Customer Reviews

Panasonic HDC-SD60K SD Based Hi-Def Camcorder with 35X Intelligent Zoom (Black)

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This is a replacement for my 10 year old Panasonic camcorder so the first thing I noticed is this thing is SMALL, but they are all pretty small compared to my old camcorder. Without going into too much detail I'll just note the things I found much better than I expected and the couple things I am a little disappointed in. I don't have experience with any other new camcorders so I can't say this one is better or worse than any of the other new models.

Pleasantly surprised:
- The image stabilization feature is very very good.
- The video picture quality is impressive.
- The battery lasts longer than it is suppose to (manual says 50 minutes but I get double that).
- The software that comes with it is certainly good enough for me and is easy to use. It allows you to arrange your clips into a video and write it to a standard DVD in standard definition, to a standard DVD in high definition or to a blu-ray disc. You can delete portions of clips, add transitions between clips, add text to a clip (first clip only) and build a menu screen.

Things that are a bit of a disappointment:
- The automatic white balance isn't the greatest. Within a single lighting environment and a single shot the auto white balance will vary from a little too yellow, to a little too blue to just right. I've given up on auto white balance and now use manual white balance. Manual mode is a bit of a hassle but worth it to avoid the white balance swings the automatic setting produces.
- The wind cut filter can't be turned off in auto mode. This isn't a big deal to me now that I use manual mode (because of my white balance complaint) but if I did want to use auto mode there are times you need to have the wind cut filter off or the sound will get totally messed up (like when an audience is clapping along to a song).
- Low light recording is fairly noisy. It isn't horrible. I decided it is acceptable for my use but my 10 year old camcorder did better in low light.

Everything else about the camcorder is about what I expected. It's easy to use, nice zoom range, still camera mode can't compete with a real still camera but that shouldn't come as a big surprise. Overall a very nice camcorder for the money. Is it the best camcorder for the money? I have no idea, but I can say I'm happy with it and it is capable of producing very nice video with just a little effort as long a there is sufficient light.

UPDATE - one month later: I've had the camcorder for over a month and have shot 10+ hours of video with it. I'm still impressed with this little camcorder. It can produce some beautiful video. I'd give it 5 stars if the white balance worked a little better. I still stand by my original comments.

One software feature I discovered and like a lot is the ability to capture a still photo from the video. I'm sure all video software has this feature but it is new to me. With the still capture feature you can get a 3.6 inch x 6.4 inch 300dpi jpg from the video. The software allows you to look at the video frame by frame so you can capture a still picture at just the right moment. This is very nice for making small snapshot photos, particularly of fast action subjects. One maddening thing about most still cameras is shutter lag (the delay from the time you push the button to the time the picture is taken). Many times great shots are missed because of that delay but by capturing still images from the video you can always get the shot at just the right moment! It's a fun feature.

UPDATE #2 - 2 months later: I've shot over 20 hours of video with this camcorder now and I'm still very happy with it. I purchased a sandisk 16GB card (holds about 2 hours of video) and I'm keeping an eye out for a Vw-VBK360 extra battery for use on vacations. The Vw-VBK180 battery that comes with the camera lasts at least 100 minutes of actual use yet is only suppose to last 50 minutes. I don't know why I'm getting so much time out of it! I do shut off the camera between shots (by closing the viewing door) but doesn't everybody? Seems like a natural thing to do.

I still use manual mode for white balance. I'm much happier with the results using manual white balance rather than automatic white balance. The auto white balance in my old camcorder as well as the white balance in my daughter's little Flip camcorder works fine but not in this new camcorder. It's my only real complaint.

I did a little test to compare my old camcorder with the new camcorder in low light conditions. The new camcorder produces a fairly noisy video in relatively low light but my old camcorder produces a pretty nice video under the same low light conditions. I'm not talking very dark - living room, in the evening, lit with 2 floor lamps. But I found a flaw in my test! What I discovered is both camcorders produce fairly good video in STANDARD DEFINITION (note: the new camcorder only records in HD but the software provided with the camcorder allows you to convert it to standard definition). It is only in HIGH DEFINITION that the video from the new camcorder is noisy. Since my old camcorder only records in standard definition it wasn't fair for me to compare my old camcorder standard definition video with my new camcorder high definition video. So for what it's worth, my new and old camcorders produce about the same quality standard definition video in low light conditions. Maybe you have to step up to a more expensive camcorder to get low noise, high definition video.

I've got to say, even though low light standard definition video looks better than low light high definition video, once you've viewed high definition video in normal lighting conditions you'll never want to go back to standard definition ever again. The difference is remarkable!

UPDATE #3 - 3 months later: I continue to use this camcorder a lot and am still very happy with it. There are a few things I'd change if I could but nothing too serious. Manual focus is painful but I've only used that once. Getting to the backlight compensation mode is quite painful and I wish there was a button on the camcorder that put the camcorder in backlight mode like my old camcorder has but again, not the end of the world.

I just responded to a very good question in the COMMENTS SECTION about manually setting the white balance that I didn't mention earlier that is very important: When you manually set the white balance the setting DOES stay at whatever you set it at when you turn off the camcorder. In other words, the white balance setting you select "sticks", which is a very good thing! If I had to manually reset the white balance setting every time I shut the camcorder off I would not have kept this camcorder. Fortunately that is not the case. You can set the white balance to whatever you need and you only need to change the setting when your lighting conditions change.

UPDATE #4 - 4 months later: I've only used the camcorder a couple of hours this past month and don't have anything new to add. This will be my last update to my review unless I discover something noteworthy. All, in all, it's a very nice camcorder!

Addendum to update #4 - On 11/5/10 I broke my camcorder. It was entirely my fault. I hit the outer edge/end of the LCD screen quite hard on a hard object and the screen is now blank. The camcorder still works but the LCD screen is history. Can't blame the camcorder though. To give you an idea of what I really think of the HDC-SD60K, I'm replacing my broken HDC-SD60K with a new HDC-SD60K. I just ordered it from Amazon (again) and was pleasantly surprised to learn the price has dropped 25% from what I paid a little over 4 months ago! It's a nice camcorder and I thought is was a good buy when I bought it 4 months ago but at it's current price it's a no-brainer!

Kudos to Amazon! I ordered another HDC-SD60K camcorder (to replace the one I broke on 11/5) on Saturday 11/6 and it was delivered Friday 11/12 and that was using the super saver free shipping option!!!

I thought I'd see if the automatic white balance works any better in my new HDC-SD60K camcorder compared to what I'd experience in my old HDC-SD60K. You never know, maybe my old one was defective or maybe Panasonic tweaked the HDC-SD60K in the past 4 months to improve the way the auto white balance works. So I shot some video in IA mode, inside and out. Nope. No different than my original HDC-SD60. The picture changes tint within a single shot when panning or zooming as the camcorder continually adjusts the automatic white balance filter based on what is in the image at any particular moment. Oh well, I've gotten use to manual mode anyway and the results are far better.

UPDATE #5 - 6 months later: I just purchased a Pioneer BDR-206 blu-ray burner for my computer (from Amazon of course!) and can now report the software that comes with this camcorder works nicely burning blu-ray discs. Going with blu-ray also makes life a little easier. I take quite a bit of video and I wasn't keeping up with burning DVDs of all the video I'd taken. Being able to put about 2-1/2 hours of video on a single blu-ray disc sure is a lot easier then making a bunch of HD DVDs!

Over 500 people have found my review helpful! That's great! I see I missed the boat for 3 people though. Sorry. If there is something specific you need to know you're welcome to ask me in the COMMENT section. I certainly am no expert but I'll try to answer any questions I can.

UPDATE #6 - 8 months later: I'm still using this camcorder a lot! A couple people have discovered a problem with this camcorder that I was unaware of. When recording in a quiet environment the noise the autofocus motor makes is clearly recorded on your video. I tested it myself with my camcorder and it is true. Maybe like me, most people video things where the sounds they record overwhelm the auto-focus motor noise. Except for the test video I made in a quiet environment to confirm the existence of this problem I have not noticed the autofocus motor noise in any of my videos but buyer beware - there is a motor noise when the camcorder focuses and it does get recorded!

UPDATE #7 - It's now April. I've lost count of the months! Since I mostly use this camcorder to record my daughter who is a member of a fiddle group I decided it'd be interesting to have a second camcorder on a tripod recording at a different angle than what I'm recording with the camcorder I'm handholding. So I did some experimenting with my broken camcorder, the one with the blank lcd screen (see addendum to update #4) and discovered if I connect a tv to the camcorder I can use the tv as a view screen! So I purchased a 7" portable lcd tv from Amazon for $50 and now I can splice together shots from the two camcorders making a pretty interesting video! Granted, the camcorder with the broken lcd screen is not the easiest thing to use, you have to know where to tap the blank lcd screen to set the white balance for example, but it works! Bottom line, I'm still having fun! If you search on YouTube for "Fayette Opera House" and look for the video of Orange Blossom Special you'll find one of my early attempts using two of these hdc-sd60k camcorders and splicing the video together. I just use the software that came with the camcorder. Nothing fancy and fairly easy to do. Anyway, these are nice camcorders, even though they are "last years models" now.

UPDATE #8 - A little over a year. Use the camcorder at least once a week recording the fiddle group my daughter is in. I use the camcorder inside, under all kinds of lighting conditions as well as outside. I tried turning the automatic gain control off to see how that affected sound. It is suppose to give a more "natural" sound and if you know how AGC works it makes sense that it could produce better sound, not that I have complaints with the sound with AGC on except I get clipping once in a while usually when an audience is applauding. I've only tried it once and it wasn't good! Need to experiment with that some more. It's remarkable a camcorder in this price range offers this level of sound control. Other than the terrible automatic white balance (I carry a white piece of typing paper wherever I go to set the white balance manually, which works great) I'm still VERY happy with this camcorder after using it a lot for a little over a year. No regrets with this purchase!

UPDATE #9 - 17 months later. Still use it a lot and it's still going strong. No problems at all (other than the auto white balance, but manual works great). There have been occasions when I wish it had an external microphone jack but other than that, I have no regrets at all! Even the camcorder with the broken LCD screen works great (I use a $50 external LCD screen connected to the camcorder as the view screen) as a tripod only camcorder. Happy!

I hope you found this information useful. I'd like to thank the people who took the time to write camcorder reviews when I was researching them. It's very helpful to get insights from end-users. I'm glad I bought the camcorder that I did and I'm even happier that I decided to upgrade from my standard definition camcorder to an eye-popping high definition camcorder!

I've done a pretty good amount of research on budget hi-def camcorders between $400 and $500 dollars. In my opinion, this is the best camcorder in this price range. I would highly recommend this camcorder to anyone looking to just film family gatherings, vacations, or for filming budget movies. The camcorder has an attractive design, fits in your palm, and is the perfect weight. It takes fantasic video, has a 3 second pre-record function, face tracking, good battery life, a flash & video light, average photos, and dolby digital audio recording. My only complaint is the location of the record button, it is a bit awkward. I was going to go with the Sony cx110 which has mostly the same specs, but decided on this camcorder since it has optical image stabilization (which works flawlessly) instead of an electronic stabilizer. It also has an LED video light and a flash, for photos. It supports SDXC memory cards, which can hold 64GB or more. If you prefer flash memory over using a hard drive, like me, you are better off with this base model and getting a 16/32GB SD card. I bought the 32GB Transcend SDHC card from Amazon and it works perfectly with this product.

I've had this camera for a couple of months now, and I am pleasantly surprised by it. I've never owned an HD camera, and this is my first new camera purchase in about 15 years or so. I've been using my phone camera for most pictures or borrowing my wife or daughter's digital still camera for the occasional need. This camera is many times better than my Droid phone camera mainly because of the versatility. That is, the phone camera isn't great for video, or zoom and slow motion playback or low light situations. I scrubbed Amazon for quite a while before purchasing, reading all the reviews I could find on other cameras looking in this price range down to about 1/2 the price of this camera. Although this one didn't have many reviews, and wasn't cheap, it was well-liked by those who purchased it, and now I know why. It has a bunch of advanced features which I haven't used but I will detail the ones I have used.

The camera fits in my pocket reasonably comfortably, it's slightly larger than my wallet. It's a touch wider than my hand when I hold it but comfortably fits in the palm of my hand. The controls are easy to use once you get used to them. There are 3 modes, playback, video and still. The still pictures are quite impressive. I sold a car on eBay and the pictures were huge and very crisp on my computer. They were amongst the largest pictures on eBay after I posted them, larger than most of the car dealers selling anyway. I believe it's 4.3 megapixel, but not all megapixels are created the same. I think this 4.3 quality is better than a 4 megapixel camera phone.

The video quality is exceptional. Oddly, on playback using my TV this camera seems to have better video quality than most of the HD programming I watch on Dish Network. I'm not sure how that can be possible, but it is better. I can see every hair on my daughter's head and every blade of grass when I watch a playback. During video recording, there is a box that appears around faces, apparently it's recognizing and focusing on those faces.

I've used this camera in several challenging situations and found it to be very good. I've used it low light for example, and it has a built-in light that comes on automatically. We were at a restaurant recently which was dark, and I recorded video for a few seconds and the image was somewhat dark, but the light automatically came on for both the video mode and still picture mode (flashed). The people whom you are recording might find the light annoying (in video mode as it stays on), but as the cameraman the playback image looks great - you can turn off the light manually, easily.

The zoom is pretty incredible. I was recently at Brewer's baseball game, from the 1st base line I was able to zoom in on the center fielder to fill the frame, he was about 500-600 ft away from where I was sitting. Zooming out, I turned the camera back on myself and my son for a nice wide angle shot at arms length. During playback on my TV, I could even see the thin stripes on the center fielder's shirt. The stabilization (anti-shake) mode (OIS) allowed me to see the players on playback with no noticeable shaking or movement on my part. With the OIS turned off, I could not hold the camera steady enough for the long range zoom shots. You don't need a tripod to steady the camera but I've used a tripod and it works well with this camera.

The battery life is pretty good about 3 hours of use or so playback and at least an hour or more in record mode reduce. I'm thinking about getting the larger battery as although it might heavier, it would be nice to have the extra battery life and a spare battery.

I also recorded my golf swing using the high-speed record mode. Although I couldn't get the super-slow motion playback that you see on TV golf, but I was able to stop the club head fairly well for my purposes anyway. I could see my driver shaft was bending quite a bit which was a surprise. I was also able to see the club shaft angle fairly well during playback. The controls for playback in slow motion are a little clumsy but not too bad once you get used to it (press the pause button, then hold down the FF or Rewind buttons).

I plan to use the camera for recording my daughter's lacrosse games this school year. I expect from what I've seen that it will work well for that purpose as well.

The biggest complaint that I have is that still pictures have a problem with red-eye when using the flash. Even when the person isn't looking directly at the camera, the center of the eyes are red. It's an annoying problem that I can't seem to fix. Other than that I've been pretty happy with the camera's usability and quality.

Accessories:

The camera comes with a detailed user-manual, a charger, 2 connector cables, and a CD disk containing software for IBM-compatible computers. However, just plugging it into my Mac computer worked fine with without any additional software.

The two cables included: a USB cable for connecting to your computer, and cable to attach to your TV for playback. The cable for playback is one of those 6-connector types (red, green blue, video as well as yellow (video), and red/white audio). Unfortunately, it's only about 5' long. Although the video quality was quite good with the included cable, I went for the additional HDMI mini-cable as I wanted to see the quality difference - which frankly is hard for me to tell the difference, but the accessory cable below is much longer (nearly 10' instead of the 5' cable that comes with the camera) therefore I recommend it.

I purchased a cable (Panasonic Mini HDMI Cable, 9.8 Ft) and a memory card (SanDisk Ultra 32GB SDHC Card (SDSDRH-032G-A11) - both of which I recommend. The memory card was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but works quite well. There may be be cheaper memory cards available that work as well, not sure.

cable:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001A5LW1U/ref=oss_product
memory card:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00194101O/ref=oss_product)

I would recommend purchasing a case, which I've yet to do, but will add that to the review once I find a good one.

I first purchased the Sony HDR-CX110, in the same price/feature class as this Panasonic. If you are considering each camera, here's what I can tell you. Be forewarned that I have only had today to play with the Panasonic, and I have only used each model in Automatic mode. I will post updates if I discover anything significant:

SONY HDR-CX110:

Wins:
+Size - the Sony is much smaller, easily fitting into my cargo/tactical pants pockets;
+Image quality - the Sony has much better [on fully auto mode] color and contrast;
+Both an HD and an SD camcorder - Can make AVCHD or MPG, in-camera!;
+10mm Threaded Filter compatible - The Sony has a manual lens cap, and a filter thread on the outside of this. While you won't be able to protect your filter with the cap, you can at least keep your lens protected;
+Manual Lens Cap - User preference, but I like having fewer "automatic" moving parts to break-down.

Looses:
-Image Stabilization - not strong enough for my hand held video needs - I believe the IS on this model is digital only - you can spend a couple hundred $ more for the CX300, which has Optical IS, you might find better IS [out of my price range];
-Artifacts - I noticed several blocks in my video test. I don't know if this was from the digital image stabilization trying to figure out how to handle lake water on a windy day, or something else. I did not notice this in the Panasonic, but have only done limited testing.

Panasonic HDC-SD60:

Wins:
+Lighting - Panasonic SD60 has built-in video light and still flash - these will probably be of limited use, in only close quarters, but there if you need it. In preliminary testing, these both worked fairly well;
+Image Stabilization in this model is optical, and includes two modes - regular, for simple hand-held video, and "active" for filming while moving. Both worked well, much better than the Sony, but will not completely eliminate camera shake.

Looses:
-Size - While still quite small, this camera is large when compared to the Sony [longer and heavier]. I probably won't be carrying it in my cargo/tactical pants;
-Automatic Scene Mode - It takes much too long for the camera to adjust to lighting conditions, and it cannot seem to find the right color temperature for indoor lighting - I have not played with manual mode, yet, but many reviewers write that the manual mode is much better;
-No SD mode - only writes AVCHD files;
-Automatic Lens Cap - User preference, but this seems to be another piece to breakdown;
-No Filter Threads - Can this really cost much to implement? I can't install a polarizer, UV or any other filter to enhance my video or to protect the lens.

Conclusion:
I tried the Sony first, because of the ability to change it from an HD to an SD camcorder at the push of a button - Writing either AVCHD, or Standard-Def .MPG files, when appropriate. After I discovered that the Sony IS was limited in its ability, I returned the Sony for the Panasonic. The Panasonic's IS is much better, but the Sony does seem to have much better image quality [Automatic modes tested, only!].

Overall, I'd choose the Sony, but only if using a tripod most of the time. I'll keep the Panasonic for hand-held videoing.

I avoided AVCHD a couple of years ago because the compression requires a lot of computer power to edit. The Big Three of video seem to like AVCHD, and it is used all over the place, but in video cameras it is hard to balance what you need to edit it with what consumers are using.

I mostly use a fairly new Toshiba laptop. Windows Media Player will play the clips from this camera, but it will not do it smoothly. You can see what you have, and follow what you have recorded, but it is not a good way to watch. I used a copy of Vegas Movie Studio Platinum, the latest, and I can edit the clips fairly easily, and then render them to something like WMV video, at the highest setting. This is acceptable to me, for now.

It's not a great sign when the first two paragraphs of a review are about technical aspects of simply using the clips that are recorded by the camera. But the reality of AVCHD is that it is not simple, and no one should jump in thinking there is some easy solution. Even finding the clips on the card is somewhat awkward. But, the bottom line is you can shoot video clips, pop the SD card in a reader, and then use them with a fairly reasonably priced editor like Vegas, and from there render to a useable format for a lower powered computer, at least one of recent vintage.

The camera itself is very small. Some people do not like the ergonomics but I think they are fine. I did not want to buy a camera without a viewfinder, the eyelevel kind, but the screen is good enough outside, though the sun fades it. I like to set the exposure and lock it. I was surprised that there is no exposure lock, but you can get a fix on the exposure with the Ia mode, then shift to manual and the auto settings are retained. You can then work from there. This works for what I want.

The zoom starts at about 35mm. This is why I bought the camera. I need a certain amount of wide angle. Most cameras start around 45mm. I used to carry an adapter, but the adapters are a pain and they often distort. If you want wide angle for scenics or inside shots to show a wider view, this is a good place to start. Sony has a 28mm camera. It seems to be the trend. Even Flip seems to be going this way.

The autofocus and auto exposure seem to work quite well. The slow zoom is what I want, though you can speed it up. The menus are just fine for my purposes, at least if you spend an hour with the manual. The size of the camera is great. Indoor shots with decent light (like through normal windows) seem to be good. There's a lot of gain as you move to a dark room, but in a room with good light there is no gain up. In the manual mode, the camera tells you what the gain level is, so after you open up past F/2.0, you see gain from 3db and up. This seems technically refined.

I just tested this camcorder for a full day and was pleasantly surprised. I bought a Canon HFS100 last year and liked the video quality but was disappointed with its stabilization, wind noise, and limited optical zoom. Even though the HDC-SD60K was half the price of the Canon, I really could not tell the difference in video quality between the two cameras on my HD TV. In some respects such as color accuracy, I think the Panasonic was better. I really liked the 25X optical zoom and the excellent stabilization, even at full zoom. The wind noise cancel feature seemed to work well too. For the price, I am amazed by the video quality.

Ok, so I am a long-term Canon user who used to have a Canon HF200 until milk accidentally got spilled on it, so I took the chance to try this camera after a friend recommended it. This is one fantastic camera.

Pros:
1) Comfortable size
2) Manual shutter speed and iris controls
3) Excellent autofocus, particularly in dim light conditions
4) Very good battery life
5) Great wide angle (from 35 mm) to a great zoom (25x and 35x with the intelligent zoom- more on that later)
6) Fantastic image stabilization
7) Competitive still picture quality

Cons:
Low resolution touch screen with a lot of icons takes some getting used to

Review.
The autofocus in this camera works great. In a busy scene it identifies quickly the object that it needs to focus on and it does this very accurately. The image stabilization is great, it is called O.I.S stabilization that helps counter camera shake and even works well when filming while walking.
The lens is superb. Particularly impressive is the range that it covers. Many other makes and models are not wide angle enough (Canon HFS200 starts at 44 mm, Sony 550 starts at 39mm) so when filming indoors or close to the action you may not be able to fit it all in. This camera starts at 29.5mm which is fantastic. Similarly this camera goes to an OPTICAL zoom of 25x which extends to a whopping 35x with the Intelligent Zoom function on. This is NOT a digital zoom that simply deletes resolution in order to give you a very fuzzy, blown up shot. Instead, it selects lower detail areas to reduce resolution while maintaining a very good level of detail. The result is a barely noticeable drop in image quality.
In terms of still photo quality just like no still camera makes excellent videos, no video camera makes excellent still. However, all in all this camera produces very respectable stills.
Battery life is excellent. Lasts around 2 hours 15 minutes. Yes, several cameras offer a longer battery life, but they are also bigger and heavier. Hard to find a better battery life in a 9.7 ounce, 2.0 x 2.6 x 4.4 inch camera.
The camera is extremely easy to use, fairly straightforward and intuitive. The only gripe is that the camera tries to pack so much information into the touch screen that it feels cramped and takes some getting used to.

Summary:
This is a great camera that strikes the balance between features and price. Light, easy to use and great image quality.

Note: This item is identical to Panasonic HDC-SD60K SD Based Hi-Def Camcorder with 35X Intelligent Zoom (Black)
And it is identical to Panasonic HDC-TM55K Hi-Def Camcorder with 8GB Flash Memory & 35X Intelligent Zoom (Black) except for the storage(memory) options. The Panasonic HDC-HS60 Hi-Def Camcorder with 120GB HDD & 35X intelligent Zoom (Black) is also identical in shooting performance, but the large 120GB hard drive makes that model larger.

I have only used it a few times, but here are some important attributes I've noticed so far:

This camera takes 1080i, not 1080p. Also, it ONLY takes 1080i. There is no option to take 720p or any other resolution besides 1080. This is a bit of an annoyance for me, as the video must be converted if I want to share the video with other people at smaller file sizes.

Low-light and indoor performance is GREAT. This was a very important feature for me as I plan to do a LOT of indoor shooting, and this model delivers. Very low light conditions (indoor lighting at night) produce some grain but it's still acceptable on my 42" 1080P LCD.

The real optical zoom on the model is 25X, NOT 35X. The "Intelligent Zoom" is a digital zoom mode that supposedly sacrifices minimal quality. You can change the zoom settings, but the factory default is 35X intelligent zoom.

I have taken full quality (1080i) video on class 2 SD cards, and it seems to work fine.

The auto white balance is very inconsistent. I believe the camera is designed to automatically switch white balance based on the light source, but the algorithm is far from optimal. I will end up with red/blue tinted footage just by zooming in on yellow/white/beige items around my room. There is an option to select and lock the white balance so it is not a dealbreaker, but I wish the automatic white balanced worked better.

The battery is charged while mounted to the camcorder, and there is no separate charger. However, the camcorder MUST be turned OFF to charge the battery. I find this setup strange. I want to charge the battery while shooting/reviewing footage, I will have to buy the optional battery charger accessory. On the up side, the battery life is actually BETTER than what the manual states.

The camcorder is supplied with a hand strap, but there is NO neck strap. Because the camcorder is so light (even when compared to my ultra-compact mini-DV camcorder) I believe a neck strap is not necessary.

There is NO accessory mount. There is no hot shoe, NO threading on the lens. But there is a tripod mount and it is actually metal-reinforced. YAY!

I just received my Panasonic HDC-SD60K a couple of days ago. Although I have not shot any video with it yet, I have gone through an entire battery charge (almost two hours) just reading through the operators manual and playing with all of the settings as I go through the manual. The manual is comparably easy to understand, and the touch screen menus are easy to follow and operate. If you do not want to shoot at full auto, you have plenty of manual options with this camera; both on the camera side and the video side. And the the zoom capabilities are excellent. Although I have not used it yet, the editing software was easy to load onto my computer. There is a sizable update, so be sure to update the software on Panasonic's website after you initially load it onto your computer. I also ordered a couple of 16G SD cards, a spare battery, an HDMI cable, a camera bag, and a separate battery charger (all from Amazon). With the exception of the HDMI cable, which is not here yet, all arrived at my door in great condition and in a matter of 3-5 days. It really is an amazing little camera for the price. I did hours of research on HD video cameras before I decided to push the order button on this one. For my purposes, I am glad that I decided on this camera.


SAME DAY, MUCH LATER:

First of all, you need to know that I am upgrading from a Panasonic Digital VHS-C video camera. It was a great camera when I bought it, but this HDC-SD60K is not even in the same category to what I had before. I just took a giant step up! I have been playing with the settings (manual/auto) and shooting video tonight in my home. I can tell you than I am more than impressed with the video quality from this camera. Everything has been in low light conditions, so I cannot wait until I can shoot in the daylight. I started out shooting video in various rooms with only a minimal amount of lighting on; one room only had the Christmas tree lights on. The low-light video quality is very good. I tried using a couple of the manual settings to adapt for low light conditions, but I felt that they distorted the colors a little bit and have opted to just stay in auto mode when recording. The miniature sized video light that is built into this camera is very bright and actually does help quit a bit. I did discover that there are four record modes with this camera (HA1920, HG1920, HX1920, and HE1920). The default setting from the factory is HG1920, but HA1920 will give you even higher definition video. It takes the record time on the 16G SD card from two hours and forty minutes (if left on the HG1920 default setting) down to two hours and eight minutes using the HA1920 setting. But, there is a difference in the quality of the recorded video. I gradually turned on more lights in the rooms and the video quality improved accordingly. By just turning on a few lights in the rooms I was rewarded with great high definition video from this camera. Like I said earlier, I cannot wait until daylight tomorrow.

I did discover something about this camera that I was not aware of before I purchased it. It has built-in capability to work with some HDTV remote controls, when you use HDMI to attach it to your HDTV at home. Panasonic's name for this technology is VIERA Link, or, others may call it EZ Sync. This technology was meant to work with their Panasonic HDTV's, but other brands may have the same capability if they are using what is called the HDMI CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) specification. My HDTV is a Toshiba, but when I plugged the HDMI cable from the camera into my television and switched the camera to play mode, I was able to get the same player control panel showing on the camera's LCD screen to come up on my television screen. Amazingly, my TV remote was able to highlight the buttons showing on my television screen and I could pick, play, pause, and stop the scenes I had just recorded by using my TV remote. I guess I will not need the 10' HDMI cable that I ordered from Amazon now. But, this is something you might want to check out with your own HDTV at home. It is another great plus to owning this camera.

That's it for now. I have not taken any pictures yet, or shot daytime video, but so far I am totally happy with my choice of video camera's.

UPDATE:

For no specific reasons other than price versus quality ratings, this happens to now be my third Panasonic video camera (I have owned two previous VHS-C versions - analogue and digital). I began my amateur video experience with a Zenith brand video camera. I am only a recreational user, and not a professional videographer. But, I have been taking personal family videos for twenty-five years. Now that I have shot video with this camera in all lighting conditions, I continue to be completely satisfied with it's ease of use and the video quality. I have not taken individual pictures with it yet, so I cannot offer any comments on that aspect of this video camera. I have a very good Canon brand camera for taking individual pictures, so the added ability to take individual pictures was not a key factor in my decision to buy this video camera. For my purposes, and for the price, this camera is everything that I had hoped for in a video camera.

FINAL UPDATE:

This thing takes great pictures too! I really like the idea that you can shoot photos while you are also shooting video. And I thought I had purchased a pretty good Canon camera a couple of years ago!! Wrong! At least when I look at the photos on my HDTV, there is no comparison. We will see what actual photos look like coming back from the developer though.

I have been researching $500-range camcorders for weeks, reading every review, and watching every "test" clip on YouTube. Major thanks and kudos to all of you who have produced everything I have been reading, watching and listening to as I make my decision.

The verdict is that this is definitely the best of breed for the buck. I bought this camera for $350 here on Amazon in March 2011, it is still selling on most other web sites between $500-$700. Get them while you can - the new model, the SD80K, is different in ways that I find negative (like fewer buttons and greater dependency on the touchscreen), so I definitely wanted this model.

What I wanted was an HD camcorder that does 1080, does low light fairly well, small, very lightweight, excellent image stabilization, and no moving internal parts other than focus. In other words, a road warrior of a camcorder worthy of rompin' stompin' family vacations that, if broken, would not break the bank if a total loss or needed to be replaced. In other words, a Disneyland camera.

As I write review #80 for this camcorder here on Amazon, I want to write a review that covers aspects of the camera that few (if anybody) touches on while repeating as little as possible.

This review will be written from the perspective of one who bears the official title and responsibility of "Video Dad". I am not a snobbishly anal videophile. Yet (working on it). I am still just a well-read novice.

Ok, the camcorder itself:

Optics (quality and wide angle): Moving from SD to HD is a wonderful jump, which I'm making with this camera. But the SD60 really grabs a lot of wide-angle view even beyond what you'd expect from an HD cam. The optics are fantastic, no complaints.


Optical/Digital Zoom: Clear, stable and smooth. Modes include optical zoom only (25x), and additional digital modes that get added onto the optical mode, including 35x, 60x, and 1500x (that's right - fifteen hundred). Up to 35x retains HD and is indistinguishable from optical, but 60x starts to fuzz up a little bit. 1500x blurs considerably. To be honest, it's amazing how good the 60x actually looks, and I plan on actually using it.

Zoom speed: Slow. Really slow, as in annoyingly slow. If you're going to be using zoom, understand that there is no rapid zooming with this camera at all, so get used to how it works and get used to the timing changes you have to make to your shooting habits. Though it is probably to keep motor noise and battery life in check, I still consider this a definite negative against this camera.

Video Quality (1080i instead of 1080p, FPS, etc): This camera does not shoot in 24/30/60p, it shoots in 60i only. On screen I don't notice much of a difference, especially at a rate of 60 frames per second. And with a good DVD/BD burning backage, you'll most assuredly be editing it down to 24-30fps anyway, which still looks fantastic. The different quality modes of this cam (all at 1920x1080 with exception of one mode at 1440x1080) are all stupendously magnificent on large screens.


Portability/Necklace/Pocket Factor: Nothing to attach a lanyard too, doggone it. I want this thing on a lanyard or necklace of some type, and I don't trust that wrist strap enough to mount anything to it. I'm clearly going to have to get creative, but there's not much to work with in this regard, as the hand strap is the only possible thing on this camera that anything can be attached to - no lanyard holes or anything. Bummer.

"Quick-draw" Recording: Dang this thing is fast. From fully powered off to shooting in less than 2 seconds. Less than 1 second if in sleep mode (just closing the screen). The only thing slowing you down from fully powered-off mode is having to hit the power button, which turns the camera on as fast as opening the screen in sleep mode. Amazing. I absolutely love solid state electronics. For the first time, I have a video camera that is faster on the draw than a dedicated point-and-shoot still camera.

Low-light Capability: I bought this HDC-SD60K to be used at Disneyland later this year, which includes lots of "magical" (translation: "don't you dare miss it") low-light environments, like night-time fireworks, lots of dark rides and dimly-lit restaurants. I was deeply concerned about this "4-LUX" camcorder. My retiring Canon ZR40 Mini-DV from 2002 is 1-LUX, and I was not very impressed with it in low light (could have been operator error). The one I used before that, a large Panasonic VHS shoulder-fired bazooka from 1995, is 0.4 LUX, and is absolutely miraculous - one single candle lights up a room in bright beautiful perfect color, every bit of it makes it to the tape/screen (I refuse to get rid of that camera). I have seen reports and reviews and clips of this HDC-SD60 being both excellent and horrible in low light. A final word is badly needed, especially since I will not be able to use the built-in lighting of the camera in such environments (it will upset others by ruining the mood/environment). What I found is that this camera works surprisingly well, even in fairly dark rooms. However, do not zoom in - stay zoomed out for max light intake when in REALLY dark places. Zooming in can cause things to darken quickly depending on subject, and autofocus will go haywire until you back out again. The camera does actually do 1-LUX according to the manual, but the online specs say 4-LUX. Whew! Graininess noticed in all low light video, but what did you expect - video has ALWAYS been this way, and this camera is no worse than cameras costing over $1,000.

Building DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs: I already know enough about the extremely limited bundleware that comes with the HDC-SD60 that I will not be using it and recommend that you also do not. I personally use - and highly recommend - the excellent one-stop/do-it-all product from Corel called VideoStudio Pro X4 (make sure it's not X3, which was buggy). Perfect for novices and total snobs, it is seriously fantastic stuff and only costs $99, and virtually does most everything that Adobe's billion-dollar video production product suites do, only WAY easier to use. Even better, it includes really fun gimmicky stuff too, like stop-motion animation, does 2D-to-3D(!) conversion, and time lapse. It's the kind of software that turns the chore of DVD/BD disc production into the funnest part of the whole process. Bonus, it also has a special "proxy" feature that allows you to work with your HD video files on low-power older computers, like laptops and older PCs. It will probably become your favorite application (and pastime) on your Windows PC.

Audio Noise: Yep - this camera does produce some audible focus and zoom noise, but very faint and will not make it onto recordings unless you are in a very quiet environment, and even then, it's very faint. My camera is not producing the autofocus "chirp" sounds discussed in previous reviews, it may possibly be due to being new out of box/not enough wear yet, or something Panasonic has fixed. Not sure, but I'm very happy.

Mic: This camera's mic is a "zoom mic", and filters out side sounds as you zoom in on central objects. That's a pretty cool feature that's new to my world.

Optical Image Stabilization (and Additional Load on Battery): Incredible - everything you read about it is true. But you might not have read that it includes 3 modes - off, regular and agressive. You can only turn it off if you put the camera in manual mode, but I don't recommend this unless you are using a tripod. Otherwise, you NEED this feature to be on - the camera is just too featherweight to stabilize itself under normal circumstances. If the camera is in auto mode, you can swith back and forth between regular and agressive modes. Stabilization on this camera is fantastic, worth the price of admission alone. Just be aware that image stabilization is (if I have researched it correctly) made possible my a form of electromagnet technology, which explains why using it increases the load on the battery quite noticeably. Use sparingly unless you have extra batteries.

Touch-screen Usability: The physical buttons at the bottom of the touchscreen panel are fairly stiff, you have to put some good pressure on them for them to register, which I don't like because it makes me worry about how this may effect the camera over time (breakage). On-screen menus work very well, touch functionality smooth as glass, easy to navigate, but some have commented that the menus are a little cluttered and tight. I used it with no problems, and it didn't bother me, but I could see how it might bother others with vision problems or issues involving dexterity. The screen is only partially anti-glare, and will be prone to noticeable finger smudging, but not enough to be a nuisance or impair functionality in any way.

Battery Life: The camera is tiny enough, but the battery is shockingly tiny. I'm both amazed and not surprised. The battery that comes with the camera requires a 3-hour charge time. It will give you an hour and a half (at best) in record mode if you go easy on it, and approximately 3 hours playback time. If you use auto everything, lots of zooming, lots of image stabilization, etc, knock recording time down to under an hour. It fluctuates significantly based on use of features. Definitely have at least one spare battery on hand, you'll need it when attending any event that would warrant extended recording.

Aesthetics (Fit & Finish): Exactly what you'd expect from a $350 camera. The problem is that thing camera cost an average of $600 when it first came out and I can still find web sites selling it for $700 a whole year after its release. Am I saying that it looks/feels cheap? Well, yes, I guess I am. The cam fits great in your hand, but it has a really cheapo fake leather hand strap that is not very comfortable and comes right out of the casing, which means if the strap ever broke, you'd have to dismantle the side of the camera apart to replace it. Nice look to the camera, but very lightweight and "plasticky" outsides. Identifyably high quality of the internals, however, such as doors, hinges, buttons, ports, plugs, etc, so it's very high quality where it truly counts. There most definitely is somewhat of a cheap feel to it just due to the weight factor, however. I know lightweight is a "feature" these days with these new cams that are made from plastic instead of metal, require virtually no motors, and have no giant batteries or any moving parts beyond the focus - it's just old habit of perception that heavy = quality. However, this makes it far easier to handle, so I do actually like the lightweight feel. I just need to get over the "light=cheap" sentiment, and the knowlege that they originally charged twice the price I paid for it.

Memory Cards (speed, quality, capacity vs hours): I got the 32GB Transcend card (class 10). Understand that "Class 10" is read speed, not write speed. Write speed of my card is about class 6 or so, and this camera takes both video and stills (simultaneously) at highest res without skipping a beat. The manual tells you exactly what kinds of cards you can use. Just get any SD card that's class 10 and 16GB+ and you'll be fine. As a nice feature, a red LED lights up on the camera as the card is being written to, which gives you a visual indicator of when NOT to accidentally pull the memory card out of your camera.

The Rumored 16GB of Internal Memory: SD card required, no user-accessible internal memory. Period. It is possible the cam has internal memory for buffering purposes, but you certainly have no direct access to it or have any control over how it is used. Just get a 32GB SDHC card and forget about it for the rest of the life of the cam (or a 64GB SDXC card if you feel like dropping the extra cash and have card readers on your computer that support this new format).

Lens Cover Pros/Cons: Pro: Hassle-free, good quality, lens well protected, lightning quick response when it's time to record, you get to totally forget about it. Con: It's a motorized moving part that (albeit barely) robs from the battery and WILL someday ultimately fail simply because it's a motorized moving part. Chances are, however, you'll upgrade before that happens anyway.

Auto vs. Manual Focus: In extremely low light (no cam light assist), the camera will start struggling with focus ("hunting" like any other cam), especially if you try using the zoom. So manual focus is probably better in these conditions. Otherwise, autofocus is fantastic and lightning quick all the way down to some pretty impressive low light circumstances.

The White Balance Issue ("Sticking" Settings, Ease of Use, etc): Yup, there's an issue. What I'm observing is that WB is very slow to respond, around 5 seconds, sometimes even longer. It DOES eventually correct itself (in most circumstances - it's a gamble in very low light, where it can struggle), but is sluggish enough to be annoying. Manual white balance settings do stick between uses, everyone says this is the most effective and manageable solution. I'm still making up my mind. Bottom line is that if you are a total videophile and you're anal about total perfection, this camera will measure up in nearly every way - but the white balance issue is definitely going to annoy you. It is not enough of an annoyance to bother me all that much and the camera does have a workaround that most everyone finds relatively easy to work with. I just leave it in auto and grin and bear it.

Digital Features (Face Recognition, etc): Cool, oooh, aaaah, nice fluff. But that processing power could have gone to providing better white balance functionality, the only real mistake I can say that I've found that Panasonic made with this camera. This is what makes this camera worth $350 instead of $700.

Still Photo Quality: 2.1 and 4.5 megapixel while in video recording mode at 16:9 ratio. Almost as good as any dedicated point and shoot from a few years ago, which was a whole universe better than anything else since before the dawn of time. Still cam mode photos look better than video mode photos (photos taken while in video mode have a noticeable color quality issue). For anyone that complains of the photo quality not being 12 billion megapixel, here's a reality check: Anything above 4 megapixel still looks fantastic and anything above 5 megapixel starts to eat up your hard drive (or in this case, memory card). Besides, any photo you post online is going to be compressed down to much lower res than that anyway, so it's a moot issue. Panasonic got it right.

Potential Issue of Gaps/Capture Losses as New Files are Created During Recording (4GB file size limit): For the guy asking this question on nearly every single review in here, I'll offer you this information. While shooting video in highest quality, I can simultaneously take highest-res (4.5 megapixel) photos without any gaps or stutters in the recorded video, including how it is written to the SD memory card. As such, there is clearly a very effective video recording buffer at work here. Case closed in my view. Buy with confidence.

Manual Focus: Yup. Works if you need it.

Ease of Manually Changing/Shifting Lighting Modes: The camera does a much better job of this in auto mode than I do manually, and one heck of a lot faster. But it is pretty easy to do manually if you need it.

Backlight Compensation: Still playing around with this, seems to work well. Note that even the manual says that this feature will eat more battery.

Recording While Recharging: Nope. The manual directly states that the battery will not be charging while recording when plugged in. My Canon ZR40 is the same way and the Panasonic VHS cam I had before that.

Intelligent Auto (IA) Mode: Works surprisingly well, all modes, with the exception of the well-known (but overly dwelled-upon) white balance issue. No matter how I manually changed things, I found that my surroundings changed so rapidly that leaving it in auto mode was far more productive, timely and accurate than I was. I would regard IA mode to be best of all worlds and going manual is perfect for specific circumstances requiring firm control or bouts of anal nitpickery.

Power-Off Methods vs Battery Life: It has been reported by others that full shutdown vs sleep mode extends battery life to some degree. Makes sense, I have no reason to argue and haven't put this to enough of a test to validate.

High-Speed Burst Stills: Have no clue, didn't buy it for this kind of photography and truly do not care (yawn). But apparently it can do it. Nice to know.

LED light and Flash for stills (and the redeye issue): The light and flash work incredibly well, complete with auto functionality (light) and auto redeye removal (flash with cam in auto mode only). However, the video light is an LED, which produces that annoying, sterile, white/blue-ish hue that we hate in our eyes from cars who have installed those kinds of headlights. If you're one of those people, know that we all hate you.

Recording Modes: Every one of them look fantastic. I played around and tried to see quality differences at highest to lowest settings and had some trouble noticing any real differences on my 52" Samsung. This means you can kick this camera down and still get 1920x1080/60 footage that looks like a million bucks - over 13 (thirteen) hours of it on a single 32GB SD card without sacrificing too much quality (and still running Saturn-esque rings around any Standard Def camera).

AVCHD vs SD: The world has moved on to AVCHD, and you will be assimilated. This cam is no different in its implementation of it than any other, so not much to report here other than it works just fine. And PC or MAC will working with this camera just fine provided the operator is familiar with their hardware and how it works. SInce it's all drag-and-drop, this should be very easy.

Heat: The bottom warms up while in use. Not hot or uncomfortable in any way, but just mildly warm. Hadn't seen that mentioned in any review so far, so I thought I'd throw that in as well. At least it doesn't require a cooling fan (*cough* - HDC-TM700K - *cough*).

Playback: During slideshow playback mode of some still images I took, some swanky "real estate tour" type theme music automatically kicked in over the little speaker. I laughed. I cried. It moved me.

Manuals/Documentation: Great manual, entire 160-page manual was English cover to cover (with exception of a 2-page Spanish quick start guide at the very back). No German, French, etc. Outstanding, pleasantly surprised, not used to seeing that. Wow. I mean - WOW.

I hope this review was helpful for what it's worth, I know this camera is in the process of being phased out with a new model. If you are deciding between the new model and this one, my recommendation is to get this one while you can for multiple functional reasons (though it's a safe bet that the white balance issue got fixed - that would explain the much higher price).

Would have been 5 stars for the money if it wasn't for the white balance issue. Kind of surprised Panasonic let this one out the door with that big of a hit against it. Also wish the zoom was faster and there was the ability to hang this camera on a lanyard, since it's small and light enough (my bigger much heavier Canon ZR40 is on a neck strap).


UPDATE:


After a month of use, I am extremely pleased with this camera and will elaborate a bit more on some of the features I find that stick out more than when I first got it:

Zoom: It migh tbe slow, but wow, is it great. With the camera in 60x zoom mode, I can zoom in on individual trees up in the mountains and it looks pretty darned good. With the stabilization this camera has, I'm able to zoom in on anything I want. I have never been able to do that before without having to use some extra form of stabilization, like a tripod. This tiny little featherweight camera lets me do it by hand. Amazing.

Stabilization: I have fallen in love with this flagship feature. I cannot stress how miraculous Panasonic's implementation of stabilization really is. I'm only 43, but I have a hereditary issue of a slight shake to my hands, which really shows up in the videos I shoot whenever I zoom in on something. It's always been rather embarrassing when watching the family movies I have shot over the eyars, especialyl when I used the zoom. The stabilization on this camera is so good that everything is just rock solid and totally hides my unintentional "simulated earthquakes". Not only has this completely solved the issue for me, but will continue to do so for a good long time, even if my condition were to severely worsen. I cannot express how valuable this is to me, because it means I will be able to shoot and zoom in on things that I cannot do with other cameras (without bad camera shake). Panasonic just earned my admiration in a very personal way because of this. Bonus: The "agressive" mode of stabilization is so good that it can be used while walking (even the manual states this). It is so good that it can literally rival a professinal SteadyCam device in many situations. I have never seen anything like it, and I'm hopeful/confident that it will indeed earn my "Roller Coaster Certified" seal of approval.

Motion blur: If you pan too quickly, the camera will pop a little message on the screen saying that you're going too fast. I have noticed that this camera captures motion crystal clear when stationary or panning slowly. But if you pan quickly (even moderaly actually), it does blur quite noticeably. There might be a feature to get motion blur under control, but in full auto mode out of the box, it's pretty noticeable. Very in fact - enough to have you changing how you pan. My total wild guess is that this is probably an effect caused by how this camera shoots in 60i and not 60p.

Battery life: Over the period of several days, I have noticed no difference whatsoever of fully turning the camera off vs just closing the screen. I'm sure a long-term test over the course of a week or more may show a difference, but for general use - especially vacations where "quick draw" recording is desirable - this is fantastic.

Pocketability: I have walked around with this thing in my "office attire" pants pocket. However, since I do have a huge concern about accidentally bumping it against something that will damage it, or getting pocket dust/lint/grit worked inside of it, I no longer do this.

Camera bag: Make sure to get a big enough camera bag for this camera. Because of this camera's tiny size, I felt confident that a tiny cam bag would be cool and bought the Lowepro Edit 110 bag for $14 here in Amazon. It's not as cool as I thought it would be - the bag is barely big enough to be usable, even for this tiny camera. The bag is such a tight fit that I can barely put anything other than the camera in the bag. The Lowepro Edit 110 Camcorder Bag is very high quality, lots of pockets, and excellent padding - but so well-padded that it makes the bag too tight of a fit for anything other than the camera itself. As such, I cannot carry all the accessories to this camera, such as the charger, HDMI cable, manual, or more than one extra battery - unless I feel like piling stuff on TOP of the camera while in the bag, effectively burying it and potentially scratching it. Even then, I actually have to stuff/jam the camera into the bag. Not good. I'll eventually be ordering a new bag. The plus side of the tiny bag, however, is that it has belt loops and you can wear it, as both camera and bag are extremely lightweight.

Sunlight: There is a weird color thing going on here, at least in bright sunlight. When standing outside in bright sunlight, one expects that warm, yellowish sunny glow to make it onto the recording because that's what we're used to seeing in every color camera we've ever used. With this camera, the warm glow of sunshine is dampened to a degree, almost to an overcast/"cold" look. That warm sunny day at the beach will come across as a slightly overcast sunny day at the beach. Even deep blue skies are not recorded as deep blue. I don't like this because it can put a damper on the mood of an otherwise "visually warm" event or atmosphere out it bright sunlight. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad (depending on your taste), but it is definitely noticeable. As much good there is to say about Panasonic's hyper-accurate real-life color in most circumstances, there are times when the typical slightly-exaggerated colors found in most other cameras are actually more dramatic and desirable.

Processing: This little camera has amazing processing power. The facial recognition alone is truly an amazing thing to behold. It's too bad that with such amazing optical processing capabilities that it has the white balance/sunlight color issues that it does. It can actually tell you whose face is on the screen but fail to recognize accurate daylight and white balance conditions. I must admit, I'm baffled.

Lense "rattle": When the camera is turned off, the lense rattles around inside if you gently shake the camera, it becomes "loose". This makes it sound like something inside is broken. When the camera is turned on, the image stabilization "floats' the lens, and the rattle goes away. This is normal behavior according to the manual. Whew!

I do, however, stress my love for this camera, it's value, and how I believe it is still better than the new HDC-SD80 replacement camera in several important aspects. Bang for buck at $350, this is the best cam on the market, and by quite a wide margin in my view. If I break this camera, I plan on replacing it with the same model.


Post-Disneyland Vacation Update:

I have returned from the 11-day trip to California, including 5 days at Disneyland and a full day of roller coasters at Six Flags Magic Mountain, the roller coaster capital of the world (literally). I literally beat this camera to death for nearly two weeks. Here's the scoop:

I went to Magic Mountain two days before hitting Disneyland. The camera was in my sweaty hand the whole sun-cooking-you-in-long-lines day, and went on some very torturous rides. I used stabilization in the aggressive mode, and the camera did a great job of taming what otherwise would have been insufferable shaking on those rides. It did not eliminate all shaking, which is understandable when you're under several G's of force, but on some of the more tame rides, the camera did so well that the rides almost look boring when you watch them - they are (almost) TOO smooth on screen! On the high- G-force rides with lots of loops, the forces exerted on the camera snapped ther screen shut on it several times, but it kept on recording just fine and I just re-opened it right back up (when I could fight the g-forces and lift my arms to do so).

Sound: A couple of the super-loud roller coasters ("Revolution" at Magic Mountain and "California Screamin'" at Disneys California park) got the camera's mic to clip rather severely. This camera's microphone is very sensitive, and mega-loud noise can get it clipping pretty bad. It only did this on those two rides, but the rest of the trip was recorded just great, even loud environments. But when this cam's mics start clipping, it's really bad and adds a tremendous distraction to the recording. Thankfully, it takes a LOT of loud noise to get it to do that, and out of all the video I shot on this trip, there's only about 5 seconds of clipping on the two loudest roller coasters.

My worst fear about that cheapo hand strap were confirmed, and the camera was saved by a "lucky break" (literally). While at Magic Mountain (two days before hitting Disneyland), I had just got off of the "Ninja" roller coaster when the handstrap broke right in my hand - I almost dropped the camera on concrete. Since I was taking these rides at night at this point, had the strap broke on the ride, the camera would have flown out of my hand (deadly projectile) and off into the trees below, most definitely to be destroyed from a very long and high-speed drop and never to be seen again. It was that close. The strap has a plastic pad that goes over the back of your hand, held onto the camera by a nylon cloth strap on each end that enter into the side of the camera. The nylon straps are connected to the pad by only about two stitches on each end, something I did not notice until it broke. TWO SMALL STITCHES. I came that close to this camera launching off of a roller-coaster. I had to buy some black thread and a needle, and I manually sewed the strap back together and made it stronger than ever. If you do not do this, hold the camera firmly in your hand because you never know when that strap is going to break on you. I just KNEW that strap was garbage, but at least it can be beefed up with a needle and some thread. This strap is clearly this camera's Achilles heel.

Ok, the big question of the day is the low-light and white balance issues in the dark attractions of Disneyland. The camera did about as good as I expected, which was GREAT. Most everything in all the dark rides show up on screen in fairly good quality, and probably would have been even better had I done everything manually (I left the cam in auto for most everything because I have 3 kids with me and lighting changes happen way too quickly to go manual with the camera). The camera struggled in most of the areas of Haunted Mansion because most of that ride is EXTREMELY dark, but was fantastic in Pirates of the Caribbean and most all other dark rides and restaurants. The white balance issue does have an annoying habit of ruining a lot of the beautiful "glow" of the night lights at places like Disneyland by getting confused and "guessing wrong" if you start zooming in on things in the dark.

The very last night we were there, we were taking Small World as the last attraction, and when we came out the fireworks were going off right overhead. Spectacular. On playback on a 52" Samsung through a PS3 with a nice Sony home theater system, it is simply incredible, including the sound. WOW.

Oddity: On rides that are supposed to be pitch black to the human eye, the cam was able to pick up the otherwise invisible infrared or UV lights in the ride tunnels (used by park employees to monitor the rides in the dark with hidden cameras). It didn't light up the rides to the camera, but it did make it look like someone was shining tiny purple flashlights at you in the dark parts of the rides. I noticed them on Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, and the Matterhorn rides, though I'm sure they were everywhere.

There is one annoying thing that kept happening to me that I had to get control of very quickly with this camera - though the "flip it open and record instantly" feature is great and ultra fast, BE SURE THE CAM IS RECORDING when you hit the Record button on the side - it is possible to open this camera, see the screen go live, and hit that button too fast, thinking that you are now recording. CHECK THE SCREEN/LIGHTS, MAKE SURE IT IS STILL NOT PAUSED! It is easy to blow this in fairly bright light! I missed a good number of shots, even whole events, because the camera was actually still paused and not recording when I opened it up and hit the Record button too fast. There is a tiny delay in how fast you can hit that button and start recording after you open it up, it's not as instant as one might think. Check the status when you are doing "quick draw" recording!

Upon return from the 11-day vacation, 6 of which were spent at theme parks being carried around in my sweaty hand all day from 8am until midnight, I found that I had racked up nearly 18 hours of video and over 150 GB of drive space (transferred the video to a laptop every evening). I beat this camera to death and it performed wonderfully, capturing anywhere between 2 and 4 hours of video per day (thanks to the spare battery I carried with me).

Aside from having to beef up the hand strap (critical!), this little camera proved itself to be combat-ready and Disneyland durable, and has earned my "Roller Coaster-Ready" stamp of approval.