Panasonic HDC-SD9 SD/SDHC Card Camcorder (10x Opt, 700x Dig, 2.7" LCD)

it is a great value for under 500 for a tiny hd camcorder quality is quite good colors are bright and vibrant focus stabilization system compensates well for shakes and boundsFacial recognition software works great Overall great purchase.My only gripe is with 6ave.com took them 23 day to deliver this little beast

pros: size quality of images colors it is great and it is HD; using flash card

cons: low light image quality can be better but remember it is a consumer camcorder for < $500 smart stick can be annoying battery life can be better

Bought this for our first baby and I would highly recommend it for beginners. Easy to use and so lightweight that you want to just pick it up anytime to shoot. For parents who use it for babies, that's what's most important, shootability, if I can make up a word. The battery life is good and I got some great deals on SDHC cards so I think its worth skipping the HD models. Nighttime shooting wasn't great, but adequate. There are shooting for dummies instructions that pop up on the lcd so that you can adjust accordingly. If most of your shooting is for events and such, maybe this is not the right camcorder for you. But if you're a casual user who wants something user-friendly you can't go wrong with this.

pros: super lightweight, easy to use out of the box, great images, good battery life

cons: night shooting is not great, but not as bad as some of the reviews

Panasonic HDC SD9 SD/SDHC Card Camcorder is easy to use and comfortable to handle. I am please with the pictures for everyday use. I think an extra battery would come in handy. The HDMI output port cannot be used with standard HDMI cable. Don't forget about the SDHC cards.

pros: compact, light in weight, and designed to help make capturing easy

cons: playback is somewhat difficult with small buttons/controls, non-standard HDMI output port, required additional investing in SD/SDHC Cards.

I read a handful of reviews before purchasing this camera. Quickly ruled out DV/DVD/HDD cameras as flash memory is getting cheaper and much easier for file transfer. Been using DV camcorder and cannot stand the realtime transfer speed. Don't trust harddrive either since it's less resistable to shocks and sometimes causes serious problems on highlands (over 8000 feet in general). DVD media is even less reliable, and the capacity is limited. Flash memory just has so many advantages and flexibility and is definitely the future. So final decision is between SD9 and HF100 that is $150 more expensive. Chose SD9 when there was a deal. So far so good. I shoot mostly outside, so low light performance is not a real concern. Although I did try manually adjusting exposure, shutter speed, etc for affordable indoor picture quality. The picture quality in good lighting condition is great in general. However be prepared to get more noise on human faces even with sunlight. The 5.1 channel sound is fantastic too. The joystick is awkward to operate, but I have been used to the remote control, which works like a charm and can avoid camera shakes during shooting. The playback on a 50" 1080p HDTV is awesome. I had some trouble playing the MTS/M2TS files on my old computer with P4 530 and 1Gb DDR2. Both ATI and Nvidia high end video cards won't help. You have to get a powerful CPU to work around it. Dual core is a must and Quad core is highly recommend. The HD Writer that comes with it does the job, but I haven't tried more advanced software yet. Will try them later when I updated to a powerful PC. In summary, SD9 is a great real HD camcorder that you can carry around easily. If you have a HDTV, a PS3, or a 24" monitor, forget about Standard Definition and get a HD camera. SD9 is sweet for the price, though spending $150 more for a HF100 is also a good choice.

pros: True high definition with 1920x1080 resolution. Great performance with enough light. Using SD/SDHC cards. Super lightweight. Long battery life. Manual control.

cons: Not so good low light performance. Plastic feeling. Awkward hdmi placement. AVCHD format not supported by hardware accelaration.

I already had as SD5 (last year's model) which was very good and this year's model does not disappoint, either. One thing that I really like about this camera is that it can record 5.1 surround sound which is what I really wanted since the SD5 recorded in stereo mode only.

pros: Very good video quality and very portable

cons: replacement battery is too expensive

This camcorder is so small and light weight, so it's easy to fit into one of the compartment of your camera bag (if you carry one for DSLR). Although it's very light weight, the OIS (Optical Image Stablization) makes it steady when shooting by hand. I was surprised by the video quality when playing the video on plasma tv. The color from the 3CCD and the 5.1Ch audio is a plus too. The camcorder is so easy to use. Some people complained about the joy stick is hard to use, but I don't think it's a problem for me since you can use the remote for substitution. The biggest disappointment is the video quality under low light condition. It's grainy. My suggestion is at least have the main objects with enough light. The other disappointment for me is the software that came with the box is for Windows only. I am a Mac user, and Apple by far hasn't updated it's iMovie or Final Cut Express to support the video format from this camcorder. Other than that, this is really a great tiny camcorder for everyday use and affordable price.

pros: Very good video quality (1080p), real small size and weight, easy to use, Optical Image Stablization, 5.1Ch audio, face detection.

cons: When filming under low light, the video looks grainy. No external mic port, the included software is Windows only.

Very compact camera and I can fit it easier into the camera bag that has the compact digital camera and this one. The software that comes with the camcorder is very easy to use and that I can upload and convert the file easier into MPEG2 format. However, the software has limited features for video editing.Overall the camorder is very easy to use and the white balancing is good for indoors use. Recommend to buy a spare battery as it comes with an 1 hour battery only.

pros: Compact, no tape/hard disk/Mini-DVD, easy to use, Leica Lens

cons: No light for dim condition, sometimes due to its size, it is not easy to grab on it, LCD screen could be sharper

This is my 3rd Panasonic camcorder, and I love all of them, but this is the best! One of the reasons I prefer Panasonic to other brands is 3CCD. This one also has 3CCD and it's HD cam. Its picture quality and color is just awesome. I rarely use camcorder with very low light situation, so there is no complaint!

pros: fantastic picture quality, vivid color, so small and light, cool looking

cons: none yet

This is one heck of a compact camcorder. They don't call it world's smallest 3ccd camcorder for nothing. The camcorder is packed to gills with features. Extremely sharp and saturated video in outdoor and good lighting conditions indoors. Very low light video is bit grainy due to the small size of the sensors and aggressive noise reduction. This can be overcome to some extent using the manual mode and in post processing. 5.1 DD surround sound is out of this world. Very neat feature missing on lot of other AVCHD camcorders. Files play without any conversion in Windows media player and PS3. Recording to SDHC card is very convenient. No more tapes to mess with. You don't need one hour to transfer one hour footage as with HDV/DV tape format. Not to mention no more annoying tape noise in the background. This camera may not be every one due to lack of mic port, hot shoe and not so good very low light video quality. Bottom line is try it first hand and see if you like it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

pros: Price.Great outdoor and good light video quality.Outstanding OIS - Optical Image Stabilizer.Great 5.1 channel audio.Face detection.Very compact size and light weight.

cons: Not so good low light video quality.HDMI port location.Joy stick location.No external mic or head set port.No accessory shoe.

It is easy to have it in hand for a long time.The camcorder operation mode will automatic show you opinions when the status of camcorder is changed. Pre-rec is a useful function which may help you to catch something you missed. It will be better to have more than one SD card slot. It will be better to have a storage of several GBs preinstalled. It will be better that the video could be saved as some normal format that can directly play on PC.

pros: Very light, Response quickly. Picture is clear. The menu is easy to use and handle.

cons: The direction button is not easy to used. When you trnasfer data from camcorder to PC, you need to take off the battery and use adapter.