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Panasonic HDC-SD1 Review

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  1. Ben •  March 8, 2007
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I love the concept here, almost bought one the other day. After playing with the SD1 I was super impressed, but got to thinking: all of those memory cards will add up in price, and you just can’t record enough content at high quality. An HDMI cable is like an extra $50 so add that onto the price. I would wait for the price of memory cards to come down before considering this. Or purchase an HDD based Camcorder.

    Rating: 7 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  2. Trond •  March 16, 2007
    Rating: 5/5

    Comparing to other cameras this is certainly a masterpiece. Wonderful picture quality, great sound (5:1) and very easy to use. HD-cameras is a must for owners of new plasma / lcd-tv`s. The people of Osaka have done it…again.

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  3. dan •  March 29, 2007
    Rating: 5/5

    Also got an 8 GB SDHC card for 80 bucks more. That’s an additional 80 minutes of storage time. I love the idea of the SD storage especially when you use 2 cards you can constantly dump data to the laptop and record forever…. as long as the batteries last….

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  4. JKoch •  April 4, 2007
    Rating: 2.5/5

    Wait 3 months and the retailers will cut to $800 to clear shelf space for the SD3.

    Confirm whether your retailer can supply authentic replacement batteries. The VW-VBG130 used by the SD1 is almost unavailable in the US, except through eBay for $100. The SD3 battery is different and may also be scarce. Panasonic got the cart too ahead of the horse.

    Applications of AVCHD files are still in beta. If you have enough bucks to get a Blu Ray player and big HDTV, fine. Nero 7 software can edit a bit, others not so well … yet.

    Rating: 5 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  5. Arunas •  April 27, 2007
    Rating: 3.5/5

    I love all things in the HDC-SD1, except 2 : can’t get a spare battery and hate this cooling fan ! It must be a silent camcorder but this fan is a BAD THING. Practically, you can’t shoot in silence.

    Rating: 7 :: 1 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.

  6. Jorge •  July 12, 2007
    Rating: 4/5

    The recording quality of this camcorder is amazing.

    But… Once I transfer the video to my PC, how can I watch it? I mean, in any video, using a regular Windows-based application.

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.

  7. Jkoch •  October 16, 2007
    Rating: 1.5/5

    The reviewer writes: “In case you’re wondering why this camcorder has a cooling fan and vents there’s a reason it definitely got warm after a long period use but nothing that’s a real botherit’s just there.”

    My observation, after 7 months: the motor noise becomes noticeable in the video audio.

    Rating: 3 :: 1 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.

  8. Jkoch •  October 16, 2007
    Rating: 3/5

    Normally, one uses the SDHC cards only to shoot the video, and maybe for initial review, but not to save edited video.

    AVCHD content is best exported to Blu Ray or HD-DVD disks for long term preservation. Some new editing software also allows one to burn high definition video in AVCHD format to conventional DVD disks, although they must be played on a BD or a PC with a fast CPU and GPU.

    One can buy a 3 meter HDMI cable at J&R for under $20. The principal expenses of AVCHD turns out to be having a new PC to edit the files, plus an AVCHD compatible editor or player. If one merely want to burn the files to a disk, just about any Pentium 4 with a good burner will suffice. The software bundled with the SD1 allows for bare-bones disk burning.

    Rating: 6 :: 1 out of 1 people found this user review helpful.

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