Panasonic HC-V785

Improvements required – I have been a long time user of video cameras since about 1981. This unit offers very good low light performance which is a plus. Image quality - full HD - is great but no different to other cameras in this class. It struggles however with audio. Sound quality needs substantial improvement. Wind noise is problematic and even though the camera provides wind noise reduction options they are barely distinguishable and wind rumble is always present except in still air. Capturing music from say a live band is ordinary. The audio is drummy, variable and hollow even when set to the 'music' option. In spite of much experimentation the results are poor. This probably means spending about half as much again on the Panasonic external mic option which then represents paying a premium to obtain a reasonable level of audio quality. Of course, I am not even sure that such an outlay will give me the quality of audio that matches the quality of the images that are captured by this camera.

Audio is in fact inferior to that of my 6 year old JVC Eviro camera. This is disappointing and presents a challenge for manufacturers of cameras targeted at domestic users. Spectacular advances in image are simply not being matched in the audio area.