Panasonic HX-A1

VIDEO. The Panasonic HX-A1 takes only fair video, lower quality than many Action camcorders. Pictures were a bit soft, which means it will be difficult to make out tiny details and very subtle patterns in the image. In low-light situations, the video was good: quite viewable but not as bright or clear as the better models. It captures full HD video at 1920x1080... At 30 frames per second (fps), progressive-scan (p). It has an above-normal frame-rate mode 848x480 at 120p fps.

AUDIO. It captures good audio in mono, better than most.

PHOTO QUALITY. In Photo mode it captures at best 2.7-megapixel stills with merely fair quality.

LENS. The lens has a fixed focal length; it has no zoom capability.

IMAGE STABILIZER. This model lacks image stabilizer, so your images may look shaky.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS. It survived our repeated-drop test. It survived being dunked in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes. It has a wireless communication feature. It can be controlled by a smartphone or tablet PC. This model is about average in size and much lighter than the average action camcorder.

The Panasonic HX-A1 is a 2.87-megapixel camcorder with no optical zoom. It lacks an LCD. The camcorder has a maximum aperture of f/2.8. The camcorder allows manual white balance.

The Panasonic HX-A1 stores video and photos on MicroSD, MicroSDHC and MicroSDXC memory cards and has no internal storage. It captures full HD video as MPEG-4 files at a resolution as high as 1920x1080 at 30 frames per second and 2.7-megapixel resolution stills as JPG files.

The Panasonic HX-A1 measures 1.1 inches wide by 1.1 inches high by 3.3 inches in length, and weighs 0.1 pounds.