Reviews for Panasonic Palmcorder HDC-SD1 Digital Camcorder - 3" LCD - CCD

Impressive First Generation HD Camcorder With Room...

Strengths: Sharp, Well-saturated Pics - both video and stills - from a remarkably compact, lightweight, and silent camera.

Weakness: Requires second battery and SDHD card to record more than an hour at a time; slow video download; some quirky user interface issues (see comments)

Not to repeat all of what user pmamut shared (which I agree with), I have the following observations based on ~ 11 hours of video and ~ 500 stills:
- Surprisingly nice stills - good enough not to have to carry two cameras if you're just looking for decent snaps.
- Flash stills tend to over-expose a little - even with flash intensity reduced
- Excellent video and very good still saturation and crispness but with slight green-cast (correctable with photo editing software)
- Use of video-fade-in has to be reset prior to each recording segment and, when used, video preview show as black window - completely useless. Video preview should capture after fade-in.
- Many settings can't be changed while recording.
- Vendor software seems rushed to market. Aftermarket software selection is very limited.
- Flipping screen to view from lens-side removes useful display information.
- Down-side issues must be anticipated when buying on the leading edge of technology.

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Simply Awesome, as perfect as one could ask for

Strengths: High-Def quality; Optical stabilization; No moving parts; basically silent, lightweight; records on inexpensive SDHC; No more FF/RW tapes.

Weakness: Batteries are expensive. Some ports inconveniently places. Succeeder model SD5 is out (with a shorter zoom, though).

Where to begin?

The Panasonic HDC-SD1 is compact, lightweight, and accepts SD-HC cards (and includes a 4 GB to get you started).

It is well shaped and almost a dream to use. Zoom is easily toggled each way while recording. Controls are within one-handed reach; usually you can get away with one-handed shooting, though two-handed is best, because it lets you stabilize and "guide" the cam more than using only one hand.

Tripod mount works well, though you cannot change the battery while it's attached. The included charger will either charge the battery or power the camcorder while at the PC, but will NOT do both simultaneously.

The quality of the videos are gorgeous. No artifacts that I could see, and it runs full screen on my monitor and looks simply stunning. I even took a video in street light on a moonless dark night, and most of the video was watchable, all without any external flashes.

The ability to skip back and forth on an SDHC is priceless when compared to the long waits and seeks and stops when compared to MiniDV or other tapes. Personally, I held out on buying a camcorder until I could get Hi-definition, and not feel like it's the 70s again, buying tapes.

Given the installation of the correct codecs, the videos shot by this cam are all set to have the PC play them.

The zoom is incredible, too. The lens itself is 12x, but with digital zoom, you can get it up to 30x, which is quite far, though beyond that, you definitely need a tripod to keep the cam from shaking. Unlike a camera's digital zoom, I did not see any problems with it, and, particularly if you're re-rendering for DVD, the video will be "resized" down, which means there's less likely the digital "zoom" will be noticeable, except, perhaps.

The Cam comes with a class 2 (slowest speed, but fine) 4GB SD-HC card, which will give you between a little under to a little more than an hour of recording, depending on the circumstances. This is about as much time as the battery can do, as well.

It does have manual focus, but I've left it on Auto and it's always done well, even with tricky light like sun coming through shades behind the subject in a dark room.

Oh, it comes with a remote control, as well, which is useful when you have it on the tripod. Reception is a bit picky, but it's fine if you hold the remote near the bottom and aim "up".

Audio. Sound is 5.1; I'd love to hear some movies like that; my speakers are only 2.0

Note: The power cable plugs in behind the screen, so you have to be careful it doesn't fall over, because if it would fall, the screen and parts could get damaged, since the screen must remain open the entire time. The HDMI is on the back (grip) other side, so nothing interferes, there, so you can connect it to a TV on your own battery's juice, with the cam NOT plugged in. It will also allow you to record while plugged in, even if you have already discharged its battery.

I tried a tripod and it works; the edit bag is great, too. I wish I could find a battery for under $50, though.

For editing, I use Pinnacle Studio 11 PLUS. Get Studio Ultimate, if you buy this cam. You can then output 5.1 audio to CD, too.

I am very happy with it. Enjoy.

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Great Video Quality

Strengths: Great Video when looked at HD TV.

Weakness: video format

Beautiful detail and vivid colors, the resolution is very crisp. SDHC storage is great, no need to worry about tapes anymore. I only used it for a couple of days, but I'm so impressed with the video. Only complain is the video format, need a really fast computer to process. Great buy.

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On the bleeding edge

Strengths: Incredible picture quality, point-and-shoot ease-of-use, rock-solid OIS, large LCD screen, compact size, no moving parts

Weakness: Limited footage playback options, weak software bundle, short battery life and no extended battery available, need special reader to access SDHC cards on PC

I was looking to buy my first camcorder, and wanted something that is easy to use, has a great picture quality, and wouldn't be obsolete in a year. Panasonic HDC-SD1 fits the bill perfectly, its $790 price tag is very reasonable for a 3-CCD HD camcorder, and it looks awesome.

The camera itself is very small and light, and fits perfectly in the palm of my hand. I have to tighten the strap snugly to prevent it from flopping around when not gripping the camera body tightly. It's easy to work the controls one-handed while holding the camcorder, and using the camcorder itself could not be easier.

Video quality is outstanding, even when using "normal" quality setting, and I get about an hour worth of it on a 4GB SDHC card. Optical image stabilizer keeps the picture rock-solid, and the display is very bright and legible, even in bright sunlight. I really dig not having to haul tapes or DVD blanks around, and SD cards are dime a dozen these days. Too bad the battery lasts barely long enough to fill up one 4GB card, and you can't use the power supply to charge it and power the camcorder at the same time.

The weakest point of the package is the bare-bones bundled software. It forces you to copy the footage from SD card to the hard drive before it lets you watch it, and you cannot pick and choose what gets copied - it's all or nothing. Once on the hard drive, you can't even watch the video in full screen.

Another significant weakness is current playback support for AVCHD video. You can burn it to the DVD, but it won't play in regular DVD player - you'll need a Blu-Ray player, and bundled software does not let you convert AVCHD to DVD (MPEG2). Nero and Sony Vegas claim AVCHD support in their latest releases, but so far I have been unsuccessful in getting trial versions of either (Nero 7.9.6.0 and Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0a build 96) to play back footage recorded by the Panasonic. I have support requests open with both - we'll see what comes out.

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Very impressive High Definition Camcorder

Strengths: Small, impressive video quality, SD as storage media, 3CCD

Weakness: Not easy to use one hand to control all buttons. Software support for the video is far less than enough. Battery life is not long. But I can not complain too much coz it is the first SD HDC.

I was shock by the small size and the high definition image with this camcorder. 3 CCD make outstanding video quality. Using SD as storage is the main stream of the future direction. Very satisfied with this order. But battery, software support, and controllability is not that good as the quality of the video.

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Nice camera

Strengths: good zoom, good quality, uses SDHC card which have a lot of memory

Weakness: SDHC cant be used in a regular SD card reader, the camera only records in mvt2s format which most video editors wont use, only comes with a lame video editor

This camera is very good quality and is worth its price, no more carrying discs or cassettes. The memory card compatibility is very good and the quality is amazing. Make sure you find a video editor that is compatible with HD recording in mvt2s format though.

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Panasonic HDC-SD1

THE GOOD: Generally high-quality video and decent stills; nice manual feature set. THE BAD: Sluggish autofocus; poor automatic white balance; uncomfortable design with some poor feature implementations. THE BOTTOM LINE: A solid SD-based camcorder, the Panasonic HDC-SD1 nevertheless suffers from a few performance issues and an annoying design.

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ReviewGist for Panasonic HDC-SD1 Camcorder

Video is Good according to 13 Camcorder experts. -- "Excellent video quality."-pcworld.com -- "the SD1 is a good video camera."-smh.com.au -- "Video we captured in well-lit settings looked gorgeous; even video taken in relatively dim, indoor rooms was good."-pcadvisor.co.uk Read more to find expert opinions on more features like Optics, Battery, Interface, etc.

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Panasonic HDC-SD1

Testseek.com has collected 31 expert reviews for Panasonic HDC-SD1 and the average expert rating is 80 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use Testseek.com to see all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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Panasonic Hdc-sd1

Panasonic Hdc-sd1 receives an overall TopTenREVIEWS score of 3.32 out of 4.00. It is ranked the #3 Flash camcorder of all time. The overall rating represents an intelligent balance of features, value as a function of price to features, and a summary of reviews from a variety of sources. The TopTen REVIEWS' formula gives a picture of important consumer features, market value, and a product's...

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