You can then move the joystick up to get control of shutter speed, aperture (labeled Iris), and white balance. As mentioned earlier, a single press of the Manual AF/MF button will let you control focus using the joystick. Panasonic included both full manual and full auto shooting options.
Inside the LCD cavity is where you'll find the SD/SDHC card slot for additional video or photo storage and an AV out. The last one is particularly handy because you'll want to shut OIS off when the H80's on a tripod. This includes buttons for accessing manual controls, turning on Panasonic's Intelligent Auto (iA) mode, and enabling the optical image stabilization (OIS). If you dread going into menus to make adjustments, Panasonic dots the H80 with several buttons for quickly changing between shooting options. Flipping out the LCD exposes a five-way joystick and Menu button on the left side of the screen. There's a Power/Mode dial at the top back for selecting whether you want to record movies or still photos or play them back.
Though it doesn't come off as stylish as Sony's competing 60x zoom Handycam DCR-SR47, it still looks and feels good.Ĭontrols are pretty typical for this type of camcorder and nothing is so horribly positioned to make using the H80 uncomfortable (though the Record button is a touch too close to the battery).
Considering the lens/storage combo in the H80, its overall design is impressively small.
