Panasonic SDR-SW20 Waterproof SD/SDHC Card Rugged Camcorder [Retro Styled SDR-SW20EB-R & SDR-SW20EB-S)

Joining the ranks of other waterproof camcorders such as the Sanyo Xacti E1, Panasonic’s SDR-SW20 underwater rugged camcorder, apart from boasting distinctive and somewhat prominent 70’s themed retro styling (which will either really appeal to your aesthetic sensibilities, or really not), has been designed to offer waterproofing to depths of 1.5 meters in seawater – thus also rendering the SDR-SW20 also resistant to dust, sand, etc – as well as ‘sufficient impact resistance to prevent malfunction when dropped from up to 1.2 meters’ (though Panasonic negate to mention onto exactly what sort of surface the SDR-SW20 was dropped – concrete would be reasonably impressive, but it could have been a particularly thick shag pile carpet which would not be quite as noteworthy).

Designed for ‘active situations’ the rugged, waterproof and dustproof SDR-SW20 is as at home on the beach as it is on the piste, in the sea as it is in the desert and this is in part due to the fact that the SDR-SW20 relies solely on SD/SDHC memory cards for storage (thus managing to avoid any moving parts that would have been a prerequisite should it have come with an integrated HDD, for instance).

Offering Electronic Image Stabilisation, the SDR-SW20 comes with a 1/6″CCD offering 800k pixel resolution, 10x optical zoom (and up to a faintly ridiculous 700x digital), 16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio recording, a 2.7” widescreen flip out LCD and, regardless of its resistance to water and dust/sand a stereo zoom mic with inbuilt wind noise reduction.

Panasonic’s SDR-SW20 Waterproof SD/SDHC Card Rugged Camcorder, which comes in either red or silver (no beige, surprisingly, considering the device’s retro appeal) and will set you back around $350.

Panasonic [via]