Panasonic Brings Out Line Of Small Camcorders

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The death of the Flip Video line appears to mean less and less with every passing day as new small camcorders make their way into the market, seemingly heedless of the threat posed by both smartphones and full-sized camcorders alike. And the newest entrant into the small camcorder stakes is Panasonic, who recently announced three such models in small camcorder.

Based on Sanyo’s Xacti lineup of camcorders (which is doubly fitting as Sanyo was bought out by Panasonic not so long ago), the new Panasonics have a variety of features and a pretty wide price range.

First,  there’s the Panasonic HX-DC1, a 14 megapixel camcorder that offers a three inch LCD display, support for the large SDXC card slot, an HDMI output and a USB port. Clearly the entry-level model, you’ll be able to get your hands on one of these for $425.

Next, we’ve got the Panasonic HX-WA10,which is a step up in some senses and a step down in others. It’s a 16 megapixel camcorder that offers a 2.6 inch LCD display, support for the large storage afforded by SDXC cards, a USB port, an HDMI port, and even better, it’s waterproof to a depth of three meters (roughly nine feet for those who favor the imperial measure). You’ll be able to pick one of these up for $550.

And finally, we’ve got the Panasonic HX-DC15, which will top out the stats at 16 megapixel, and offer up not only a three inch LCD display, but also 16 gigs of onboard storage to boot as well as an SDXC card slot. You’ll also get the HDMI and USB ports, and this one will set you back $610.

I find myself somewhat skeptical, looking at these new offerings–they’re substantially pricier than a lot of hardware currently out there and, while they’re not specifically bad offerings in their own right, they certainly don’t match up with a lot of what I’ve seen on shelves. Sure, portability is a valuable thing, but is it sufficiently valuable to make these worthwhile? That’s a personal call if ever there was one, but for me, I’d think you can do better elsewhere.

What about you folks? You like the new Panasonic cameras, or do these look like something you’d walk right on past in a Best Buy? The comments section is waiting, so tell us what you think!