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This is the first camcorder I've owned, so my rating is based on my personal satisfaction and not comparison to other cameras.Good:- 3ccd: The color depth and saturation are very good.- Optical image stabilization works really well. It's not something the average viewer would notice though.- Grainy indoors. - 5.1 surround sound: It's actually very good when you're watching your videos with a good pair of headphones--it really adds dimension to the sound. The sound quality is also good.Bad:- Low resolution sensors: The 1080p resolution is pushing the 1/6" sensors beyond their capacity.- Compression: if you have an eye for picture quality you can see the compression in the videos, even at highest quality. I don't know how it compares to other cameras, but my wife and I both noticed how grainy the picture is in anything but full sunlight.Conclusion: I'm satisfied with the camera for the price I paid. If you can't stand compression artifacts and graininess indoors, get a more expensive camera.
I'm quite happy with the camcorder, ease of use is what I expected for the form factor. It gets intriguingly warm when shooting for extended periods. Menu navigation is somewhat tedious, but I don't find it to be all the needed once you're shooting. SD memory medium is great - I love the fact that the camera is silent, small, and lightweight. Only complaints are the avchd file types and lack of good free editing tools. Overall great value and I'm pleased.
The stills look great. Yes, I agree in low light it really doesn't have the greatest picture however. I purchased this HD Camcorder and I have been using it for around three months. The video is most of the time crystle clear. What I paid for this is around the same as I paid for my old JVC and this thing blows it away. 16/9 widescreen. I've had a couple of time when the color was a bit over saturated but I believe it was most likely the way I set it up and not the cameras fault. I believe this is an awesome consumer HD camcorder for the money I really don't think you'll find anything better.
The Panasonic shoots spectacular video outdoors. The location of the ports makes absolutely no sense and hooking it up to a PC is a clumsy process. It is by no means a perfect camcorder, but if you want a camera that produces better video, expect to pay at least $250 more. I've had this camcorder for a few weeks now. turn on smart contrast, "panning too fast", etc).There are no other high definition camcorders that record to SD cards or hard drives within the Panasonic's price range, except for those low end "youtube ready" cameras. Yes, the joystick menu button is in an ackward place, but you will get used to it.
So if you need a camera that will shoot beautiful high definition video indoors, you may want to buy a (condiserably) more expensive camcorder, or opt for a comparably priced HDV (digital tape) camera.The other issues that reviewers have mentioned are not insurmountable problems.
It is compact, easy to handle, and easy to use for beginners.
I haven't plugged my camcorder into my PC once.Also keep in mind that the camera shoots in AVCHD format.
If you are looking for a reasonably priced entry level high-definition camcorder that doesn't use tape, then the Panasonic HDC-SD9 is a great buy.
But this need not be an issue - you can simply take your SD card out of the camera and pop it directly into your PC's SD card reader.
My one complaint (and many reviewers have already pointed this out), is that it performs poorly in low light conditions.
Video shot indoors tends to be noisy and lackluster.
Many of the leading video editing software now supports this format (I personally use Pinnacle 12), but older applications may not support it, since it is a relatively new format.The Panasonic doesn't shoot particularly great still photos, but neither do most reasonably priced camcorders.Some strong points worth mention:-Great image stabilization-Decent battery life-A pre-record mode that continuously shoots (and then records over) several second of video, so you won't have to miss those spontaneous and unexpected moments.-on screen tips that give you shooting pointers on the fly (i.e.
So if you want high definition and you hate using tape, this camera gives you great bang for the buck.
SD9 has gross pixel count 560000.00 pixels x 3. TERRIBLE dynamic range. This camera is not really HD. The SD9 is very difficult to hold still, so all of your videos will be very jerky. You need to The footage looks good on the small lcd screen, but when viewed on a computer, it lacks saturation and resolution. Which is about 1.5 megapixels. Noise is clearly visible in dark and light portions, in full sunlight and relative darkness.
There is no way to choose 24p without it also setting 'Cinema Color' which is only made to look good on Panasonic tvs. It doesn't even have enough pixels for 1920x1080 resolution, so how can they claim that it's HD. If you have a scene with shadows and highlights, neither of them will look good.There is way too much noise even for a sensor so small, 1/6".If you like to take photos, you will not like this camcorder.The photos are so incredibly blocky that you will wish you had taken them with a cellphone.24p mode is uselesss because it forces Cinema Colors, which is good on other camcorders, but terrible on this one. 1920x1080 is over 2MP. It also compresses the video a lot when there is too much motion, so you will notice the recorded resolution is worse than SD video (most of the time).Terrible low-light performance. If you choose 24p, it will turn on cinema color and you can't turn it off without turning off 24p.The lens also has very narrow angle. There are no options for saturation on the camcorder itself.
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