The biggest gripe about digital camcorders is the same problem users had with digital cameras just a few short years ago: getting files off the camera. With its SDR-S150 digital camcorder, Panasonic believes it has come up with a good answer: simply remove the memory card.

The Panasonic SDR-S150 is Panasonic’s update on the SDR-S100, a tiny SD card-based camcorder that manages to pack in three CCDs and a whole lot of image quality. But as far as updates go, this constitutes the bare minimum: SDHC-card compatibility and a trifle increase in the LCD. A lot of things that could have been improved, like the enclosed battery design, were left untouched. Our opinion remains the same as last year: you’ll either consider a compact MPEG-2 camcorder, or you never will. If you find yourself in the former party, please read on. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.