Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great Camera - But make sure you know what you are buying
Comment: We used this camera to film our children's christmas program and opening of gifts on Christmas morning. I have two items for your consideration.
1. If you buy this camera you will need to purchase more flash memory immediatly or plan on transfering footage to a computer freqeuntly. The included 4GB card films less than two hours at the maximum resolution.
2. The DVD's that you burn using the included software are viewable only on Blue Ray DVD players or Sony PS3 game consoles. If you plan on sharing the DVD's with friends and family running "Standard" (non-HD) TV and DVD players you will need to purchase a program to downgrade the HD resolution and burn DVD's in standard DVD format.
That said, the quality of the picture and audio are excellent. We love this camera and plan to use it frequently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Panasonic HDC-SD1 High Definition camera
Comment: I have used the Panasonic HDC-SD1 camera for over a month now and I am quite happy with the quality and sound of the videos. The camera performed flawlessly, however the battery barely lasted half an hour and there are no extended-time batteries available for sale. To do any serious taping outdoors away from an electric outlet, I would need a few extra batteries and they are not cheap. Pinnacle has come to the rescue for those of us who want to save our taped videos with their Ultimate 11 video program specifically for AVCHD users. The Pinnacle program saves the video immediately to a PC (not to a Mac computer) and also converts the video to a viewable format. However, to convert the video to a format suitable for viewing or storing on a PC or removable media like a DVD takes hours. Thirty seconds of recorded video may take over three to fours hours to convert into a video suitable for viewing or editing. Editing with menus and subtitles may take even longer. I have an old 1.7ghz PC which is maxed out at 2.0GB of RAM. This is about the minimum that Pinnacle requires to run the Ultimate 11 video encoding program and I suspect that if I had a more powerful PC it would still take much too much time. The program should covert AVCHD clips in minutes not hours to appeal to serious video makers using PC or Mac computers. Panasonic should come up with a better associated program for their high definition camera if they really want this technology to take off. If I didn't have Pinnacle Ultimate 11 I would not be able to save my video to PC for editing or archiving. I then saved some time by sending the created movie video file to my mac computer via my home network. There I edited it and cut a DVD disc with Toast 8 program which is much speedier than Pinnacle. I only wish the Apple guys will update Toast 8 so it can convert AVCHD clips from the Panasonic HDC-SD1 too. If you don't mind putting up with the drawbacks mentioned, I will recomend this camera as the best quality product available for the money at this time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I have had my SD1 for about a week. I haven't tested it fully, but here are my first impressions:
1. Looks AWESOME when attached HDMI to my 50" plasma!!!
2. Auto iris tends to gain up in low light (which is what it is supposed to do)- introducing noise in the video
- adjusting the gain manually is pretty easy
3. My one year old HP ZD8000 laptop does NOT support included 4GB SDHC card in the card reader slot. I have to connect the camera via USB cable. However, my regular 1GB SD cards work just fine (but only record about 10 mins per card at the highest setting)
4. In order to transfer files via USB, the camera MUST be plugged in. It will not work on battery power
5. Included editing software is VERY basic. It is used to transfer files, cut up, merge, and delete video clips, and output to DVD (which I have not tried yet). You can't do titles, fades or anything other than very simple cuts in this software.
- However, I downloaded a free AVC-HD to DVCPRO Transcoder and tested it on Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 and it imported just like P2 MXF media! The video was a bit jumpy in my short initial test, so I don't know if it transcoded poorly or maybe I had the Avid project at the wrong frame rate (30i instead of 60i). More testing tomorrow, I hope.
6. Ergonomics - this camera is small: about the size of a pop can. It feels a bit awkward in my average-sized male hand, but not too bad. I think I will get used to it in short order.
7. The OIS is outstanding! I have heard from other brand owners that my Panasonic SD1 has far better image stabilization.
OVERALL -- Great images playing straight out HDMI to my 1080i plasma. 3 chips give you good color and clarity, but they are small, which means you sacrifice light and depth of field (which is why I went with the SD1 and not the SD5 - go for chip size NOT pixels!!!). For $799 (Amazon) it is a fantastic deal for a consumer HD camera. Some argue that HDV yields a better picture (difference being in the compression codec), but I specifically wanted a memory card camera.
Customer Rating:
Summary: clear shots, nice zoom
Comment: I buy Panasonic for their Leica lens. This one was the entire package, every feature fit my checklist. So far, I've only owned it three weeks, but results are high end. Good purchase, satisfied customer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Hi Def Video Cam
Comment: I purchased this product in late August. I used it extensively in October 2007 while in Italy for two weeks. First, the size of this camera was one of the main reason I bought this. I have carried previous camcorders on vacations, and they were bulking to say the least. This camcorder was small enough, it fit into Venturer Travel Portfolio Bag (I bought on Amazon). This is a small bag I threw over my shoulder. The camcorder and a small table tripod fit perfectly inside the main compartment. My passport, money, and extra camcorder battery, plus an extra scandisk all fit inside the bag. It was great not having to lug around a big camera bag.
Next, the ease of use of the camcorder was simply flipping the screen open and turn on. It powered very fast and I was shooting. I also could leave the power on and close the screen, and the camera would turn off, then I simply opened the screen again, and the camcorder would power on even quicker.
The zoom was good. However, the digital zoom was even better. With my tripod, I got some amazing close up shots. There is distortion at far ranges due to air molecules, so it was perfect, but believe me, it was damn good.
In the field, I could use the LCD screen to review what I recorded. The LCD was beautiful. Recording in the low light situations will not give you a great video. That is the only negative with the videocam IMHO.
Play back: upon returning, I played on a normal tv set. It looked good, but I wanted to see what it look liked on High Def tv. We bought a High Def set last weekend and I again played the video. Oh my god, what a difference. The quality of the video pictures was incredible. I just couldn't believe the difference. The clarity and color of video was astonishing.
I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Now, I am learning to edit everything using the uLead Videostudio 11 software. I can't comment too much about it, but I was able to upload a 1 minute video to my iPod. Everyone has been pretty impressed with that.
edit(11/30/07): I've played around more with the editing of this camera. I will do a detail review for software, but transferring the video to my hard drive has been easy and painless. Working with the files using videostudio has been flawless. I have produced a small 2 minute video with special effect and added music. I am a novice, and I can't believe how good it turned out.
Summary: Great Camera - But make sure you know what you are buying
Comment: We used this camera to film our children's christmas program and opening of gifts on Christmas morning. I have two items for your consideration.
1. If you buy this camera you will need to purchase more flash memory immediatly or plan on transfering footage to a computer freqeuntly. The included 4GB card films less than two hours at the maximum resolution.
2. The DVD's that you burn using the included software are viewable only on Blue Ray DVD players or Sony PS3 game consoles. If you plan on sharing the DVD's with friends and family running "Standard" (non-HD) TV and DVD players you will need to purchase a program to downgrade the HD resolution and burn DVD's in standard DVD format.
That said, the quality of the picture and audio are excellent. We love this camera and plan to use it frequently.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Panasonic HDC-SD1 High Definition camera
Comment: I have used the Panasonic HDC-SD1 camera for over a month now and I am quite happy with the quality and sound of the videos. The camera performed flawlessly, however the battery barely lasted half an hour and there are no extended-time batteries available for sale. To do any serious taping outdoors away from an electric outlet, I would need a few extra batteries and they are not cheap. Pinnacle has come to the rescue for those of us who want to save our taped videos with their Ultimate 11 video program specifically for AVCHD users. The Pinnacle program saves the video immediately to a PC (not to a Mac computer) and also converts the video to a viewable format. However, to convert the video to a format suitable for viewing or storing on a PC or removable media like a DVD takes hours. Thirty seconds of recorded video may take over three to fours hours to convert into a video suitable for viewing or editing. Editing with menus and subtitles may take even longer. I have an old 1.7ghz PC which is maxed out at 2.0GB of RAM. This is about the minimum that Pinnacle requires to run the Ultimate 11 video encoding program and I suspect that if I had a more powerful PC it would still take much too much time. The program should covert AVCHD clips in minutes not hours to appeal to serious video makers using PC or Mac computers. Panasonic should come up with a better associated program for their high definition camera if they really want this technology to take off. If I didn't have Pinnacle Ultimate 11 I would not be able to save my video to PC for editing or archiving. I then saved some time by sending the created movie video file to my mac computer via my home network. There I edited it and cut a DVD disc with Toast 8 program which is much speedier than Pinnacle. I only wish the Apple guys will update Toast 8 so it can convert AVCHD clips from the Panasonic HDC-SD1 too. If you don't mind putting up with the drawbacks mentioned, I will recomend this camera as the best quality product available for the money at this time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So far so good
Comment: I have had my SD1 for about a week. I haven't tested it fully, but here are my first impressions:
1. Looks AWESOME when attached HDMI to my 50" plasma!!!
2. Auto iris tends to gain up in low light (which is what it is supposed to do)- introducing noise in the video
- adjusting the gain manually is pretty easy
3. My one year old HP ZD8000 laptop does NOT support included 4GB SDHC card in the card reader slot. I have to connect the camera via USB cable. However, my regular 1GB SD cards work just fine (but only record about 10 mins per card at the highest setting)
4. In order to transfer files via USB, the camera MUST be plugged in. It will not work on battery power
5. Included editing software is VERY basic. It is used to transfer files, cut up, merge, and delete video clips, and output to DVD (which I have not tried yet). You can't do titles, fades or anything other than very simple cuts in this software.
- However, I downloaded a free AVC-HD to DVCPRO Transcoder and tested it on Avid Xpress Pro 5.7 and it imported just like P2 MXF media! The video was a bit jumpy in my short initial test, so I don't know if it transcoded poorly or maybe I had the Avid project at the wrong frame rate (30i instead of 60i). More testing tomorrow, I hope.
6. Ergonomics - this camera is small: about the size of a pop can. It feels a bit awkward in my average-sized male hand, but not too bad. I think I will get used to it in short order.
7. The OIS is outstanding! I have heard from other brand owners that my Panasonic SD1 has far better image stabilization.
OVERALL -- Great images playing straight out HDMI to my 1080i plasma. 3 chips give you good color and clarity, but they are small, which means you sacrifice light and depth of field (which is why I went with the SD1 and not the SD5 - go for chip size NOT pixels!!!). For $799 (Amazon) it is a fantastic deal for a consumer HD camera. Some argue that HDV yields a better picture (difference being in the compression codec), but I specifically wanted a memory card camera.
Customer Rating:
Summary: clear shots, nice zoom
Comment: I buy Panasonic for their Leica lens. This one was the entire package, every feature fit my checklist. So far, I've only owned it three weeks, but results are high end. Good purchase, satisfied customer.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Hi Def Video Cam
Comment: I purchased this product in late August. I used it extensively in October 2007 while in Italy for two weeks. First, the size of this camera was one of the main reason I bought this. I have carried previous camcorders on vacations, and they were bulking to say the least. This camcorder was small enough, it fit into Venturer Travel Portfolio Bag (I bought on Amazon). This is a small bag I threw over my shoulder. The camcorder and a small table tripod fit perfectly inside the main compartment. My passport, money, and extra camcorder battery, plus an extra scandisk all fit inside the bag. It was great not having to lug around a big camera bag.
Next, the ease of use of the camcorder was simply flipping the screen open and turn on. It powered very fast and I was shooting. I also could leave the power on and close the screen, and the camera would turn off, then I simply opened the screen again, and the camcorder would power on even quicker.
The zoom was good. However, the digital zoom was even better. With my tripod, I got some amazing close up shots. There is distortion at far ranges due to air molecules, so it was perfect, but believe me, it was damn good.
In the field, I could use the LCD screen to review what I recorded. The LCD was beautiful. Recording in the low light situations will not give you a great video. That is the only negative with the videocam IMHO.
Play back: upon returning, I played on a normal tv set. It looked good, but I wanted to see what it look liked on High Def tv. We bought a High Def set last weekend and I again played the video. Oh my god, what a difference. The quality of the video pictures was incredible. I just couldn't believe the difference. The clarity and color of video was astonishing.
I couldn't be happier with this purchase. Now, I am learning to edit everything using the uLead Videostudio 11 software. I can't comment too much about it, but I was able to upload a 1 minute video to my iPod. Everyone has been pretty impressed with that.
edit(11/30/07): I've played around more with the editing of this camera. I will do a detail review for software, but transferring the video to my hard drive has been easy and painless. Working with the files using videostudio has been flawless. I have produced a small 2 minute video with special effect and added music. I am a novice, and I can't believe how good it turned out.
Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD 3CCD Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom Reviews: Page 2 of 8
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