Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 9.8 x 6.4 inches ; 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000LO6AI6
• Item model number: HDC-DX1
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,895 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 2, 2008

Product Description

Manufacturer Description

Manufacturer Description The new HDC-DX1 records beautiful, detailed High-Definition video images and clear, high-quality sound that make for exceptional viewing on today’s most advanced home theater systems. The HDC-DX1 records onto convenient DVD discs, and there is never a need to rewind or fast-forward, so users can play back a scene immediately after recording. The video image and sound data are recorded directly onto the disc for easy storage.

HDC-DX1 Highlights

Choose the media you want with multi-format ease The HDC-DX1 can record and play DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R DL, DVD-R discs and SD/SDHC Memory Card. With the DVD-RAM disc, you can record again and again on the same disc, up to tens of thousand times. You can record repeatedly on DVD-RW discs as well, and they are well-suited to editing. While you can record only once on DVD-R DL/DVD-R discs, they can be played back on almost any kind of Blu-Ray player or recorder, and with HDC-DX1 wide compatibility, you can record on whichever kind of disc works best for you.

Superior color, detail, and gradation Most professional broadcasting cameras use the 3CCD system. In a 1CCD system, all of the incoming light information is processed by the same CCD. The more advanced 3CCD system uses three distinct CCDs for processing, so there is absolutely no light loss. You can see the results in beautifully rendered images with vivid color, fine detail, and rich gradation:

Beautiful color
Noise can greatly diminish picture quality. Panasonic's 3CCD system reduces noise by about 30 percent compared with 1CCD systems, helping deliver stunningly beautiful images with clear, natural colors.

Beautiful detail
Horizontal resolution in color is 150 percent compared with that of 1CCD systems. The greater color pixel density means that even finely nuanced colors are rendered distinctly.

Beautiful gradation
The dynamic range to express luminous gradation is 130 percent compared with that of 1CCD systems. This helps produce subtle contrast to create a wide palette of colors.

Suppresses hand-shake in both motion and still pictures Panasonic's O.I.S. minimizes the hand-shake that can be such a problem with handheld shots. Because Panasonic's system is optical, there is no image quality degradation. When you're shooting a still picture, the Mega O.I.S. system automatically activates, doubling the corrective power. With O.I.S. and Mega O.I.S., the HDC-DX1 is equipped for clear, beautiful shooting of both motion and still pictures.

Superior Leica-certified image quality Leica AG of Germany is the manufacturer of fine cameras and lenses favored by photographers everywhere. The Leica Dicomar lens featured in the HDC-DX1 was developed specifically for HD digital camcorders, these lens systems are made using a multi-coating process that prevents light reflection and glare, which can make colors bleed and images appear washed out. It also prevents rings of light, or "ghosts".

Special high-performance imaging engine The HD Advanced Pure Color Engine is a special image processing circuit for the 3CCD HD camcorder. Able to process large amounts of data with high speed and precision, this engine achieves truly superb color reproduction for high-quality pictures.

Get close to the action with 12x optical zoom

Pull distant subjects right up close with 12x optical zoom Distant subjects can be enlarged so they appear to be right up close. This allows dynamic shots of both motion and still pictures.

Experience real presence in sound Panasonic HD camcorders have five electret condenser microphones which separately record sounds from the front, sides, and back. When played on a Dolby Digital 5.1-channel home theater system, the resulting sound is incredibly lifelike. When zooming in on a subject, the sound also focuses on the area right around the subject.

Shoot wide, view wide This model offers the high-quality wide images that make for beautiful, dramatic viewing on a wide-screen TV. The image is processed on 16:9 area of the CCD. Because the image decoded has the same proportions as your wide-screen TV, there is virtually no picture quality degradation. You get beautiful images and all the excitement and dynamism on either a wide 16:9 screen TV or a conventional 4:3 TV. This model also features a high-density, 250,000-pixel, wide 3.0-inch LCD, making it easier to frame shots when you’re shooting in 16:9 mode.

Sharp focusing even up close with Tele Macro Using the zoom at full magnification, you can shoot macro close-ups while maintaining a distance of 60 centimeters from your subject. This makes it much easier to capture extreme close-ups without your body or camera casting a shadow on the subject and while keeping the background in soft focus.

Adjust the focus easily with Focus Assist This function enlarges the center of the image, making it easier for you to get a clear, sharp shot when focusing manually.

Additional Features

• One-touch navigation and joystick control
• Quick Search and access with thumbnail view
• Instant on/off
• Prevent unintended shooting with AGS (Auto Ground-Directional Standby)
• 0 Lux Magic Pix High 6 Lux sensitivity
• Auto lens cover

About AVCHD

"AVCHD" is a new high-definition (HD) digital camcorder recorder format that Panasonic and Sony jointly established. This format allows for the recording and playback of high-resolution, digital HD images using 8cm DVD media or SD/SDHC memory card. The two companies have started licensing the format to extensively promote it throughout the industry.

The "AVCHD" is an HD digital camcorder format for recording 1080i and 720p signals onto 8cm DVD media or SD/SDHC memory card by using highly efficient codec technologies. The format employs MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) codec for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3) or Linear PCM for audio codec. This makes it possible to develop HD camcorder recorders which achieve compact size as well as high-quality video and audio.

The MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) codec is a promising technology which is over two times more efficient than MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 codec technologies. By adopting this technology, an "AVCHD" camcorder recorder can record high-quality HD video images onto 8cm DVD media or SD/SDHC memory card.

Product Description

700x digital zoom16:9 widescreen recording 3CCD camera system provides vivid color fine detail and rich gradation AVCHD format records 1080i and 720p high-definition (HD) signals onto 8cm DVD providing up to 60 minutes of continuous recording Optical Image Stabilization (O.I.S.) supresses camera shake in both motion and still pictures 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround sound recording for true-to-life sound Zoom Microphones adjusts the sound to match the subject in focus Tele-Macro allows shooting macro close-ups while maintaining a distance of 60 cm from the subject 3 5/8" W x 3 1/2" H x 6 7/16" DUses SD or SDHC memory cardsIncludes Li-Ion battery pack remote control lens cap AV and USB cables AC adapter and software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's as good as it gets-if the future is Blue-Ray, February 12, 2008

By 

Carl Savillo Jr. (Leonardtown, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

You really have to be in the Blue-Ray camp to enjoy this camera fully. If you have a Sony Play Station 3 you're set for playback and the future with Blue-Ray for High Definition movies. Otherwise you will need a Blue-Ray player for playback of the miniDVDs and any other regular DVDs you record to. Also, so far it's one of the last camcorders from Panasonic with 5.1 sound and High Definition recording, which is a big plus for sound. It's seems the newer camcorders are actually going backwards with 2 channel sound instead of 5.1. With Nero 8, which you'll have to buy separately, you can copy movies to your computer for editing and burning back on to a larger size regular recordable DVD, i.e., DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+-RW or DL disks (they don't have to be Blue-Ray recordable DVDs). The camcorder records Blue-Ray format to regular DVDs. You just have to remember that they still won't play back on a regular DVD player, you'll need a Blue-Ray player or a Play Station 3. There have been complaints about this, but you're recording High Definition video now, so why would you except to play it back on a lower quality DVD system? This camera is for the future. If you want a DVD recordable camcorder, there are cheaper, less capable models that that do that. But if you want High Definition recording, with 5.1 sound, then this is the camera to get. One other thing to remember, the recording process to a miniDVD whether it's with this camera or any other miniDVD camera is different than with tapes. The miniDVD will have to be finalized if you want to use it outside the camera on a DVD player (Blue-Ray or not). There is an extra step involved from tape recording. Some people just don't understand this and complain. The one thing about this camera is that you can only finalize using the A/C charger and not with the battery in the camera. This means you'll probably shoot video and finalize the disks at home, not outside where you are shooting. Other miniDVD camcorders may allow finalizing with battery power which may be more convenent to do, but I don't find not having this a drawback for this camera.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Very nice feature for your money, November 8, 2007

By 

Leo Gabriel (Manila) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

I bought this camera to compliment my 46 in. Samsung Full HD LCD TV. The picture was very nice although the 30 mins. limitation of the DVD writeable media and the need to finalize the disk was a setback. I donot have the Blue Ray player yet so I connected my LCD TV using DVI to HDMI cable to my HTPC Windows Vista running on Dual core AMD 64 and an HD video card to view the HD picture taken from this camera and I am really pleased.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be Sure You Know What You are Getting Nto, March 24, 2008

By 

Wildness67 (Salt Lake City, Utah United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

I purchase the HDC-DX1 about a month ago and have been very happy with the picture quality, the picture enhancement features, etc. I was disappointed to find out after my purchase that I needed special software to download the content to, and edit it on, my computer and probably need a Blue Ray DVD burner to be able to create edited disks. I haven't worked with the software yet, so be sure you understand the implications of buying a camera with a format that is not the standard format used by most digital cameras.