Review on Panasonic SDR S26 SD Camcorder Blue by Efraine Cruise

I bought this camera about 3 months ago so I wanted to test it before posting a review. A decent camera for less than $200. I often shoot sports, so the 70x optical zoom is very useful for me. turn off digital zoom; it's useless. 70X is more than enough for this camera. OIS (optical image stabilization) is amazing! I have a lot of shaky hands, so at 70x zoom you can imagine how shaky the image would be without OIS. It's really convenient. The sound is very good, these small microphones pick up everything. Image quality is good. I recommend you use the highest quality recording option. You may notice a little graininess at times, but what do you expect from $200. Due to the fact that the camera is very small, it is very easy to carry around and take with you wherever you go. The disadvantage of this compactness is that the battery has to be small, which means that recording times are not as long. With a standard battery I can record 50-55 minutes continuously with the LCD on and zooming in and out. The good thing is that you can buy a compatible backup battery for no more than $15, which is what I did. I can get by for 40 to 45 minutes with a backup battery from another manufacturer. In summary I would highly recommend this camera if you are on a budget and want to get the most bang for your buck. Trust me, I've done my research and couldn't find anything comparable with the same features for less than $200.