Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

by Panasonic

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.6 x 2.8 inches ; 12 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0011FWU5Q
• Item model number: SDR-H40
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,093 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 10, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

Perfect for capturing your most important memories, the SDR-H40 boasts Panasonic's Advanced MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilization), which detects and corrects hand-shake approximately 4,000 times per second, which is about eight times more effective than Panasonic’s previous systems. The SDR-H40 also offers 42x optical zoom so you can always get a great shot, even from a distance.

Record to either SD (or SDHC) memory cards or to the built-in 40 GB HDD, which features enough storage space for up to 36 hours of footage. The SDR-H40 also feature an Anti-Shock Shield that helps protect the built-in hard disk from external impact, making it suitable for rugged conditions.

Panasonic SDR-H40 Highlights

Panasonic's Advanced O.I.S. is a new image stabilizing function that achieves around eight times higher precision than our previous system. The system uses gyro-sensors to detect hand-shake, then shifts a lens and adjusts its optical axis to compensate. And while our previous system checked and compensated for hand-shake around 500 times per second, the new Advanced O.I.S. works around 4,000 times per second. Advanced O.I.S. enables finer, more effective hand-shake compensation. Also, because the system is optical, no image quality is lost. With Advanced O.I.S., you'll capture images that are clear, sharp and beautiful on a big TV screen.

This 42x zoom can fill the screen with even a distant subject. This lens is not only the powerful zoom offered in a home-use digital camcorder, it also features low distortion. And because it's optical, there is no quality loss - you get the images in all their natural beauty.

The Pure Color Engine converts the CCD output signal from a complementary color signal into an RGB signal at an early stage and extracts the low-frequency luminance component from the RGB signal. This innovative engine also achieves truly superb color reproduction for high-zoomed pictures.

This model offers the High-Picture-Quality Wide Mode, which produces images that make for beautiful, dramatic viewing on a wide-screen TV. The image is processed on 16:9 area of the CCD. Because the image decoded has the same proportions as your wide-screen TV, there is virtually no picture quality degradation. You get beautiful images and all the excitement and dynamism on either a wide 16:9 screen TV or a conventional 4:3 TV. This model also features a wide 2.7-inch LCD, making it easier to frame shots when you're shooting in 16:9 mode. You can enjoy shooting wide, and viewing wide.

Panasonic's MPEG2 engine is a wide-range, high-precision search engine that produces smooth, beautiful motion pictures. Because it precisely records the differences in each frame, it can render fast, complex motions - like those of athletes in the thick of the action - with exceptional precision.The MPEG2 engine also uses Variable Bit Rate technology that Panasonic developed for the high-end DIGA DVD recorder. Giving LP recordings nearly twice the resolution captured with previous Panasonic camcorders, this lets the camcorder record clear, smoothly flowing pictures.

Holding as much data as 28 DVD discs, the internal hard drive lets you record continuously for up to 36 hours without changing a disc, memory card or other recording media.

Anti-Shock Shield: Protects recorded video data from damage due to jolts and impact:

About the Anti-shock shield

One-touch copying onto a DVD Connect the camera to a USB port on your PC, and you can copy your video data onto a 12-cm DVD disc by pressing a single button. You don't have to do anything to the PC. Likewise, connect the camera to a DVD burner and pressing one button is all it takes to copy data to a DVD disc.

Power LCD Plus You can set the LCD to any of five brightness levels for optimal viewing in a variety of lighting conditions. When shooting outdoors on a sunny day, make the LCD brighter. When shooting indoors, lower it. This not only makes the LCD easier to see, it's also easier on your eyes.

This unit records in VBR. VBR is an abbreviation for Variable Bit Rate. VBR recording automatically varies the bit rate (amount of data in a fixed time) depending on the subject being recorded. This means if a subject with sharp movements is recorded, the recording time is reduced.

One touch navigation joystick The joystick makes the camera much easier to use, letting you control all basic operations with one hand. As you shoot, just watch the image in the monitor and follow the instruction guide. You can handle a number of operations quickly and easily, without even taking your eye off the subject.

Help mode Not sure what a certain icon means? Just switch on the Help mode and select the icon. It's explained for you on the LCD monitor. This makes it easier to learn the icons, and you spend less time reading the operating manual.

Quick search and access with Disk Navigator Unlike videotape, you don't need to rewind or fast-forward to search for specific scenes. The camcorder LCD screen displays a list of the recorded scenes for quick and easy searching.

Edit with Disk Navigator You can do some polished editing using just the camera itself. For example, you can delete scenes right on the spot or change the scene sequence to create your own scenarios.

• Playlist Edit: It's easy to change the sequence of the scenes you've recorded, and then play them back.
• Dividing and Deleting: This function makes it easy to delete the scenes you don't want and to save the ones you do. You can also split up motion pictures and delete only parts of them.

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

This Quick Start mode helps shoot videos on the spur of the moment. This mode lets you shoot those not-to-be-missed scenes by turning on the power just 2.1 sec. from the time the LCD is opened.

Color Night View gives you smoothly flowing pictures even in dark places, where it's normally difficult to capture good shots.

Connect the H40 directly to a DVD burner via a USB cable. You can then copy recordings from the SDHC/SD Memory Card or hard disk to a DVD disc by simply pressing a button. The disc you make can be played on DVD players, so playback is easy too. USB 2.0 compatibility lets you upload a motion picture data to a PC at high speed over a single USB cable.

VideoCam Suite editing software is just the tool you need to make polished, smartly finished productions. It lets you load images into your PC for putting scenes in a different order and delete the ones you don't want with simple operation. When you're finished with your video production, you can use VideoCam Suite to reserve the edited version onto a DVD disc.

Product Description

2000x digital zoom16:9 and 4:3 aspect ratio1/6" CCD image sensors with a 800K total MP2.7" wide LCD displayRecords images onto SDHC /SD memory cards and hard drive diskStereo zoom mic with wind noise reduction Built-in SD /SDHC memory card slot1-touch navigation2 3/4'' W x 2 5/8'' H x 4 1/2'' DIncludes Li-Ion rechargeable battery AC/DC cables AC adapter AV/USB cable and software

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

176 of 179 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great little HDD camcorder with one exception., April 11, 2008

By 

Sloper Dude (L'Étoile du Nord) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

The first video I took with my SDR-H40 camcorder was of a small conference inside a moderately illuminated, windowless hangar. Since I was new to the camcorder, it was set to auto-white balance. The video came out fine, and better than I expected. When it was accidentally unplugged I was glad to see that it automatically fixed the video file in just a few seconds. Outdoor video is excellent, as is it's optical stabilization. Panasonic uses a larger image chip than many manufacturers do in this price range.

My only disappointment was that it doesn't have a very wide angle lens. Personally, I'd be willing to trade the long 42x telephoto for a decent wide angle shot. Unfortunately, this problem is widespread among most camcorder manufacturers.

What I like is the simplicity of operation, it's excellent video, it's large hard drive capacity which gives many hours of use, it's ability to also record on SD & high capacity SD cards, it's small size (you could fit three of them inside my old 8mm camcorder,) optical stabilization, and value. The software gets the job done, though it isn't feature-rich. That's fine with me, and preferable to software with a steep learning curve and lots of features that I'll probably never use.

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What a great "little" camera!, March 25, 2008

By 

E. McIntosh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

I searched long and hard for reviews on the new SDR-H40 camcorder from Panasonic with very few results. I decided to go ahead and buy it from Amazon and just try it out. Amazon was the least expensive price by the way. This camera is exactly what I was looking for and fits my needs to film my two little boys perfectly. I was buying it to replace a 10 year old panasonic vhs-c camcorder that was well worn out. Right out of the box I could not believe how small this camera was. It literally fits in the palm of my hand. The 40 gig hard drive holds over 9 hours of video on the highest quality setting. More than enough for me I think. The sound was very crisp and clear. The video was average I thought but for the price I paid I have no complaints. I was actually between buying this camera and the Sony DCR-SR45. I opted for this Panasonic because of the price and my satisfaction in the old Panasonic vhs-c camera we owned previously. If you are looking for an entry level, low priced hard drive based camcorder, I strongly recommend the Panasonic SDR-H40. The only complaint I have so far is the included software which is no big deal.

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So far so good, April 15, 2008

By 

Dan "Dan" (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom (Electronics)

Purchased the Panasonic SDR-H40 about a month ago and have been pretty pleased with it so far. Filming indoors is pretty grainy as I would suspect most cameras in this price range will be. Turning all lights on and up when filming indoors helps though. Sound is OK, but good for basic use.

I'm running it on a MSFT XP system and the software that comes with it - to pull the video files off the camera in a viewable format is clunky at best. I'd recommend upgrading to a more sophisticated or 3rd party video editing software vs. using the standard tool that comes with it. I'm running Adobe Premiere Elements now and it is a much better user experience -- from transferring files to editing the video.

On the positive side, the Zoom with optical image stabilizer is fantastic. The menu, interface, design, features/functionality are great -- easy to use yet flexible enough to meet most average users filming needs.

If you are looking for a basic HDD camera, I'd give this one serious consideration.