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May 1, 2008

Panasonic HDC-SD9 review

Acclaimed for its three-CCD sensor set-up, Panasonic's HDC-SD9 is half the size of competing camcorders – due in part to its favouring of SD storage.

Indeed, Panasonic recently launched a 32GB SDHC card. The Panasonic HDC-SD9 is also fast to respond. Slot the lozenge-shaped battery pack into the opening at its rear, flip open the LCD screen, slide your fingers under the side strap and you're ready to shoot in an instant.

To avoid image judder at the extremities of the Panasonic HDC-SD9's 10x optical zoom range, the 25 frames per second (fps) progressive recording Panasonic handily boasts built-in optical image stabilisation that counterbalances hand wobble.

An Intelligent Shooting Guide also warns new users when light is too low or if they're panning through a shot too quickly. For home-cinema buffs, the Panasonic HDC-SD9 also has a 5.1 Surround Sound via a directional microphone that zooms in on your subject and cuts out background noise, plus an HDMI output.

When taking stills on the Panasonic HDC-SD9, you'll notice its helpful built-in face detection. Its high-quality Leica lens is also noteworthy.

The Panasonic HDC-SD9's exclusive Digital Cinema colour function claims to ape Hollywood's lush cinematic hues. When played back on xv colour-compatible TVs (Panasonic's own Viera range) this provides access
to a wider colour range than conventionally recorded images. Flip out the LCD and you're ready to shoot immediately (0.6 seconds).

The Panasonic HDC-SD9's performance in low light isn't as good as other cameras in this range, while overall picture quality's not as sharp. Auto white balance performance is also variable, and its audio is not quite as 'full' sounding as we'd like.

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Independent customer reviews from

Panasonic HDC-SD9 scored:
9.0 out of 10 100% real reviews

The 2 most helpful reviews based on 61 reviews:

06 Apr 2008 Leigh, Bristol

10

Good Points

This camcorder is extremely small, compact and easy to use. The Optical Image Stabilisation is very impressive, making the resulting movie much more watchable than some of the shaky home movies I've seen from other camcorders. The Face Detection system is so clever. As you record, up to 5 faces are shown with yellow boxes around them, showing you what the camcorder is trying to correct the focus and exposure for. The menu system is fairly self-explanatory and you only need to refer to the manual if you want to use the advanced functions of the camcorder. Battery life is very impressive, I guess as there aren't any moving parts (except for the zoom lens), less power is required than for HDD and tape camcorders.

Bad Points

The joystick used to navigate the menu is a little bit on the fiddly side and does take some getting used to.

27 Feb 2008 Stuart, Blairgowrie

10

Good Points

Excellent picture and sound quality - amazing value at the price. AVCHD Editing still developing. Bundled software produces excellent quality but very limited editing options. No luck with Pinnacle or Sony Vegas, however, Cyberlink Power Director 7 Ultra looks promising - inputs highest definition video quickly from SDHC card and can output full resolution ADVHC to DVD or BlueRay Disks. Haven't fully tested how extensive editing might affect raw ADVHC quality, but looks very promising and works well on my AMD Athlon X2 4200+ system

Bad Points

LCD difficult to see when filming on sunny skiing trip.

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Total reviews: 4,313

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Panasonic HDC-SD9

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