Panasonic HDC-HS9 AVCHD 3CCD 60GB Hard Drive High Definition Hybrid Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.5 x 1.2 x 2.5 inches ; 3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0011G0Q10
• Item model number: HDC-HS9
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,397 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

The Panasonic HDC-HS9 features Advanced O.I.S. and the 3CCD camera system. Advanced O.I.S. prevents blurry images caused by unsteady hands as you shoot, so images are clear, sharp and beautiful when displayed on a big TV screen. The 3CCD camera system is used in most professional broadcasting equipment because it draws out the full potential of full-HD.

The HS9 includes Face Detection functionality. Face Detection automatically locates any faces in the picture, adjusts the exposure, contrast and skin tone to achieve optimal results. This ensures that your subjects will always have clear, attractive expressions. The Intelligent Shooting Guide also helps you to make fewer shooting mistakes.

Panasonic HDC-HS9 Highlights

High Quality Picture and Sound

Digital Cinema Mode

• Progressive 1080/25p Set the HS9 to Digital Cinema mode and shoot in the progressive 1080/25p format (25 pictures per second). Progressive scanning captures clear, vibrant images with intricate detail. You also get faithful images with an appealing film-like quality.
• Digital Cinema Color with VIERA This mode automatically switches the camcorder to the optimum setting for the Digital Cinema Color of the VIERA plasma TV series. Colors recorded in this mode look richer than those recorded using the conventional Panasonic standard. For example, the subtle shades of red and gold in flowers, and the greens of leafy trees are remarkably true to life.

3CCD Camera System Most professional broadcasting cameras use the 3CCD camera system, with its superior color reproduction. 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. The 3CCD camera system draws out the full potential of full-HD image quality.

Advanced O.I.S (Optical Image Stabilizer) Panasonic's Advanced O.I.S. uses gyro-sensors to detect hand-shake, then shifts a lens and adjusts its optical axis to compensate. And Advanced O.I.S. checks and compensates for hand-shake around 4,000 times per second. Advanced O.I.S. enables finer, more effective hand-shake compensation. Also, because the system is optical, no image quality is lost. With Advanced O.I.S., you'll capture images that are clear, sharp and beautiful on a big TV screen.

Leica Dicomar Lens Leica AG of Germany is the manufacturer of fine cameras and lenses favored by photographers everywhere. The Leica Dicomar lens featured in the HDC-HS9 was developed specifically for full-HD 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".

HD Crystal Engine Panasonic took the advanced imaging circuitry used in our professional equipment and adapted it for home use in the HD Crystal Engine. The result is a high-speed processing unit that can handle the huge volumes of data captured in high-definition video recordings. The HD Crystal Engine also incorporates a new system that improves resolution and reduces noise while achieving a more compact size and lowering power consumption.

5.1 Channel Surround Sound and Zoom Microphone and Focus Microphone Each of the five built-in microphones of the HS9 works individually to record sounds from the front, sides, and back. When viewed on a system with Dolby Digital 5.1-channel sound, the real-life acoustic field brings even greater power to images such as festival parades, concerts, or birds in nature.

• Zoom Mode In Zoom mode the microphones are linked to the lens action. When you zoom in on a subject, the microphones focus on the sound in that same direction, minimizing the capture of incidental sounds.
• Focus Mode Regardless of whether the lens is zooming or not, the microphones pick up only the sound of the subject in front of the camera, minimizing all surrounding sounds.

10x Optical Zoom Distant subjects can be enlarged so they appear to be right up close. This allows dynamic shots of both motion and still

Tele Macro Using the zoom at full magnification, you can shoot macro close-ups while maintaining a distance of 50 cm 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. pictures.

High Picture Quality (16:9, 2.7-inch LCD Screen 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, 300,000-dot, wide 2.7-inch LCD, making it easier to frame shots when you're shooting in 16:9 mode. You can enjoy shooting wide, and viewing wide.

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

Composition Guide Lines With wide LCD monitors, it's hard to keep images perfectly level. The HDC-HS9 solves this by displaying horizontal and vertical Composition Guide Lines that make it easy to keep the subject straight and level.

Shooting Functions

Face Detection The HS9 introduces face detection functionality for recording moving pictures with a camcorder. It's difficult to shoot scenes with deep shadows or large differences between light and dark areas. The subject often looks too dark, and faces can be hard to see. Panasonic solves this problem with Face Detection, a function that automatically adjusts the exposure according to the ambient brightness, so faces are bright and easy to see. When the camcorder detects a face in the scene, a square frame appears around it in the LCD monitor and the exposure is adjusted to correct the brightness level. The skin tone is also smoothed. Face Detection can detect up to five faces at once. With Face Detection - offered for the first time for recording moving pictures with a camcorder - Panasonic makes it easy capture beautiful faces even in dim or backlit scenes.

Intelligent Shooting Guide The HS9 features the Intelligent Shooting Guide. This function detects when shooting conditions are poor--such as when the camcorder is panning too quickly or tilted, the user's hand is swinging, the subject is backlit, or the lighting is too low-and displays operating advice in the LCD. Users become aware of a potential problem before they shoot, rather than later when reviewing or playing back the recording. This gives them a chance to correct the settings and get good, error-free results every time.

Intelligent Shooting Selection Playback While the Intelligent Shooting Guide helps prevent recording errors, this playback function makes recordings more enjoyable to view. It automatically skips over any shots that have serious errors, such as hand swing, fast panning, out-of-focus images or shots of the ground taken when the user forgot to turn the camcorder off. You see only the good, error-free shots.

Pre-Rec Function This clever new function records three seconds of images even before you actually begin shooting. The images are held temporarily in the camcorder's internal memory, before recording onto the SDHC/SD Memory Card begins. This helps ensure that you won't miss the start of a moment you want to record, such as when an event begins all of a sudden. For example, if you're waiting to snap a shot of a jumping dolphin, you can press the REC button after you've made sure that the dolphin has cleared the surface of the water. The camcorder will record the entire scene, from the instant of the dolphin's jump until it disappears again into the sea.

Intelligent Contrast Control By detecting the intensity of the ambient light and adjusting the exposure accordingly, Intelligent Contrast Control prevents blown highlights and blocked shadows. This helps render natural-looking, highly nuanced images with proper contrast. Even when you're shooting directly toward the light source--a very challenging situation in photography--Intelligent Contrast Control lets you capture clear images with enhanced depth.

Power LCD Extra lets you adjust the LCD brightness in two steps by simply pressing the Power LCD button. Plus 1 mode increases brightness by 80% for easy outdoor viewing, and Plus 2 mode emphasizes contrast when shooting in strong sunlight conditions such as when skiing or at the beach.

Wide Viewing Angle The new LCD has a highly detailed, 300,000-dot display, which places it in the top class of the industry, and a viewing angle of 170-degrees, both vertically and horizontally. Images are clear and bright even when viewed from an angle, so everyone can gather around the LCD to enjoy on-the-spot recordings. The wide viewing angle is also great for taking high- or low-angle shots.

Easy On/Off Easy On / Off reduces the time required for operating the camera. When you open the LCD, the power turns on. Shut it and the power turns off.

Quick Start This Quick Start mode helps shoot videos on the spur of the moment. This mode lets you shoot those not-to-be-missed scenes just 0.6 sec from the time the power is turned on.

25 FPS High Speed Burst Shooting This function lets the camcorder snap up to 25 consecutive 2.1-MB-resolution still images in a second, or up to 72 consecutive shots in 3 seconds. You can use it to analyze a golf swing, tennis stroke or other motion. You also can use it to get good shots of subjects in fast motion. Just fire off a number of shots without stopping, then keep the best ones and delete the rest.

One Touch Navigation and Joystick Control The joystick makes the camera much easier to use, letting you control all basic operations. Just watch the image in the monitor and follow the instruction guide. You can handle a number of operations quickly and easily.

• Direct Mode Switch Just switch the button with your fingertip to select the icon that corresponds to the mode you want.
• Simple Joystick Operation Press the center of the joystick to display icons on the screen.

Quick Search and Access with Thumbnail View The camera's LCD screen displays a list of the recorded scenes for quick and easy searching. An index tab lets you switch between motion and still image thumbnails for fast retrieval of specific scenes. You can also do some polished editing using only the camera.

Anti Ground Shooting The O.I.S. linear motor system can detect when the camera is in an unusual shooting position - such as when you've inadvertently left it on in recording mode. In these cases, the camera automatically stops recording, saving both battery power and disc space.

Color Night View / High 5 Lux Sensitivity

• Color Night View for shooting in dim light Color Night View gives you smoothly flowing pictures even in dark places, where it's normally difficult to capture good shots.
• High 5 Lux Sensitivity for sharp, clear images even in dim lighting. The new digital signal processor reduces noise to allow shooting all the way down to 5 lux illumination. You get natural-looking shots even in dim rooms or at dusk.

World Timer Handy for travelers, this function makes it easy to set the camcorder time when you cross time zones and again when you return home. Simply select your destination from the displayed map, and the camcorder is automatically set for that time zone. The time for two different places can be set--such as home and destination--and you can switch between the times by simply pressing a button.

Auto Lens Cover When the power is turned on, the lens cover automatically opens. When the power goes off, the lens cover closes. You don't have to keep removing and replacing a lens cap--or worry about losing it.

Editing and Networking

Connecting to an HDTV via an HDMI cable Just connect your camcorder to an HDTV and you're ready for high-definition viewing. If your TV is HDMI compatible, a single HDMI mini cable is all you need.

Direct viewing with SD Card slot Simply take the SDHC/SD Memory Card from your HS9 camcorder and slip it into the card slot on your TV and you're ready to view full-HD images recorded in the AVCHD format.

Using a DVD Burner to Create and Play Back DVD The HS9's USB Host function lets you connect directly to a DVD burner via a USB cable. You can then copy recordings from the SDHC/SD Memory Card to a DVD disc, maintaining their original Full-HD format, by simply pressing a button. Included Software The HS9 also comes with software that makes it easy to edit your recordings using a PC. When editing, mistaken photos such as shots of the ground or shots with hand-shake can be automatically cut to speed up the process. After editing, you can copy the results to a DVD disc in either the AVCHD or the MPEG2 format. Choose the one that best suits your playback equipment or how you intend to use your recordings. This easy-to-use software gives you more creative ways to enjoy the recordings you make.

Optional Accessories and Products

• Panasonic DIGA DMR-EZ475VK - DVD recorder/ VCR combo - black
• Panasonic 16GB Memory Card
• Panasonic VW-BN1 DVD Burner
• Search for Panasonic VIERA TVs

Product Description

1920 x 1080p recording resolution700x digital zoom16:9 aspect ratio1/6" CCD image sensors with a 560K total MP2.7" wide LCD displayRecords images onto SDHC /SD memory cards and hard disk driveDolby Digital 5.1 channel zoom microphoneBuilt-in SD /SDHC memory card slot1-touch navigationIncludes Li-Ion rechargeable battery AC/DC cables video component cable AC adapter AV/USB cable remote control and software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sony HDR-SR11 vs. Panasonic HDC-HS9 comparison, April 19, 2008

By 

Henry Thoreau "bob" (bob) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-HS9 AVCHD 3CCD 60GB Hard Drive High Definition Hybrid Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

I write this review because I wish it had been written during the time I was purchasing my camcorder. I will summarize this review between the Sony HDR-SR11 vs. Panasonic HDC-HS9 as basically a toss up, but the little things of Sony leaned me to the SR11.

First, let me say that I really did not want to buy Sony HDR-SR11, granted a Bravia TV is my LCD of choice, but I cannot stand their proprietary memory. Since this camcorder was not purchased for photos this was not a big deal. Though I commend Panasonic for using SD that can be readily found. Sony is pricey (though some may say justifiably so because of the quality) but competition is good for the consumers as we benefit through new, quality, and innovative features.

A salesman from a particular store told me that Sony was good to get for camcorders, and I'd add Nikon or Canon are a way to go for digital cameras, anyway I digress.

Having to see it for myself, initially I purchased the Panasonic HDC-HS9 and after a tough decision I had to switch for the small things mainly from software which I'll get to later, but first let me give a side by side comparison between the two after testing out each product for a couple hours about the features that matter to me at least. I will refer to the products as HS9 and SR11 for the remainder of the review.

Appearance: I'd have to give it to the HS9 for being noticeably smaller. But the SR11 is not big (especially not 90's camcorder big), as I have a man sized hand, but the HS9 wins the compact comparison in this case. While we're on the physical appearance of it, I was disappointed in the HS9 placement of the external adapter. The battery must be physically removed every time you want to connect the adapter as the cable connector is behind the battery. Therefore you cannot charge the battery simply by pluging in the charging cable as you can on many products that you can usually do this and as you can for the SR11. And the HS9 forces you to use the external cable when transferring a video, even though this may make sense, but when you have a short clip and just took the battery off the charger, it's annoying to remove the battery and find the external adapter every time to do so. Bad placement of the external adapter on the HS9 unlike the nicely placed (as is with most camcorders, at least with a previous Canon ZR200 that I own) with the HS9. If size is an issue for you, the HS9 may be your choice.

Video Quality: My opinion of the quality between the HS9 and SR11 was comparable. Between the two it's a toss up during daylight conditions as both are excellent, and the SR11 is stunning as your eye sees it, it appears on the screen, very nice. The HS9 records in a 1080p vs. a 1080i format, that may give the albeit slight edge in terms of theoretically video quality to the HS9. Though the software provided with the HS9 to play back these high quality videos ruins the superb video recording. I hate to say my eye didn't notice the difference between 1080p and 1080i though my correction lens aren't the greatest, mileage of your eyes matter perhaps.

In low light conditions, the HS9 seems to record slightly brighter images which are decent, the SR11 are a bit darker, though look extremely realistic. A true toss up, and really based on personal preference and would have to say they're evenly matched for you to decide.

In extremely low light conditions I found the HS9 surprisingly grainy. It seems to brighten up a extremely dark image thus resulting in grain. I have not recorded the SR11 in low light conditions other than finding a youtube video of a low light condition video and it seemed to keep it's realistic tone but remained dark. The HS9 seems to be on the right track to attempt to brighten up things, as the SR11 does not, but at this point I would have to say the HS9 was unsatisfiability grainy.

Both were grainy in bedroom light condition when displaying directly from the camera to the TV (not recording, just displaying through the cables) though the SR11 might have had a slight lead when panning or moving the zoom in and out a bit more responsive, though hardly noticeable.

Formats: The HS9 takes the lead in this regard as it has a 24 cinema mode, that records frames at 24 frames like some movies. Otherwise the HS9 records in 60 frames per second. However, the Pinnacle trial version could not handle the 60 fps mode and only the 24 cinema mode (though it said it was 30 fps). Though the HS9 software could handle its own 60 fps video fine, more later on software. The SR11 records it's videos in 30 fps

Night vision between the two the HS9 uses a blue illumination for night vision and the SR11 uses the commonly known green illumination as often seen on TV. I like the green better, but the blue was a nice change and this did not affect my decision either way, though it was nice to have on both.

Transfer to PC: Both transfer to your computer via a USB extremely quickly and at seemingly equal times.

Sound: Both are 5.1, the sound is acceptable and nice on both camcorders, I would say that the wind cut function on the HS9 was nice to have and did seem to work, the SR11 does not have this feature, though I'd wish it did. I'd give a slight edge to the HS9 in this one, especially if you record in windy conditions often (soccer games perhaps), which I don't.

Optical Image Stabilization: Both claim image stabilization, the OSI on the HS9 seems to slightly work better, though not noticeably. I think both still need to work on this.

Face recognition: The SR11 impressed me with the facial recognition as it just works. Turn the camera on a person and a white box appears around a persons face and moves as the person does, always keeping focus on that persons face. The focus on the HS9 on faces seemed very good, though I couldn't figure out the white box feature, it might have had to been enabled through a button a readily accessible button at the very top, so not that bad, but the HS9 was automatic.

Cables: Both have an ample about of cables that allows you to connect your camera to the TV with both RGB and Yellow and white/red audio cables.

Remote: Both had remote controls, a definite plus.

Software: This is where I must reluctantly gives this definitely to the SR11 or Sony. First, very few software handle the AVCHD videos at this time, so both Panasonic and Sony include their own software to retrieve the videos from the camera. The Panasonic software is a bit clumsy when it asks which folder you want to save it in, it's a bit manual where the Sony software detects when the camera has been connected, and simply asks whether you want to import all your videos, one click and it does, in a folder already created with an independent name. The Panasonic software called HD Writer had some additional editing capabilities to slice, merge, and delete unnecessary scenes and save to dvd and mpeg2 whereas the Sony had no editing features.

Playback software: I really hope panasonic gets this point. Their playback software most likely did not use directx, where the Sony PMB or Picture Motion Brower does. What this does is use your video card when the HD videos are playing back video. At one point I thought there was something wrong with the camcorder because the playback would skip using the HS9 playback software, but after encoding it to another format, my native video player kicked in and played back smoothly. This really scared me thinking that there was something wrong with the HS9 when there was not, however my x2300 dual core processor was not able to handle the playback of the native HS9 videos alone. This is in contrast to Sony PMB software for playback that installed directx that utilized my video card so that playback of the native format of the camcorder was silky smooth. What's more the Picture Motion Brower is a nice video playback software that throws in additional calendar features of when a video was imported and such, a nicety that should be used with backing up as it's insanity to store large amounts of precious moments on a computer instead of constantly backup up these priceless moments on DVD's and such, those who have had hard drive failures know. Panasonic included a copy of Pinnacle trial version 11 for HD cameras, it could import the HD 60 fps videos, but did not encode them properly. The 24 cinema mode (or 30fps) videos has no problem in Pinnacle. The SR11 videos also were imported into Pinnacle with no problems. Once additional nicety of the Sony software is that you can make a still picture at any moment making a jpeg without importing it into an editing software. Though the HD Writer software has nice features to backup your videos, hard to use in other cases like loading the HD videos stored on your computer. Sony's Picture Motion Brower software is very good to view and backup, though a register folder option was awkward, why not just allow the ability to just drag in folders to register, always room for improvement I guess.

Viewfinders: Both viewfinder display a clear image, though the SR11 has a touchscreen where the HS9 does not, though understandable with the price difference. I was disappointed I could not navigate to playback a video on the SR11 without using the touchscreen since the screen would get a lot of fingerprints, though there are less buttons to complicate things because of the touchscreen. Both have easy buttons to begin recording.

The HS9 had a feature to offer advice how to record like turn on the low light feature (should have had a feature that this would turn on automatically) or you're panning to fast, this advice can be taken as good or bad.

Zoom: The HS9 had digital zoom, but... Read more ›

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great camera, now fully Mac compatible!, June 11, 2008

By 

M. Evangelist - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-HS9 AVCHD 3CCD 60GB Hard Drive High Definition Hybrid Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

As some of the earlier reviews have pointed out, this awesome little camera suffered from lack of support in Apple's editing applications like iMovie 08.

Well that's all in the past. With the release of OS 10.5.3 and QuickTime 7.5 a few days ago, the HDC-HS9 (and the non-hard drive HDC-SD9 as well) are now fully compatible. You can easily import and edit your HD movies in iMovie, in all the camera's formats.

I love this camera. My only complaint is that spare batteries are absurdly expensive. Other than that, it's fantastic.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Taking it back, May 9, 2008

By 

L. Tucker (ATL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-HS9 AVCHD 3CCD 60GB Hard Drive High Definition Hybrid Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

I've had this camcorder for almost a week, and like any new gadget, I've been using it quite a bit. Here are my thoughts.

It fits great in the hand and is easy to handle. It has a small size for a Hard Drive camcorder and easy to shoot and hold. Image stablization works well and the zoom is good.

BAD: I played the video on my plasma, and while the footage I shot outside was beautiful - the clips shot inside were very soft and in some instances pixelated - even with the interior lights all turned on for max lighting. The room I was shooting in has multiple windows and lots of natural light, so this should've not been an issue. These clips didn't live up to the moniker "High Def." From what I've learned from several blogs, this is something to expect to some extent from many consumer camcorders - even HD versions. That would probably be tolerable, but what I didn't count on is that the footage shot with this camera crashes Final Cut Express 4 and iMovie. I'm no techie, but from what I've been told Panasonic does something a little extra to the AVCHD format that iMove and FCE can't abide. There are work arounds, but I'd rather just use a camera that doesn't require workarounds. This has been documented on multiple blogs, which I should've consulted before making the purchase....I have Macs at the house, and the included software doesn't work with Macs. SO - I'm taking it back and will probably exchange for the Canon Vixia HF10 which I've read good things about. If you're not a Mac user and don't use iMovie or FCE for editing, this is a pretty nice option. Otherwise, get ready to learn workarounds or buy a non-Panny camcorder.