Fun Little Orange Toy!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Small, does pictures, video, audio recording, and music playback

Cons: Questionable durability, steps to play music on it tends to be a hassle

The Bottom Line: 
It's fun and it's different. Moreso an expensive electronic toy than a serious piece of digital equipment, but still would make a great, fun gift.

Author's Review
Panasonic has a D-Snap display at my work (which I got to set up) with a number of their compact, multi-function digital cameras & camcorders. The customer traffic to the products has been light so far, but I have been noticing an increase in attention to these little digital wonders. I was curious myself and figured that I should know enough about the products to form a concise description for customers, especially with X-Mas looming near.


It's so Light and Tiny (and Orange)!
Probably the first thing that people notice about the camera is the size. It's definitely pocket-size and doesn't weigh that much at all, being constructed from aluminum and plastic. Aluminum and plastic. It's about a quarter of an inch thick. I'm still debating the durability of the unit since it wouldn't take too much force to damage it. The battery and memory are secured in the bottom by a spring-loaded hinge-door. The metal body of the camera and the plastic door feel like they're held together by threads, and one will definitely want to keep it closed as much as possible. I can picture the owner trying to install the memory, the camera slipping through fingers, and the door snapping itself free from result of the collision with the floor; it's that delicate. The battery and memory don't need the door to hold them in (as long as there is no nudge to unlock them from their place) but the door keeps bad things out. Looking into the Panasonic camera from the bottom will show a "sandwich" of sorts. Aluminum body, circuit board, aluminum body. We definitely need that door to keep stuff out from damaging the insides (except for those who like places to stash notes or top-secret armageddon plans).

I gingerly applied force to the outside of the unit to test the resistance. While it can easily withstand normal handling conditions, greater force (back pocket + sitting, backpack + tossing/dropping, rough use, etc) will either dent it, or warp the body in a concave fashion with no real means of return back to it's original state (without adding further damage). Handling it for an extended amount of time left it noticeably warm to the touch after I put it down and picked it back up half a minute later. I can imagine that prolonged exposure to heat (left in a car while shopping or something) might do damage to the circuitry since there's little separation between the body and the board. I've left other electronics in my car during a hot day and they've been fine, but they also don't get unnaturally warm when holding them and using them for a period of time.


It's so Cool!
Admittedly, it is pretty cool. The SV-AS10 takes 2.0 megapixel pictures, records 320x240 Quicktime videos at 15 frames per second (up to a minute at a clip), acts like a voice recorder, and plays music (in the proper formats). For what it is, it does a solid job in each respect under most conditions. It has a 1.5" LCD screen on the back with a button for record, menu, and reverse right below it. The screen displays well. The reverse button will flip the image on the LCD screen since you can rotate the camera eye in a 180 degree vertical arc. The right side of the unit has the power switch, another record button, and the toggle between shooting and playback modes. The left side of the unit has the headphone jack for listening to music. Now the real cool feature is the selector "ball", which is smacked in the middle between the record and menu buttons, right underneath the LCD screen. This is used to zoom in and out, move through the menu options, and menu selection (which is done by pressing the ball). The ball is surprisingly responsive and accurate (moreso than the SV-AS50 it seems), needing only the flick of the thumb to direct it properly. I spent quite some exploring all the menu options just to play with the SV-AS10 and flick through all it had to offer. It's definitely fun and tactile.

The menu options are plentiful but not overwhelming (especially with quick flicking). The "shoot" menu offers the options: picture quality (640, 1280, 1600, in normal or fine), recording mode (voice, still, voice+still, burst stills, and video), self-timer, nightshot on/off, white balance adjustment (auto, incandescent, daylight, cloudy, manual), ISO speed adjustment (400, 200, 100, auto), exposure adjustment, flash options (on, off, red-eye, auto), and setup (for volume, display, clock, etc.. which is accessible in both the shoot and playback menus). The "play" menu offers options: add audio, play mode (play, thumbnails, slideshow, play audio music), resize pics (to 640 or 320), lock pics, DPOF printing (what is this? I know of Pictbridge, but DPOF?), mark pics, erase, and setup.


How Does it Work, Is it Any Good?
Still Photos: I snapped off some pictures with zoom (up to 4x digital), without zoom, with the macro mode on (there is a switch on the back of the camera eye for macro mode), and at different distances. I set the camera to the highest quality picture setting for these. After printing them out I decided that the macro mode is worthless, the pictures with zoom aren't worth much for printing (since the digital zoom reduces the quality pretty quick), and the pictures without zoom were sharp, 2.0 megapixel pictures (checked the megapixel quality against the still shots from the Panasonic Camcorder PVGS200 ). The pictures turned out much better for the subjects that were closer. The camera has the options for lower quality pictures, but I wouldn't see any reason to use those settings at all (just buy a larger SD memory card if you want more pictures instead of sacrificing quality). Make sure that you have lots of light for the pictures and videos, even with nightshot on, since the camera does quite poor with less light available. The rotating lens is great for using the self-timer, since you can lay the camera flat and rotate the lens for a perfect shot (except for the dexterous ones who would balance it on the narrow edge to show off). You can take over 100 pictures on a fully charged battery, which takes a couple of hours to recharge.

Video: Indeed, 320x240 at 15fps. Plays back nice on the unit, and better on a computer. It's too bad that you can only record up to 60 seconds at a time. It's also too bad that it's in the Quicktime movie format too, since the MPEG format is watchable on every PC without having to download anything (and the PC dominates the computer market). The video can pick up internal noise while recording if you're handling the camera "noisily" (don't ask me how, it just does). Just like all other digital cameras, you can't zoom in or out once you've started recording. Even though all digital cameras now will record video, it's still neat to get good video from small ones.

Audio: The voice recording from the mic is actually pretty good, but you wouldn't know it if you played it back from the unit itself. The speaker on the SV-AS10 has dismal performance, even with the volume turned all the way up. Transfer the audio to the computer and play it there to hear it much better. The MP3 playback quality was ASTOUNDING (compared to my expectations). I didn't think it was going to be much, but with a large enough memory card this camera can transform into a great portable MP3 player. The headphones play louder than the microphone on the camera, so those intending to listen to music in noisy places will be happy to know their tunes won't be drowned out. You can play music for about 8 hours or so on a fully charged battery.


Have You Heard Anything Bad?
Now here comes the major gripe. As much as I love the music playback feature, it's a complete hassle. Panasonic provides it's SD Jukebox software which MUST BE USED if you want to put music on the Secure Digital card to play on the SV-AS10. Drag-dropping audio files onto the card in Windows won't work (and not all music files will work either, only MP3 and WMA). The software is easy enough to use, and also offers itself as a music jukebox for the PC, instead of just a file-converter for the camera. It's nice that it works as a jukebox too.. only if you're never heard of Winamp or Windows Media Player or Realplayer or something. I had issues using the software with computers that had memory-card slots built in. For some reason the software doesn't recognize the internal flash drives and will only recognize the card if it's connected to the computer via USB (either through the camera in the dock or an external USB card reader). Totally bogus. I had to scrounge for a USB flash reader (since the cameras and docks are locked down on display). With that hurdle done, the process of putting the music on the card is time consuming since the software has to convert the songs to a readable format for the camera. Bummer that we can't just copy the music over and that we have to use software. The camera also comes with a little handheld remote which MUST be used to listen to music. The remote plug on the camera isn't 2.5mm (it's smaller), so if you lose the remote you won't be able to listen to your music until you acquire another one. It's annoying that you need an additional piece just to listen to music, despite the handiness of the remote. The entire process leading up to listening to the music is a nuisance, but once you're done everything is fine.


Do You Think My [Insert Friend/Relative Name] Will Like It?
Aside from the issues with the music, the questionable durability, and the weak audio speaker, the Panasonic SV-AS10 does great for fun and portability for the price. It comes with the cradle (to recharge and connect to PC), USB cable, AC adapter, lithium ion battery (nice and thin), 8mb SD card (buy a bigger one!), headphones, music remote, software, manual, and a carrying case (cheap pseudo-velvet or something), cleaning cloth, and lanyard. The battery has pretty good life on it and the cradle is small and portable. The case would help against scratches, but makes the camera look ugly if you have it hanging from your neck. $249.99 for a (predominantly) 2.0 megapixel camera and MP3 player is a pretty reasonable price, which would make a great gift for a teenager or anyone who wants something fun and digital without getting serious (like a better digital camera, MP3 player, or both, which cost more). It comes in three flavors: silver, light blue, and orange. I already own a digital camera that outperforms the Pansonic SV-AV10 (even though it has no music playback), but I could definitely see myself buying this as a gift for my 12 year old brother who appreciates the "coolness" and "sneakability" factors. If I was given one, I would probably use it. It's easier to conceal than most digital cameras, would be fun for impromptu picture and video capturing since it's small and quiet (sound off), and can be used to play music (if I deal with the process). Sony has it's own DSCU series, 2.0 megapixel digital cameras, which are tiny (like a tube of lipstick) and comparable in price to the Panasonic SV-AS10. Even though the Panasonic is larger, I like the unique, flat design, and the features. I wouldn't want someone to assume I'm hiding lipstick in my pocket, and having the Panasonic camera in one of the internal pockets of my school binder (since it's thin and would slip right in without creating a bulge) would just look cool. I am expecting the sales to be pretty good for these neat little cameras during the holiday season.