Customer Reviews

Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD 3CCD Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my first Amazon review. In the past I've had two Sony Hi-8 camcorders, a, Sony Mini-DV (DCR-PC1) and two Panasonic 3-CCD Mini-DV camcorders (PV-DV953 and PV-GS120) and now this HDC-SD1 will be my 6th model. Having had the last 2 weeks now to familiarize myself with the ins-and-outs of the HDC-SD1, I'd like to pass on what I've learned of this little dynamo. There are some limitations I had to accept in order to feel confident about making a smart $1100 purchase. First and foremost, be warned that the MPEG-4 H.264 Codec is not currently supported by iMovie HD, Final Cut Studio, Vegas, or any other popular NLE, though revisions and plug-ins are expected probably around summer 2007. If you can live with that for now, then be prepared for the output from this machine to knock your socks off.

Personally I was willing to live with not being able to edit the footage for now because I wanted to capture the first months of our 7-week old infant in the best quality available, and this meant either going AVCHD using mini-DVD (Sony HDR-UX1), AVCHD using a hard drive (Sony HDR-SR1) or AVCHD using a chip (Panny HDC-SD1). HD camcorders recording to DVD were the first to be taken off the list because of its annoying disc formatting and finalizing times and the brevity of recording length. I took the tape-based HD camcorders out early on due to my own experience with the frustration of locating footage using a linear recording format. More on this later. I also did not consider HDV-based HD camcorders as ingesting HDV footage (MPEG-2) is onerously slow and no piece of cake for one's hard drive. To be fair, HDV is a mature (more dated?) technology while AVCHD is still relatively embryonic with a huge upside still to come. So after lurking through a few forums and thumbing thru @500 page views of info, I gave the nod to the Panasonic. Absolutely no regrets. Even with the just announced HDC-SD3 coming in a few months stateside, it didn't look much better spec-wise to the HDC-SD1 and my baby might already be walking by then so I'm glad I got this now. I'm also in the process of purchasing an 8th or 9th generation plasma to match the output (1080i/60) from this little wonder as my current set doesn't support 1080i.

Unique advantages compared to other models in its competitive set:
+It has a high design aesthetic and is the smallest 3-CCD HD consumer camcorder on earth. It's as long as a dollar bill and just as wide. (I measured)
+With the Quick Start mode activated, the camcorder fires up and starts recording in about 2 seconds after the screen is opened. Never miss your baby's first steps with this guy.
+Built-in option of having virtual guidelines superimposed on the display for better compositions and more level horizons. The camera gives you three choices, horizontal lines only (my favorite) a big grid, or a small grid (egg crate) for the truly anal.
+German designed Leica Dicomar lens contains three aspherical elements that keeps chromatic aberration in check, with almost all surfaces multicoated.
+Simplicity of button layout and U.I., even though most advanced functions still there and easily accessible, like iris and shutter controls, fades, etc.
+Optional color bar indicator for tonal checks on your TV for calibration, normally seen only on professional broadcast camcorders.
+An option called 'zoom-mike' that focuses the sound on the area that you've zoomed into up 12X, great for surveillance work I guess. Or stalkers.
+Built-in HDMI to connect right up to an HDTV with no signal degradation, with one cable handling both HD video and 5:1 Surround Sound if connected thru an HDMI receiver.
+Weighs about one pound with media and battery. The girth and weight of the HDC-SD1 is almost exactly the same as a 16-ounce can of Coke.
+Package includes a 4 Gb SDHC class 2 media card that can hold between 40 minutes and 90 minutes' worth of footage depending on compression, when most camcorders don't even come with a $5 tape.

Unique disadvantages compared to other models in its competitive set:
-The multifunction joystick is on the small side and can be confusing in use. For some people I can see how this might hamper recording effectiveness. On the other hand, it's no better or worse than the joystick on the Panny PV-GS400/500.
-USB 2.0 is nice but the the lack of a firewire/iLink connection is a bit of a bummer.
-Camcorder battery will not recharge in-camera, nor will it recharge if AC adapter is utilized (plugged-in) at the same time.
-Included software that handles rudimentary editing functions works only on PCs.
-Resolution of still images taken is below par when compared to other models in its competitive set (like the Sony HRD-SR1 or Canon HV10/20)
-No tactile focusing ring if you like to verify the focus, a distinct advantage with the Sony camcorders in general and even its brother the Panny PV-GS500.

A quick vent. What bugs me with tapes, whether Hi-8, Mini-DV, etc is the time needed to peruse through vast amounts of media to get to a specific footage. It is entirely possible to spend up to 5 or 10 minutes jogging back and forth on an 60-minute tape to find the 30-second clip of something you're actually looking for. Recording to either HDD or an SDHC card, not only can clips be played at a glance in any order, erasing a clip is just as easy. For example, you have two 15 minute clips of primo footage with a 15 minute clip of some pointless recording in between. With a tape, it is much safer to keep all 45 minutes of footage to retain the good 15 minutes' worth on the end. With an SD card, the middle 15 minutes can be deleted like a photo in your digicam, and you're left with another 15-minute chunk of space for better footage. The analogy I can make between the HDC-SD1 and its HDV rivals would be akin to comparing an HD camcorder spawned from the iPod (flash memory) and an HD camcorder fathered by a Walkman (tape-based) and I personally would never go back to using my Sony Walkman when I can slip a Nano in my pocket. I probably sound like an anti-tape nut by now but it's only because I have over 50 Mini-DV tapes in our collection that nobody has touched in the last couple of years. I mean, why not settle for true random access if it's available? Good luck to all in your purchasing.

This camera delivers great picture quality and is very easy to use.

If you are looking forward to editing and publishing your videos taken with this camera please note, at the time of North American release, software packages that can handle AVCHD digital format encoded using MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (m2ts) are only starting to show up.

The software included with this camera, Leadtools HD Writer Ver 1.0E for SD1, is capable of only basic operations such as scene preview, split, merge, and delete. Using this software you can backup your videos on a DVD-R disk, but you won't be able to play it back, unless you have one of the new Blu-ray disk players.

The software situation will improve with time, and there will be more high definition video options in the future.

To hookup this camera to a high definition display you can use provided component cables or the HDMI output (HDMI cable is not included). Standard audio, video output is also available for older TV sets (cable included).

The computer interface is USB (cable supplied); it works only when the camera is hooked up to the AC/DC adapter (included). By the way, the battery will not charge inside the camera; charge it on the adapter disconnected from the camera.

Videos and pictures are stored on an SDHC card (some SD cards can also be used, but SDHC class 2 or better are recommended). A 4 GB SDHC card (one included) is good for about 40 minutes of recording in the highest quality HF setting; this is also about as much as the stock VW-VBG130 battery can handle. For more power on the go an optional VW-VH04 battery pack holder can be used. You can use additional SDHC cards, or dump data to a laptop computer via USB cable, or use optional VW-PT2 or similar SDHC media storage device.

The battery is loaded from the bottom. When using the camera on a tripod, load the battery first.

In addition to videos, this camera can also take still pictures. The quality of still pictures is so-so with some digital artifacts showing up; but it is fine for occasional snapshots. On the positive side, the still picture trigger on this camcorder functions like on real picture cameras: you can pre-focus depressing the trigger half way.

Thanks to the powerful 3CCD sensor architecture and optical image stabilization the videos this camera takes are very good, even in sub-optimal light conditions. There is an automatic mode, and a manual mode for more advanced control. One of the features I especially like is the Grid that can be displayed for better shoot composition.

HDC-SD1 is one of the first consumer high-definition cameras from Panasonic, it's a great start and sure to please customers looking so save the moving pictures of unforgettable moments in life.

This is an excellent piece of camcorder. I was blown away by the Video Quality of it. Here are some of the Pros and Cons

Pros
1. Excellent Video Quality and Auto White balance - I can see the exact color in my video in good light. Low light performance is also not bad.

2. 3 CCD chip - Excellent colors and saturation, I compared my old Sony HC40 and Panasonic SD1 side by side shooting the same scene at the same time in Auto mode mounted on Tripods and Panasonic has great colors & Sharpness

3. Leica Optics - Optics are much better on this one
4. Manual Options - Can set White balance, Iris, Shutter Speed to get more manual control, has separate option for backlit subjects.
5. High Definition - I don't have a high definition TV, but video looks sharp on my computer and TV. I am completely satisfied with it.
6. Size - Perfectly sleek and light
7. Comes with separate charger and remote control

Cons

1. No iLink inside the Camcorder
2. No View Finder
3. Video Outputs (except HDMI & USB) are not available outside without lifting/bringing the LCD Screen out. LCD screen can break if camera accedentaly falls and i want my LCD panel to be closed when I am watching the video
4. Comes with filter thread, but the filter hood should be purchased separately
5. HDMI cable is not presented
6. Only 40 Mins video at highest quality on 4GB SDHC Card.
7. I was not able to copy using media copiers to backup and download this card which i can use to backup my digital images while I am on the field.
8. Joystick on the camera can be better, You have to get used to it.
9. Less/Complex Editing options as this is AVCHD

Every camera has a drawback and is not 100% perfect. I consider Panasonic a very good buy for people looking for 3-CCD, and a little manual control.

I have the HDC-SD3 model of this camcorder (which as of 6/30/07 is available only in Japan). The SD3 is physically and functionally identical to the SD1 except that the highest bitrate recording mode on the SD3 does full 1920x1080i (the SD1's three recording modes all top out at 1440x1080i).

As someone who works in computer graphics, I am particularly concerned about image quality and was a little wary that this camera's top bitrate of 13 Mbps would still be too low to achieve acceptable results using the AVCHD H.264 codec. I was pleasantly surprised- the quality is surprisingly good! There are no obvious motion artifacts. The captured color is vibrant and accurate, especially in good lighting. (Low light performance is decent too.) I was very impressed at how nice the image looked connected to good 1080i and 1080p displays over component and HDMI. The image is a tiny bit more contrasty than I would have dialed in, but other than that, no complaints. The average tech-savvy family shooter buying this camera will be perfectly happy with the picture.

I'm particularly impressed with the excellent optical image stabilization, build quality and autofocus performance (which is important since there is no focus ring and only an awkward joystick-based means of focusing manually, should you ever need to do it). Like all consumer HD cameras, the flip-out LCD doesn't have enough resolution for fine manual focusing, and I plan to use the camera mostly for casual family use anyway. Although not specifically documented as such in most product listings, the zoom control on the SD1 is variable speed. It is very responsive. You can do subtle, slow zooms quite easily despite the lever's small size.

A few downsides: the running time is limited on the ONE size of battery this camera supports - the camera can shoot for a little over an hour on a charge, less than the 83 minutes (at best quality) I can get on an 8GB SDHC card and well short of the shooting times at the lower bitrates. The SD1 also lacks a progressive shooting mode and a choice of framerates... 1080i is it (look into the HV20 if you must have a 24p mode). The audio quality is pretty good but not extraordinary (possibly due to the microphones being placed on TOP of the camera instead of in front... the 5 channel Dolby Digital it records is sort of cool (more of a gimmick, I think) but does make the footage more complicated to edit. I would have preferred a PCM 48 KHz/16-bit stereo mode. There is no accessory shoe on top. And finally, the editing solutions for the AVCHD clips this camera records are only now beginning to emerge (though with Nero, Ulead, Pinnacle and Final Cut Pro already supporting it, the situation is only bound to get better).

If you're looking at this camera, you may be debating between it and the Canon HV20. I'd urge you to go with the SD1. The image quality from both cameras is very similar, but with the SD1, you'll never lose a shot due to tape dropouts and you won't have to spend hours capturing footage in over Firewire (the SD1 appears to your computer as any other flash drive... just copy the files off, one per clip). The build quality and handling are slightly better than the HV20's, and the optical image stabilization is the same or perhaps slightly better too. I agree with those who believe MiniDV tape will be dead in a few years, as recording to flash memory offers numerous speed and reliability advantages, and we are hitting that crossover point where you no longer have to give up any quality to go with a flash-based product.

If you're debating between the SD1 and one of Sony's AVCHD cameras, be sure to compare picture quality and color accuracy before going with the Sony... Sony's cameras rated well behind Panasonic and Canon products in consumer HD camcorder shootouts.

I bought this camcorder for a recent trip to Italy with the following reservation:

1) Price continues to drop.
2) No editing sw available yet.
3) Storing SDHD while traveling, and eventually archiving onto DVD.
4) Quality of still picture.
5) Its size, it's compact but not that compact.

I bought along 2 more 4GB SDHC and a 100 GB Woverine storage. After 2 weeks trip, here are my fbacks:

a) PQ relating to capacity: The "middle" shooting mode PQ is stunning when view on 50" HD plasma. The "lower or extended" mode show pixels occasionally. Due to the capacity constraint, I've learned to compartmentalize the content in shorter chunks. This is a change of mindset for me...

b) The pluses: size could fit into my pants' pocket so I dont stand out as tourist; I also use the SD1 for still pictures and ended up didnt use my digital SLR at all; The stills printed-out OK but not-HD quality when viewed; the built-in lens cap and the recess lens work great in dusty and or rain situations; operating firmware is intuitive; 2 lux is amazing for indoor and low light situations eg. inside the Panthenon without flash;

c) The minuses: Screen panel has to be in opened position when access component out/power outlets during playback; There is no MUTE while playback thus trying to review discretedly in quite areas is not possible eg. on a plane; There is no INSERT function to compartmentalize unwanted sections for deletion; There is delay in PAUSE thus the fadeout has few more seconds than needed/wanted;

Overall, this toy is probably one of the most-fun toys I've purchased. Eventhough there were reservation, I'm now satisfy, the PQ is so great that it overides all other insufficiencies. I re-live my experiences in Roma, Florenze, Milano, Venezia, Pisa, Zurich... and smile everytime I watch those moments in HD.

I bought the camera last week and I love it. The video quality is superb for outdoor footage and almost superb indoor (dark places do generate some grainy areas in the video). camera design is great: small, light weight and the joystick control is perfect. One major advantage is the big 3" LCD screen even though it would have been nice to have a viewfinder in addition to the LCD.

Camera has both HDMI and component ouputs and uses standard HDMI connector unlike the Sony SR7 that has mini HDMI that is ahrd to find. The SDHC as storage device is great and you can either connect camera directly to your PC with USB2.0 cable or simply extract the SDHC card and use a USB reader to copy the files.

Playback with the camera is easy with its remote control but using a PS3 that plays the transport files as raw files or creating a BlueRay disc and using a BlueRay player is the way to go and you will LOVE the picture on your HD screen.

I would like to see the battery life improve. 40 minutes when using best quality encoding is a bit short for me.

My dilema was between the SD1, Sony SR7 and the Canon HV20. Some reviews claim Sony has a slightly better picture in certain scenarios but the fact it doesnt have USB port and requires you to carry a docking station in order to extract files from the built-in drive as well as the price point which is a few huindreds of dollars more wasnt worth it. The JVC has some nice features such as 24p encoding and higher resolution (1920x1080) but it is interpolated and so pratically it is not a diffrenciator.

Bottom line - I would highly reccomend getting the SD1 - sleek design, excellent performance and great value for your money.

I recently took a brand new (only shot a couple of minutes before I left) HDC-SD1 on a three week vacation to Europe. I was obviously a little concerned since it seemed to be bleeding-edge technology and support for editing is thin right now.

The camera worked great overall. It was slow (maybe 5 seconds) to respond to my sometimes quick "record off" to "record on" commands, so I had to wait a bit at times to start recording again.

At one point, the motorized lens cover would not close or open as required unless I whapped the front of the camera with the heal of my hand; I suspect this was a result of some foreign object getting stuck in the mechanism after being in my pocket during pauses in my shooting (I began to place the SD1 with the lens end facing "up" in my pocket rather than "down"). I blew out the lens area and it seemed to be fine, but this is one area I would be careful of - it seems to be pretty delicate, but worth the extra care as it is a very nice feature over a separate lens cap.

As is obvious from my comment above, it is small enough to ride around in your pants pocket. The fit in your hand should be good, though I am big-handed and therefore had to get it positioned just right in order to comfortably operate it in a one-handed mode (with the strap the only thing securing it to me); strapping it on was achievable, but took a few seconds to get just right - smaller hands should be no problem.

I shot 30-50 minutes a day (using one to two SDHC chips) and never fully discharged my primary battery, though I always had a backup (which I had to procure from some outfit in Asia via eBay - couldn't find one in the US) in reserve - my guess is that the stock battery is good for 60-70 minutes based upon my style of shooting which was to generally turn it off whenever I was done shooting a scene (though the auto-off feature worked fine).

I took five 4GB chips with me (but could have just used two) and downloaded my day's work onto a 120GB HyperDrive (an external harddrive with a built in card reader capable of reading the SDHC chips - it worked great by the way with my only complaint being the visibility of the display). I prayed that the drive would survive all the jostling it got while being dragged around Europe for three weeks. When I got home, I simply attached the HyperDrive to my computer's USB port and tranferred the files.

I got Pinnacle Studio 11 Beta downloaded onto my computer at home and was able to simply read the .mts files that I had transferred from the Hyperdrive. The files loaded just fine so I did not have to "capture" off the camcorder itself (which was nice since I would have had to transfer the files back off the HyperDrive and onto an SDHC chip first) - ah, this great digital file age!

I still have issues with Pinnacle Studio crashing and being inconsistent in its operation - no different than my pre-AVCHD days, so I do not think the AVCHD files are the culprit any more than my older mini-DV tape files were. I think Studio is just prone to glitches - but it's features and interface are really nice if you have some patience. I was going to use this trip to learn Vegas, but so far, Sony has decided not to recognize the AVCHD .mts files produced by the Panasonic SD1. Rumor has it that it's coming soon. Rumor also has it that it's delayed because the Panasonic files look so much better than the equivalent Sony files, but I cannot confirm that.

Bottomline - it's a great camera with great video and the quick, two-button-push ability to put it into "backlight" mode is awesome. It's not its fault that the software support is a bit behind at the moment. No-moving-video-drive-parts for camcorders has got to be the future of course - with the SD1, the future is now!

Speaking as a video pro, the picture is astounding. Set to the highest data rate, it gives you 40 minutes on the 4gb card. I shot Mariners baseball opening day, brought it home and plugged it in to the 50" plasma, and the family thought we were watching the news in HD! I couldn't see any compression artifacts - like I did at the mid-quality setting. Apple better announce support for AVCHD soon, or I may go crazy not being able to edit this gorgeous footage. I love the menus - the user interface is very intuitive. Being able to shoot the game, and erase the at-bats where nothing happened was awesome. 40 minutes was plenty when you can erase bad takes. My only annoyance: Safeco field has a retractable roof, the light was a combination of field lights, and natural light. Twice the camera decided to change the color-balance setting on its own. It probably thought it was pretty smart - I"ll have to set it manually next time so that doesn't happen...

I'm just a point-and-shoot videographer (a.k.a. a father of a new baby). I'm also a penny pincher so spending $1,100 on a camcorder is not any easy thing for me to do - but boy am I glad that I did.

The picture quality is simply amazing. My wife kept commenting on how the picture looked so three dimensional - and it really does. With the outdoor shots, we can't tell the difference between the TV shows now broadcast in HD and the footage from this camera. The indoor shots are pretty darn good as well, but without set up lighting it will never look as good as TV.

I chose this camcorder because it records on SD cards, which are relatively cheap and can record much longer than mini-DVDs currently can.
Also, being as frugal as I am, I want to be able to easily transfer and watch our home movies from the camcorder while I wait for the cost of HD-DVD players and HD editing software to come down.

I'm a big fan of dragging and dropping files to the computer as opposed to having to capture video with our previous camcorder.

Since HD and 16:9 are the wave of the present and future, I'm glad we got away from the 4:3 camcorder. Watching video from the new Panasonic is like watching an episode of Lost in HD, while our old Panasonic was blurry, dark, and stretched out the picture in comparison.

I can't comment on the features because I haven't used them much other than the back light correction. That works very well.

My only dissapointment is that while there is a flash for taking still images, that I can't use that as a recording light for indoor recording.

Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD 3CCD Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

With early-stage access to (and purchase of) the HDC-SD1, I ran a series of objective comparisons with 2 Sony (not yet released) HD video cameras. General results showed the HDC-SD1 to produce far superior quality. The HDC-SD1 handled much higher density range than did the new Sony units, and color resolution is measurably superior. Density range issues need no measurement; they are intuitively obvious. Without going further in detail, as the new Sony devices were on loan for only a day or two, it seems to me that the perceived problems relate to Sony's single sensor capture and related issues. Running through striped filters is not the way to capture accurate HD images -- and never will be. For one experienced in the science, there is little argument with this preceding point. My only real irritation point with the HDC-SD1 was lack of eyepiece viewer.

Unable to test fully with Vegas 7.0, v.7.0e (bld 216) -- because 7.0e will not capture Panasonic-produced AVCHD files, I performed all tests using Corel (Ulead Video Studio 11). Capture of both Panasonic and Sony AVCHD files worked properly, and the rendered results were as expected (or better). To be fair, I repeated the Sony tests using Vegas, all of which required at least twice as long (or greater) as compared to the Ulead product. Again, to be fair, I used large numbers of relatively short exposures, and I did not use networked render with Vegas.

In my opinion, the reason (possibly the only reason) Sony didn't release v7.0e capture that handles the HDC-SD1 is the Panasonic unit produces far superior results than does the Sony AVCHD devices tested. Obviously, it had nothing to do with the AVCHD data format etc, as I was able to write code in a period of less than a day to get the Panasonic (and Sony) data into a consistent format that, with a little work, could be handled in Vegas 7.

For any that are interested, bringing in AVCHD and capturing to Ulead11 is very simple (and fast). SanDisk sells an inexpensive "MicroMate USB adapter (less than US$ 20) that can be used to capture AVCHD to the workstation disk. Following that, use 'import' from DVD/DVD-VR under the Ulead 'capture' tab. Capture, end-to-end, is at least twice as fast as the 7.0e Sony Vegas capture -- with complete file integrity.

I have had no axe to grind with Sony until recently. On my shelf are several Sony video camcorders including (not limited to) DCR vx1000, TRV7, PC1, HC96 etc. Anyone with long-time experience with Vegas Video is aware that the 'new Vegas' hides behind circular telephone switching vectors. No pun intended, dealing with Sony has become 'Bush-League child play'. An additional 'Sony' bit for Amazon buyers. Almost all of the latest model Sony (still and video) cameras have the interface connector located on the bottom of the camera (my HC96 included). Imagine (if you will) setting the instrument down to chase a grandchild, then to discover the bottom connector fills with mud or sand. Chose carefully.

One other brief point. Over the years I've use non-linear editors from AVID (high end), and Vegas Video (lower cost). Much to my surprise, having never used the Ulead product previously, I suspect Video Studio 11 will become my low end choice after a bit more testing.

'nuff' said.

TomF