Paul Lester,
The Genius HD55 is a budget-priced digital video camera capable of high definition quality pictures.
It's a pretty compact design that is operated right-handed using the support strap for stability.
As such, most of the controls are oriented around the user's hand position, with a mode-switch and record button, plus a flickwheel at the back, and the limited 2x-zoom and image capture button (for taking still photos) at the top.
There are menu and display modes tucked around the side but while each is quite responsive and obvious in its operation, they're not particularly easy to reach and it can be quite uncomfortable to contort the hand into position to get at the relevant controls.
A large 3in screen folds out from the side of the camera and can be fully rotated to view from any angle. Image quality was pretty good and the camera adjusted quite quickly between different lighting conditions to keep the picture consistent.
In addition to the digital video recording and the digital still camera mode there is a voice recorder, and there is a handful of rather limited options to adjust the white balance and resolution and to enable the night-shooting mode.
Video quality appears good on the internal screen, but when playing it back at full size on the computer we noticed a distinctly grainy effect over images, which varied depending on how well lit the environment was. This wasn't as much of a problem with digital photos, and if you take care to keep the camera steady when you're shooting you should be quite pleased with the sharpness and clarity of results.
The camera also features a composite output that allows it to be connected directly to a television screen, with a cable provided in the box to do so.
The HD55 is a budget camera and while the results are far from outstanding, they are better than many other devices in this price bracket. However there's no real excuse for the rather poorly designed controls that can make it awkward to operate with one hand and the limited range of settings make this distinctly middle-of-the-road.
