The Panasonic HDC-HS80 fits comfortably in the palm of the hand, but unfortunately its exterior appearance is by no means inspiring.

The design is clumsy and not sleek like some other models within the same price range, and space could have been better used by making the LCD screen larger. The body is also somewhat flimsy and the plastic feels cheap to the touch. To make matters worse, the default sound effects made by the menu functions are annoying and adds to the overall displeasure of using the screen.

However, the menu starts up quickly, which helps to somewhat alleviate the irritation caused by the other quirks.

Touchscreen implementations are often hit or miss, and the HS80 tends to fall into the slow and unresponsive category, which makes for a frustrating experience. Sifting through a long series of buttons to get to the option you’re looking for is a very tedious exercise. There is an in-built LED flash-light on the front of the camera, which is very useful for filming close ups in the dark, although it doesn’t have a lot of range and so becomes fairly useless beyond 2 metres. Overall you have nothing to lose if you skip this product.

Source: cnet.com.au