Photos: Hands-on with the 3MOS Panasonic HDC-HS100

The Panasonic HDC-HS100 we first met in Monte Carlo has arrived in Crave Towers with a raft of features, and even sporting a new name for this type of camcorder. It's a three CMOS model, or '3MOS' -- ooh, that's clever -- because it utilises three, 1/6-inch 'Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor' imaging sensors. Three CCD models are designed to absorb red, green or blue on each individual sensor, giving richer colour information than a single sensor, and 3MOS works on the same principle. Each sensor packs 610,000-pixels.

Video is recorded in AVCHD format, at full high definition 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution. It's stored on a 60GB hard disk drive, which isn't the biggest on the market, but still holds two minutes shy of 8 hours-worth of HD footage.

Our favourite feature is the lens ring on the Leica Dicomar Lens. It boasts a 12x optical zoom, which can be controlled by the zoom rocker at the back of the camera, or with the lens ring. A quick push of a switch at the front, and the lens ring allows you to focus manually, with the centre of the frame magnified on screen for fine adjustment.

The Panasonic HDC-HS100 is available for as little £610 online. To find out if it's the 3MOS with the most-est -- er, that didn't work, but we'll just gloss over it -- click through the photos for a closer look, and an HDMI surprise. -Rich Trenholm

Post your comment

Make your comment count. Log in or register to skip the 'Are you human?' question and get an avatar

Your email will not be displayed with your comment

Copy the letters and numbers to prove that you're human. You won't have to do this if you log in or register

Your comment must comply with the Terms of Use

About CBS Interactive

Copyright © 2012 CBS Interactive Limited. All rights reserved.