Panasonic HDC-SD100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 9.2 x 4.5 inches ; 2.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001BFRQA0
• Item model number: HDC-SD100
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #11,677 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 17, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

Panasonic is proud to present the latest edition to it's High-Definition suite of products, the HDC-SD100 -- one of the world's first AVCHD camcorder with a 3MOS system which provides superb video image quality. The HDC-SD100 records to SD Memory Card. HDC-SD100 includes manual functions for the user wanting more precise control over zoom, focus, iris, shutter speed and white balance. SD100 also includes Panasonic’s new Intelligent Auto (iA) mode, an intuitive set of technologies that automatically activate, making video shooting an easy, seamless process.

HDC-SD100 Highlights

3MOS System

New 3MOS sensor

The SD100 features Panasonic's new 3MOS sensor. With about 2 times the light-receiving area of a CCD sensor, this high-sensitivity, high-precision imaging element captures vibrant, faithful color and provides an outstanding performance in low lighting. The 3MOS system uses separate MOS sensors to capture the red, green and blue light components, so no light is wasted. You capture rich, expressive video with vivid colors and super-fine details that make your images come alive.

Advanced O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilization) Panasonic's advanced O.I.S. suppresses the effects of hand-shake as you shoot. This extraordinary system uses gyrosensors to detect even tiny amounts of hand-shake, then shifts a lens and adjusts the optical axis to compensate -- all at an astounding 4,000 times per second. Because the system is optical, there's no loss of image quality. You get all the beauty and none of the blurring. The SD100 takes Panasonic's advanced O.I.S. a step further, with a correction area that's about 3 times as large as in previous models. With this enhanced correction capability, even zoomed images are incredibly clear, sharp and beautiful.

Advanced color engnie

HD Advanced Pure Color Engine We took the advanced imaging circuitry used in Panasonic professional equipment and adapted it for home use. The result is the HD Advanced Pure Color Engine, a high-speed processing unit that handles huge volumes of data and virtually doubles the dynamic range. This advanced imaging engine helps prevent blown highlights and blocked shadows, so the images you capture on video look just the way they do in real life.

New Leica Dicomar Lens SD100 also introduces a new high-performance Leica lens in which both resolution and contrast have been improved by refinements to our low-dispersion lens and aspherical lens. The lens is highly refractive too, making it possible to pack a powerful 12x zoom into a compact body. A multi-coating process applied to all lens surfaces helps suppress ghosts and flaring, so you get sharp, crisp images even in strong outdoor lighting. The superb rendering ability of this advanced camcorder lens makes it ideal for capturing expressive full-HD images.

Manual Ring The manual ring gives you easy, fingertip control over the focus, zoom and exposure settings. You'll find using the ring a much more intuitive, comfortable, user-friendly process than accessing a menu screen. With the manual ring and manual operation, the SD100 is a pleasure to use and gives you the freedom to craft unusually expressive images.

Manually control focus, zoom, and exposure settings

• Zoom You have full control of the zooming speed and can zoom in or out to the precise degree you want.
• Focus Moving the focal point back or forth lets you guide the viewer's gaze just like in the movies.
• White Balance Select from Auto, Indoor, Outdoor and White Set according to the location, weather or type of lighting. You'll always get the best possible coloring even if the light source changes.
• Shutter Speed Use a fast shutter to catch sports and other fast-action scenes without blurring, and slow it down for greater emotion, like images of flowing water. Try your hand at all kinds of versatile expressions.
• Iris Open up or close the aperture to get just the right amount of brightness from the surrounding light.

On-Screen Assist Ideal for making fine brightness adjustments that are difficult to see in the LCD. A handy guide for correcting the exposure is shown right in the monitor.

• Zebra Pattern A "zebra pattern" is displayed in areas of the frame where the lighting is excessive and the image is over-exposed.
• Brightness Level The light level is metered at the center of the frame and displayed as a percentage (%). This serves as a guide when you're shooting a subject that's backlit, or when you want to keep the light level the same even though the lighting conditions change.
• Histogram The Histogram displays in graph form the exposure and contrast conditions over the entire frame. This lets you determine fine gradation details that are difficult to tell by just looking at the screen.

Mic Input and Headphone Jack Sounds that are hard to pick up with the internal mic, like birds singing and water flowing, are clearly captured by an external mic. Connecting a headphone also lets you monitor the mic on the spot, to ensure that you get exactly the sounds you want.

1.9-sec Quick Power-On Switch the power on and the SD100 is in standby mode in just 1.9 seconds, ready to shoot when you are. This fast startup also helps reduce battery consumption.(SD100: in card recording mode only).

0.6 sec Quick Start Use Quick Start mode when you want to start shooting even more quickly. Just flip open the LCD and you're ready to shoot in just 0.6 seconds. Also, power consumption in Quick Start mode is less than in normal shooting mode, so you save battery time.

iA (intelligent Auto) In iA mode the image stabilization, contrast correction and face detection functions are automatically activated. The Scene Selector function analyzes the shooting situation and automatically switches the camcorder to the Scene mode that will give you optimal results.

Face Detection This mode captures faces beautifully. Face Detection automatically senses the ambient lighting and adjusts the exposure accordingly, so faces are bright and easy to see. The focus also prioritizes the faces, and skin tones are smoothed. Faces in the center of the frame serve as the reference for adjustments, but the function can detect up to 15 faces in all.

Hand-Shaking Detection - Advanced O.I.S. When hand-shake is detected while shooting, the Advanced O.I.S. system is automatically activated to compensate for blurring and produce beautiful recorded images. Blurring is also prevented while zooming, so images look incredibly clear and sharp even when they're viewed on a large-screen HDTV.

Contrast Detection - 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.

Scene Detection - Intelligent Scene Selector The shooting conditions are detected, and the optimal scene mode is automatically selected. Even if the subject should change, there's no need to manually redo the settings, so you can concentrate entirely on your shot.

• Face Using the face as reference, the exposure is adjusted to correct the brightness level. Focusing priority is also placed on the face, and the skin tone is smoothed.
• Scenery The exposure and contrast are optimized to give you clear images, without blown highlights in strongly lit areas like the sky.
• Spot Light When darkness and a spotlight create strong contrast, like in a stage scene, the brightly lit subject is captured clearly without losing highlights.
• Low Light A slow shutter speed is automatically selected to give you clear, vivid images even in dark places.

Record three seconds of images before shooting

Rre-Rec Function This clever 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 HDD/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.

5.1-Ch Surround Sound & Zoom microphone & Focus microphone Each of the five built-in microphones of the SD100 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.

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.

Advanced O.I.S.

24 Frames/Sec High-Speed Burst Shooting This function lets the camcorder snap up to 24 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.

Product Description

Welcome to the Full-High-Definition Age
Expressive, true-to-life images that convey deep emotion. Panasonic carefully crafted the HDC-SD100 so you wouldn't have to accept any compromise in the images you shoot. This remarkable HD camcorder lets you capture artistically beautiful images with superb detail and deep, vivid colors. It gives you the advanced creative control you need to capture images just the way you see them in your mind's eye. And it's super-easy to use, with instant automatic settings for capturing perfect shots in almost any situation. Artistic Beauty. Advanced Creativity. Automatic Control. With the new HDC-SD100 camcorder, Panasonic gives you a tool for making videos that you'll enjoy creating today and viewing for years to come.

When It Comes to Beauty, There's Simply No Match for Full-HD
Panasonic HD camcorders record 1920 x 1080 full-HD images1 - the highest level of HD quality there is. Viewed on an HDTV, the pictures are so sharp and clear that you can even distinguish textures. That's the kind of image quality you want when capturing special moments - the kind of moments that will only come once, but that you'll want to enjoy forever. When it comes to capturing beautiful images, an HD camcorder is the best choice. And when it comes to HD camcorders, make Panasonic your choice.

Capture Expressive Images, with Rich, Vivid Color
The HDC-SD100 features Panasonic's new 3MOS sensor. With about 22 times the light-receiving area of a CCD sensor, this high-sensitivity, high-precision imaging element captures vibrant, faithful color and provides outstanding performance in low lighting. The 3MOS system uses separate MOS sensors to capture the red, green and blue light components, so no light is wasted. You capture rich, expressive video with vivid colors and super-fine details that make your images come alive.

Manual Controls the Freedom to go beyond the Ordinary<

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great HD on a budget, April 9, 2009

By 

LIGHT Dad (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-SD100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I was worried about having to convert the compressed files from the memory card into editable files for FCP. Using Voltaic, I was able to make the conversion easily. The camera is so light, you hardly know its in your hand. The deciding factor in chosing this camera is that it has a view finder - an important feature for close work. I love being able to shoot for long periods and not having to worry about changing tapes. It may not be the best (technically) HD camcorder out there, but for the price, it is great for most every situation.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review after two years of ownership., October 31, 2010

By 

KTM3009v "Desert Raider" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-SD100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

This is a fantastic lightweight camera. I don't know the story behind current pricing but I paid $530 for my camera.

Pros: The camera makes high definition video and you can choose between 1920, 1080, or 720. Most video I take is at the highest resolution. The camera can take still images. You can choose between recording with the view finder or the LCD screen. The sound recording is incredible for little camera with no external mounted microphones. Choose between recording sound in front of you or in 5.1 surround sound. My discovery is that surround sound picks up too much background noise such as cheering parents at soccer games.

Cons: My photo graphs are at a lower resolution than I would like and it takes a long time for the camera to focus and set. The battery needs much more juice and I am currently shopping on Amazon for a new one. The camera has been used on the field during softball games where dust is an issue and now the automatic lens cap is sticking and I have been unable to fix it. Video management!!! Did I know what I was getting into? No. I have recorded hours of family vacations, softball, and soccer games. The purchase of this camera has led me to buying seven terrabytes of disk storage, a blue ray disk burner and different brands of DVD and Blue Ray media. My concern is long term storage of my newly recorded video. What to do? DVD's don't last and Blue Ray can be even less reliable over time. My goal is to not let my video disappear like the old Super 8 video from my youth and the VHS from recent history. How can I safely store video?

Video editing: Roxio was the most unstable program I have ever used. Period! Don't buy it. I have had great success using Cyberlink Power Director Ultra 8. I no long have Panasonic's video capture program installed. I believe Panasonic's video capture program was called HD Writer. I could not figure it out and it seemed cubersome to use. Two thumbs down.

Bottom line is Yes this is a great camera.

4.0 out of 5 stars panasonic sd100, June 18, 2009

By 

James A. Geiman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic HDC-SD100 Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I own this and recorded music video using the panasonic and a sony ex1 you can see the results [...] (When sonny gets Blue) The ex1 is a [...] camera the hdc sd100 was not as good but for the 10xless price it held its own. I needed to tweek the final video with sony vegas but I was pleased. I love the manual settings. the color is very good, the only downside was low light performance so I purchased some sima 20xls.