 "Great picture" | 2008-05-08 |
| - Reviewed By User: A7CP801PN404Y |
| Nice camera, picture is perfect, bit clumsy with the button design, but once you get the hang of it works great. |
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 "Awesome Cam, still the best out there" | 2008-04-23 |
| - Reviewed By samuel_a |
Before I get to the main review, I have to mention that, contrary to misinformed reviews, there has already, for months now, been software out there to edit the HDC-SD1's AVCHD footage. (Pinnacle Studio Plus or Ultimate and Ulead's software come to mind; I use the former).
And not only is there software to edit it, but with a simple download of a codec pack, you can copy the individual movies straight off the SDHC card on to your computer, and watch them INSTANTLY with no rendering needed.
So this camcorder is really as versatile as you could want.
Review:
First, I have used my SD1 for almost a year and it has never let me down.
The SD1 takes high-quality 1440x1080 (1080i) HD video using the AVCHD codec. This is a very efficient codec, but requires a modern nicely-equipped computer to edit or even watch in its native resolution. Figure a Core 2 Duo 2+ gHz with at least 128 MB video RAM and 2 or 4+ GB of system RAM.
The lens features optical image-stabilization, which means the lens will compensate for any slight shaking, so the picture remains steady and focused. This is crucial for hand-held shooting if you want a semi-professional "look" to your videos.
The 12x zoom is really a great zoom length, especially when compared to the 10x of the new models; that last 2x can mean the difference between seeing someone's face, and only seeing their upper-half. Unlike some others, the digital zoom does not necessarily degrade the image quality too much so you can use that, too, but if you want the best possible image quality, you only want to use Optical Zoom.
While on the topic of Digital Zoom, Panasonic provides 3 options - off, 30x, and 400x. This is a nice touch, because, even at 30x, the picture will be usable if you happen to need to get an image from that far.
Storage - The SD1 uses SD/SDHC cards only. Since SD cards are so small, the camcorder is easily held and weighs mere ounces. I have used 4 GB and 8 GB SDHC cards without issue. Although I did not attempt to record 8 GB straight, I was able to use all 8 GB, broken up into a number of clips, which, I think, is a more typical use than one long 8 GB clip.
SDHC cards keep coming down in price. I recently purchased an 8 GB card for around [...]. At that price, you basically have unlimited footage. The battery, though, is $[...], which is annoying.
As for the file structure, I believe it mimics a BluRay DVD file structure. The actual video is in the stream sub-folder, but you could, I would guess, burn your footage as is straight from the card (from the BDMV folder and in) and have a home-made BluRay Disc.
Playback - you can play back the video, in HD, either on the computer, or from the video camera itself, using any HDMI cable. The picture is stunning.
Performance - The SD1's built-in battery lasts for only about an hour of shooting. This is fine for small events and quick family outings, but what I usually do is find a location with an outlet, and record, on a tripod, from there, with the SD1 plugged into the wall. That way, my recording time is limited only by the card capacity.
I found that the camcorder handles light changes very well. I recently zoomed in from a room with one type of lighting into a room with sunlight flooding into it. The camera adjusted its lighting within a second's time so that the picture was viewable under both lighting conditions. In other words, the autofocus and related parts work very well.
The Still-image feature is not bad, and 2 MP images are certainly usable for 4x6 prints, but a dedicated camera will do a bit better. I can tell which picture was taken with my camcorder, and which was taken with my Canon camera, though, as I wrote, the picture is very usable.
The only con I can think of is the resolution is 1440x1080 (1080i), not 1920x1080 (1080p, "Full HD"), but this is mitigated by the improved image quality that you get from the sensors not needing to produce more pixels on the same size sensor.
Overall, I highly recommend this camcorder, despite it not being "Full HD", because its native 1440x1080 is already quite stunning, and its implementation is really quite well done, and is a great cam to own and use. |
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 "Great pics - the worst software" | 2008-02-15 |
| - Reviewed By martianbachelor |
Others have extolled the very good picture quality of this camera, but you can't do much of anything with them. For now you have to be content looking at the unedited video played back from the camera directly to your HD TV. Your computer is reduced to a mere storage device, as for older footage you have to load it back onto the camera for HD playback, which takes 6-8 minutes for about a full 4GB disk's worth of HD video (a little less than an hour's worth).
The software is inexcusably awful. The first thing I did with the bundled HDwriter "EZ-Edit" crapware was accidentally delete my first hour of footage, thinking I was getting rid of the first 5 second "scene" (shot) of the ground and my feet. The manual appears to be correct in that deleted footage cannot be recovered: the program doesn't put the files in the recycle bin as would be appropriately civilized. After a few hours with an Undelete program, and with the help of another computer to figure out the inexplicably complicated directory structure (it's about five levels deep, and its creator should be shot), I was able to restore everything exactly the way it should be. But HDwriter refused to read the footage, giving a cryptic error message (just a number) for which there seems to be no reference in either the manual or at Panasonic's website. The files are all there, but I'm guessing there's some time stamp or hash code which is causing it to choke.
The program is also littered with annoying and useless nags in broken Engrish which you have to click through to do anything, and you can only play footage back in the program in reduced resolution mode -- no HD playback on your computer. And the playback capabilities are very limited. No single frame stepping, for example. About all I've figured out how to do with the software is delete unwanted scenes and merge multiple scenes into one scene. In other words, the editing capabilities are very limited.
And as of this writing there's still no third party software which can read the files and edit them properly in the native AVCHD format. Some of this software has plug-ins to convert into some other format for editing, but reports are quite mixed as to how well all this works. It sounds like it's very computer and system dependent. Meaning that if you want to do anything with your great shots you may not be able to, and if you are they likely won't look nearly as good as is possible. If all you want to do is post to YouTube, that's maybe okay. But then why would you spend this kind of money on an HD camera? It's really a shame because the camera does take nice pictures and was rather easy to get the hang of. Even if an extra battery seemed to cost an arm and a leg - twice as much as an extra memory chip. I'm also somewhat annoyed that there's no shoe for attaching an external microphone, as the one onboard is only barely tolerable for a lot of shooting.
In sum, I would stay away until it's clear that either Panasonic can include some decent software with the camera or until there's a good third party solution that lots of people using the AVCHD format seem happy with. The latter has been promised for the better part of a year now but has yet to materialize. I've had my SD1 for seven months and it's spent all but the first month or so in the closet waiting for the ability to actually work with its pictures. |
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| "Great camcorder - editing software scarce" | 2008-01-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: AU6X4SND1N2GN |
I've had this camera for just under a year and have enjoyed it very much. Like other reviewers have mentioned, finding editing software for the AVCHD format used is a challenge. I use Adobe Premiere CS3 for editing but have to first convert any footage using Nero or other software.
The camera is lightweight easy to use and has many great presets as well as offering great image quality. Recording to SD is a great option if you don't want to buy a hard disk camcorder as carrying extra SD cards is much more convenient than the extra bulk of blank tapes.
One side note, for recording indoors consider using manual settings for white balance (an easy to find menu option) as full auto can look a little yellow. |
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| "Excellent camera" | 2007-12-30 |
| - Reviewed By leothemed |
| The video quality of this camera is excellent. The only issues I have with the camera is the main control switch which is very uncomfortable and constraint of recording time by buttery. |
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| "Great Camera - But make sure you know what you are buying" | 2007-12-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: AUONRPWI4AON |
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. |
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| "Panasonic HDC-SD1 High Definition camera" | 2007-12-26 |
| - Reviewed By User: A26PSWBMO13CK8 |
| 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. |
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| "So far so good" | 2007-12-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: AMQX48BX2RF9J |
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.
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| "clear shots, nice zoom" | 2007-11-21 |
| - Reviewed By User: AVDED4C7128CZ |
| 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. |
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| "Best HD cam out there" | 2007-11-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3JKB72GUCGJ74 |
I overanalyzed this purchase to death, and kept coming up with the same answer based on message boards and reviews. The 3CCD lens makes all the difference over the competition.
Beautiful detail and vivid colors, the resolution is very crisp. No matter what time of day you're shooting, the lighting is always accurate. Pretty great sounds come out of this as well. Do yourself a favor and get a huge SDHC card. |
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Expedited Available
