The Panasonic VDR D310 have a good score for color accuracy on still images, though its overall score was a less impressive Good. The VDR-D310 can record photos at sizes ranging from 0.3 megapixel to 3.1 megapixels to an SD card.

The camcorder has a microphone jack, though its built-in. Playback on the built-in monitor is fairly easy to control. The joystick on the back of the body falls under your right thumb; you use it to select the video you wish to play, and the controls appear on screen. You can adjust the volume by moving the zoom lever a top the camera, and the built-in speaker is strong enough to be audible in fairly quiet areas. There's no headphone jack, which would have been useful in noisy environments, but you do get USB and AV-out jacks.

A delete button on the front of the unit is convenient for disposing of unwanted scenes and stills, and the remote control permits access to all basic functions, including still photos, zooming, and file management.

To charge the battery, you must remove it from the camcorder and place it in the small charging bay; you can't just plug the VDR-D310 into the wall.

You do plug in the camcorder to transfer video or stills to a PC, and when finalizing a DVD disc (to make it readable in other devices). This makes sense--given that losing power would result in an unreadable disc--but requiring AC power for transferring files, especially stills from the SD card, seems like overkill; most digital cameras can transfer files on battery power alone.

In November, 2006, Panasonic announced it’s first direct-to-DVD digital camcorder. The Panasonic HDC-DX1, along with the just announced HDC-SD1, mark Panasonic’s first foray into the AVCHD market. The HDC-DX1 records HD footage onto MiniDVD and supports the new dual layer MiniDVDs. It features 3 1/4″ CCDs that will hopefully translate into the high color and picture quality we have come to expect from Panasonic 3 CCD camcorders.

Other features on the Panasonic HDC-DX1 include a 12x Leica lens, 3 inch LCD screen, and the ability to record in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. HDMI output is also included for the best possible connection quality to HD TVs. Finally, external microphone jacks are built-in for use with your favorite microphone.

The Panasonic HDC-DX1 records HD video using the AVCHD codec, which it jointly created with Sony. At this time, there is no real way to edit the footage, and one must also own a pretty high-end computer to use any bundled software.

The release date for the Panasonic HDC-DX1 is slated for December 15th in Japan. No word on a U.S. release, although you can bet it will be forthcoming. The price is going to be $1,350.

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