Customer Reviews

Panasonic HDC-SD10K SD Full HD Camcorder - Black

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I bought this several weeks ago when it was on sale. I'm happy with it. The footage it produces is very good, the low light performance, while not great, is acceptable. It's very small and very easy to use, and the optical image stabilizer is fantastic. All in all, it's a solid step up from a flip camcorder, though certainly not as good as one of the more expensive canons. But for now, this is an affordable high def camcorder that works well for family video shoots.

I have this camcorder for about a year and still happy with it. I have a HD TV, so HD camcorder is only way to go. I was disappointed with none HD on my HD TV.

Price:
I just see the Amazon price for this camcorder go under 300, not sure if this is the new price or just temporary sale. Compare to other name brands, this is a very good price. I pay about 400 a year ago.

Storage:
I have the kingston SD (kingston provides lifttime warranty on the card), I have no problem with it. In fact, SD camcorder is smaller and lighter then hard disk verson. I have the 16 GB, I hardly ever use all the storage in a single day.

Cons:
Yes, low light is a issue. If you are shoot outdoor in the evening, there will be an issue. But most of my evening shoot is going to be indoor, so I am okay with it.

originally i bought the standard definition panasonic camcorder, and the people at best buy assured me i would not be able to tell the difference between that and high def on my TV, so i tried it and they lied. i then bought this camera off amazon and not only is it super high def quality, but its so easy to use the touch screen display is great, and is sooooo light weight.

With a very low price prior to the holidays, and a new i7 iMac, I thought I'd finally jump on the HD camcorder wagon. I've had miniDV camcorders for the last 11 years. My last (Canon Optura Pi) was selected after careful research with a high priority on quality footage indoors in the evening - the achilles heel of digital camcorders. I own 3 Panasonic still digital cameras, so I admit to having a soft spot for the brand.

Anyways, the SD10 was a great price, a beautiful little form factor, and shot beautiful video outside during the day. My experience at night indoors (with all lights on) showed the camera to do a poor job. We're not just talking about noise, but blockiness too. It was totally unwatchable. I also shot some additional indoor footage during the day - a large indoor building with lots of light - very watchable but noticeable grain. Note that footage was viewed directly on a HD Television using the HDMI connection - on the viewfinder you might think the footage was fine.

The reviews were mixed - mainly regarding comments on indoor usage - but I thought I'd take a chance. Alas the camera went back, and I replaced it with a Sanyo FH1aSanyo VPC-FH1A Full HD Video and 8 MP Digital Photos (Black) (also from Amazon). Its indoor performance is excellent!

First, the two versions of this camera are identical other than the fact that one has built in memory, the other does not. BUT, consider how much you're paying for that memory? Could you just buy a larger card with the price difference? Probably. Considering that for the sake of convenience you will probably be recording to cards most of the time (so you can just plug them into the computer) I would probably go for the internal memory-less version.

I ran several tests on the camera for a few days to try out its features. I am not a name-brand fanboy, nor am I a dedicated videophile. I'm just going to give you an unbiased impression based upon what my eyes saw:

PROS:

1.)Pretty good daylight recording. Considering what I paid for it, I was surprised by the quality. It's not a Canon S10 by any means, but I was pleased.
2.)It is unbelievably small and light. Shockingly so. If you are looking for the smallest possible 1080p capable camera to take on a daylight hike, I'm thinking this is near the top of the list.
3.)Has a few of the bells and whistles of a larger camera, including the ability to swap out memory cards, a decent touch-screen menu interface where you can play with the settings (as opposed to some of these cheap-o cameras), a genuine optical zoom, and an HDMI output right on the camera. Unlike most, I had no problem with the touchscreen.
4.)Quick power-on/off feature works really well, battery life was not a problem.


CONS:

1.)You'll notice I mentioned how surprised I was by the camera's performance in daylight? I was equally surprised by the nighttime/indoor performance. As in, it was atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. We're talking awful pixelation, terrible graininess, significant artifacting and block-iness, and a general inability to see anything. The onboard light provided little help. I'm not talking about near pitch black rooms, I'm talking about normally lit indoor areas. The camera is basically useless for indoor or nighttime recording unless you're using multiple floodlights. I would walk through the house, and even our well lit dining room had significant problems.

I chalk this up to the tiny sensor (less than 2 megapixels) and tiny lens. Sure, it keeps the weight/size factor miniscule, but it really hurts performance. I am not understating this problem, at all. I tried to use the manual shuttings (such as they are) to correct the problem, but playing with frame rates, settings, and modes made little to no difference.

2.)No built-in lens protector. Having a dangling lenscap to annoy you defeats some of the purpose of having such a compact, easy to whip out camera.

3.)Screen tearing/rolling shudder is a problem on quick pans, even more so than other CMOS cameras I've tried. I'm not sure what the issue is, but be forewarned.

4.)The cameras awful low light capabilities make most of the individualized settings useless.

5.)If you want to make that final jump from 1080i to 1080p, you're limited to the 24fps "digital cinema" mode that disables the vast majority of the manual settings. A small nitpick, but somewhat annoying.


SUMMARY

Know precisely what you're going to be using this camera for before you buy it. The video quality in daylight for the price is pretty decent, the form factor/size is phenomenal, and the indoor/low light video quality and options are horrendous. Basically, if you're only going to be using it outdoors, and size is of paramount important, it's worthy of consideration.

I read the reviews about this camera having poor picture quality but bought in anyway because it seemed like such a good deal. However, as Huey Lewis said, sometimes bad is bad. Some of the reviews said "poor picture quality in low light," which I took as meaning candle light or some other dark room situation. The pictures I've taken so far have been in very well lit situations indoors. The pictures were grainy and just plain bad quality. It may do well in bright daylight, I don't know as I've gone back to using my non-hi-def tape camera, which has much better picture quality.

The software is another story. By no means simple to use, it saves the files in a format that no other media reader can recognize. If you were hoping to use this to save video files that you can: 1) Play back on Windows Media Player or Quicktime 2) Send to friends and family 3) Upload to Facebook or another website to share you won't be able to do any of that with the files this software translates your home movies into.

One good thing I can say about this is it's portability. It is the smallest, lightest video camera I've ever owned. The camera itself is pretty easy to use (I chose to rate it not easy to use due to the software that comes with it). For this reason, I really wanted to like this. I've even considered giving it to my son, as he loves taking pictures. I'm not sure if I want to turn a $300 purchase into a toy for a 6-year-old, though.

My recommendation would be to not buy this. My next camera purchase will not be on-line but through a retail store with a good return policy. If you decide to chance it and buy this camera anyway and missed the "big sale" I found it on, look for my camera to be for sale on eBay.

I researched several brands which were, at least, twice more expensive than this one. In my observation, it is very easy to handle and compact enough to carry around. It is small, and many reviewers complained about the low light shooting. I think it is more to what you are going to use this one for. I shoot some footages in my basement at night, and it showed more grains, but the quality is fine to acceptable.
The video image was good enough to see clear difference in quality and sharpness on my 42 inch HD LCD. The price is close to those standard definition camcorders, but its video quality is superior.

I am more than happy with its performance, not necessarily the price I paid.
The included battery lasts about 1 hr 30 min, and the battery-time is displayed on the screen, so, you can easily spot how much juices remain. Also, I bought a 16GB SDHC Class 6 card, and it could hold 1hr (Very high) or 2:30 (2nd high setting). In both settings, I was very pleased to watch footages on a HDTV.

Maybe in 1-2 years, we will have much more advanced technology, why bother to spend any more?

Great camcorder. Easy to use. Great HD quality. Just wish battery lasted longer. Gets about 1:30 on highest quality.

Video quality is excellent with full HD effect but Video output to PC or TV is 1080i not 1080p.
Still picture Resolution is very poor.

I was looking for a home camcorder. I have a Canon A620 digital camera and I think excellent (the price was high, but I do not regret), but the prices of camcorders Canons are much higher.
When I got a good bargain from Amazon by Panasonic TM SD10 (U.S. $ 299.00, the price of the common definition camcorders), even knowing the limitations of the model (see in [...]), I decided to buy it. Certainly it is a good camcorder. The daylight does an excellent job. The 16X optical zoom is great, in digital, 80X to work well, then it is a waste (the sharpness is bad).
Low light it loses detail and the colors are washed, but nothing different than most camcorders can do.
The sound is very good, there is the zoom function on the microphone.
To avoid problems, highly recommended to only download the videos to your PC using the HD Writer program that came with the camera (just so you can use it). To convert the file extension m2ts mts AVCHD ts in vob (DVD), mpeg, avi wmv etc., Format Factory is a great free program.
In the end, I believe that the price of U.S. $ 299.00 U.S. $ 350.00 is fair, nothing more. If you really can spend more, maybe three times, thinking of satisfaction in the long run, search for other models (HF Canon S10 Canon VIXIA HFS10 HD Dual Flash Memory with 32 GB Internal Memory and 10x Optical Zoom and S11 Canon VIXIA HF S11 HD Dual Flash Memory Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom everyone recommends) and compare the stores (if possible with a full hd tv and hdmi cable).
I would like to mention that I live in southern Brazil and delivery service from Amazon, along with the PuntoMio (courier door to door), were excellent.
(Original text in Portuguese, translated automatically into English by Google).