Panasonic 3MOS Cams Improve Low-Light Shots

Using 3 MOS sensors rather than 3 CCD sensors, Panasonic claims its new HD cams take in twice the light as their more traditional counterparts.

As anyone who has ever attempted to shoot digital video or still shots in low light can tell you, even the best cameras struggle to pick out details and battle blur in such dismal lighting conditions. Panasonic claims that its two latest HD camcorders, the HDC-SD100 and HDC-HS100, battle this issue with new technology that takes in twice the light as traditional CCD cameras.

The camcorders are the first to have Panasonic’s new 3MOS system, which uses an array of 3 MOS sensors rather than the more traditional array of 3 CCD array found in high-end camcorders. The difference: the MOS sensors have twice the light-receiving area as their CCD counterparts, so low-light performance is significantly boosted. Panasonic claims the 3MOS cameras will perform well down to 2 lux, the type of light you might find outside at night in a poorly lit area. And since there are separate sensors for red, green and blue, color reproduction shouldn’t suffer.

The only distinction between the two models comes from their methods of storage. The HDC-SD100 uses SD cards, while the HDC-HS100 uses both SD cards and an internal 60GB hard drive. Besides their low-light capabilities, both cameras also have more standard features like optical image stabilization, face detection, intelligent contrast control to prevent washed-out areas in an image, and intelligent scene selection to automatically select scene settings on the fly.

Both cameras are set to go on sale in September. Although the HDC-HS100 includes a hard drive, it will actually be cheaper than the SD-only HDC-SD100, retailing for $1,099.95 as opposed to $1,299.95.