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The Panasonic HDC-SD80, TM80, and HS80 are notable for their manual exposure controls, unusual for their price class, and well designed touch-screen interface but otherwise you can find better options. Of the three, the SD80 is the best choice simply on price.

The SD80 offers a fair balance of quality and features that should enable amateur videographers to improve their shooting skills without overloading them with features that they won't use or grasp fully.

Panasonic’s HDC-SD80 is a good budget camcorder, offering decent image quality and a healthy array of manual settings if you do find you want to take a little more control of your shooting.

The Panasonic SD80 is great for beginners looking to move up, but experienced users will be turned off by the missing features.