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Not always the best looking digital camcorders, they were always full of manual features and nice to handle. Panasonic have fallen a little behind the other camcorder manufacturers in recent years and seem to be focusing their attention on the AVCHD format they developed with Sony. Sony have run with it and are roaring ahead, whilst Panasonic seem to be currently dragging their heels a little and with their recent hybrid camcorders (DVD and flash memory) not a huge success with their loyal customers, they need to get focused and back on track. They seem a little muddled in their thinking and recent camcorder 'improvements' have resulted in the loss of manual controls on some very popular models. Not altogether the best move in the World. Obviously, Panasonic are after the mass consumer market who don't want such things, but with Sony and Canon racing ahead, they're going to get left behind if they're not careful. Although ergonomically always nice to handle, recent Panasonic digital camcorders have had a number of basic design flaws, such as bulky size, huge batteries, not being able to change the camcorder battery if on a tripod! I thought manufacturers had stopped making those sort of elementary design mistakes years ago. What are Panasonic up to at the moment? You can't help but feel they've lost the plot a little bit.
Two new Panasonic camcorders using the AVCHD recording format to HDD and SDHC cards are the high definition HDC-SD9 (Pictured right - $799) and the HDC-HS9 ($1099), which is officially the world’s smallest full HD (1920 x 1080) camcorder (For now!). Panasonic have stated that size is important this year and the smaller the better. This is a good start for them. The SD9 uses SDHC cards to record to using AVCHD, which can be up to 16GB in size. This will hold up to 160 minutes of video on lowest quality setting. The Panasonic HDC-HS9 allows you to record using either SDHC cards or the built-in 60GB HDD (Holds up to 22.5 hours of video). You can ever transfer the video from the SDHC card to the hard drive directly. Both have advanced optical image stabilization (OIS) which is the best available system available to date, 24P recording, face detection and interestingly, an “Intelligent Shooting Guide” that tells the user how to improve their video. Can't wait to try that out! I wonder if Spielberg has that option on his cameras ;-) The SDR-S7 is tiny and very light weighing in at only 180g. Perfect for the handbag or pocket whilst traveling. The SDR-SW20 is a new one for Panasonic. It's an underwater camcorder for all your aquatic adventures. Both record to SD/SDHC cards in the MPEG-2 format and can capture still pictures (640 x 480). The Panasonic SDR-SW20 is waterproof to five feet and is also dust proof and shock proof. A regular 'action camcorder' for all you adventure types out there. Panasonic are a little behind the competition with only two standard definition hard disk drive camcorders this year. The SDR-H40 ($449.95) and the SDR-H60 ($549.95) have the fantastic Advanced Optical Image Stabilization facility from Panasonic and monster optical zooms up to 50X!! No real manual controls to speak of and connections are limited. You can burn directly to DVD, but who wants to do that before a bit of editing? An hour of little Johnny drooling in his cot is a test of endurance even for the most besotted Grandmother ;-)
The PV-GS90 ($279.95) and the VDR-D50 (Pictured right - $349.95) have no surprises and are standard fodder, with the exception of a bit more zoom capability and an improved OIS system. Panasonic, like all the other manufacturers will be phasing these formats out over the next 12-24 months, but they have stated they will be continuing to offer the PV-GS320 this year as well.
Read and enjoy the Panasonic reviews on this site.....
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Panasonic have also gone all 'niche market' on us and released two memory card based SD camcorders on us. The SDR-S7 ($299.95) and the SDR-SW20 (Pictured left - $399.95).
Not the most exciting new Panasonic camcorders on offer this year and Panasonic expectantly only give us one new standard definition miniDV camcorder and one DVD camcorder.