and gives you the freedom to craft unusually expressive images.
Switch the power on and the HS100 is in standby mode in just 1.9 seconds, ready to shoot when you are. This fast startup also helps reduce battery consumption.(HS100: in card recording mode only).
In iA mode the image stabilization, contrast correction and face detection functions are automatically activated. The Scene Selector function analyzes the shooting situation and automatically switches the camcorder to the Scene mode that will give you optimal results.
This mode captures faces beautifully. Face Detection automatically senses the ambient lighting and adjusts the exposure accordingly, so faces are bright and easy to see. The focus also prioritizes the faces, and skin tones are smoothed. Faces in the center of the frame serve as the reference for adjustments, but the function can detect up to 15 faces in all.
Advanced O.I.S. When hand-shake is detected while shooting, the Advanced O.I.S. system is automatically activated to compensate for blurring and produce beautiful recorded images. Blurring is also prevented while zooming, so images look incredibly clear and sharp even when they're viewed on a large-screen HDTV.
By detecting the intensity of the ambient light and adjusting the exposure accordingly, Intelligent Contrast Control prevents blown highlights and blocked shadows. This helps render natural-looking, highly nuanced images with proper contrast.
This clever function records three seconds of images even before you actually begin shooting. The images are held temporarily in the camcorder's internal memory, before recording onto the HDD/SD Memory Card begins. This helps ensure that you won't miss the start of a moment you want to record, such as when an event begins all of a sudden. For example, if you're waiting to snap a shot of a jumping dolphin, you can press the REC button after you've made sure that the dolphin has cleared the surface of the water. The camcorder will record the entire scene, from the instant of the dolphin's jump until it disappears again into the sea.
Each of the five built-in microphones of the HS100 works individually to record sounds from the front, sides, and back. When viewed on a system with Dolby Digital 5.1-channel sound, the real-life acoustic field brings even greater power to images such as festival parades, concerts, or birds in nature.
Distant subjects can be enlarged so they appear to be right up close. This allows dynamic shots of both motion and still pictures.
MEDIA
Records Onto
Recording Format
60 GB HDD, SD/SDHC Memory Card
AVCHD (Motion Image)
LENS
Image Sensor (Total)
Image Sensor (Effective)
F Value
Optical Zoom
Focal Length
Filter Diameter
35mm Film Camera Equivalent
Lens Type
1/6" MOS (610 K x 3 pixels)
16:9 -- 520K x 3 (Moving Picture/Still Picture)
F1.8 (Wide) / F2.8 (Tele)
12x Variable Speed
2.95-35.4 mm
37mm
42.1-505 mm (16:9) (Motion Image/Still Image)
Leica Dicomar
CAMERA
3CCD Camera System
Image Stabilizer
Still Picture Recording
Minimum Illumination
Focus
White Balance
High Speed Shutter
Iris
Backlight Compensation
Electronic Viewfinder (EVF)
LCD Monitor
Power LCD
Wide Viewing Angle LCD
Manual Focus Ring
Pure Color Engine
MagicPix Images
Simultaneous Motion Video & Still Picture Recording
Microphone
On-Screen Display Language
Flash
Quick Start
No
Yes (Advanced O.I.S.)
Yes (2.1 Megapixel 16:9)
2 Lux (1/30 Low Light Mode), 1 Lux (Magic Pix® Mode)
AF/Manual
Auto/Indoor1/Indoor2/Sunny/Cloudy/White Set
60i: Auto Slow Shutter ON: 1/30-1/8000, OFF: 1/60-1/8000 (Motion Image)(Still Picture, Progressive: 1/30-)
24p: Auto Slow Shutter ON: 1/24-1/8000, OFF: 1/48-1/8000 (Motion Image)(Still Picture, Progressive: 1/24-)
Auto/Manual
Yes
Yes
2.7" Wide (300,000 Dots)
Yes
Yes
Yes
HD Advanced
Yes
Yes (2.1 Megapixel)
Dolby Digital/5.1 ch, Zoom Microphone
English / Canadian French / Spanish
1m - 2.5m (approx.)
0.6 seconds
RECORDING & PLAYBACK
Applicable Disc
Cue and Review
Video Recording Format
Recording Mode
Playback Mode
Audio Recording Format
Recording Time
Still Picture
Still Picture Recording Number
Counter
Remaining Indication
Pre-Rec Function
Intelligent Contrast Control
One-Touch Navigation
Help Mode
Tele Macro
AGS (Auto Ground-Directional Standby)
Composition Guide Lines
Disc Copy Function
USB Host Function
No
No
AVCHD (Motion Image)
HD: HA (17 Mbps/VBR), HG (13 Mbps/VBR), HX (9 Mbps/VBR), HE (6 Mbps/VBR)
HD: HA (17 Mbps/VBR), HG (13 Mbps/VBR), HX (9 Mbps/VBR), HE (6 Mbps/VBR)
Dolby Digital (Dolby AC3) / 5.1-channel
SDHC: 16GB: HA (2 hrs)/HG (2hrs 40mins)/HX (4hrs)/HE (6hrs)
8GB: HA (1hr)/HG (1hr 20mins)/HX (2hrs)/HE (3hrs)
4GB: HA (30mins)/HG (40mins)/HX (1hr)/HE (1hr 30mins)
JPEG Picture Size: 2.1 MEGA: 1920 x 1080 (16:9)
SDHC: 16GB: (13470, 21170), 8GB: (6690, 10520), 4GB: (3290, 5160)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes, 50cm
Yes (50cm)
Yes
Yes, when using a DVD burner (VW-BN1), data from an SDHC/SD Memory Card & HDD (HS100, HS9) can be copiesd to a 12-cm DVD disc
Yes
Yes, 2.0
SD CARD FEATURE
Built-in SD Slot
DPOF
Yes
JACKS
Video Output
Video Component
HDMI
Audio Output
USB
Microphone (stereo mini)
Analog In/Out
Headphone (M3)
Accessory Shoe
AV
Yes
INCLUDED ACCESSORIES
AC Adaptor
Battery Pack
Video Component Cable
AV Cable
USB Cable
IR Remote
SD Memory Card
Lens Cap
Software
Other Cables
Yes
GENERAL
Power Supply
Power Consumption
3MOS Sensor System
iA (Intelligent Auto)
Face Detection
Dimensions (H x W x D)
Weight
DC 7.2/9.3 V