The Panasonic HDC-SD1 is the first camcorder ever to offer recording in AVCHD format (high definition) on a SD/SDHC flash memory card. This format has the advantage of being independent from its support (hard drive, DVD, memory card), but suffers from being too recent to be included in all video editing programs. Small and attractive, the SD1 is a concentration of Panasonic technologies : triCCD, optical stabilization, its 5.1...

Ergonomics

The reduced size of its storage support (SD/SDHC card) allowed Panasonic to make a camcorder a little out of the ordinary. With its long unique shape, the HDC-SD1 is relatively thin and it’s actually attractive. The entire team here at the office liked it despite the rather "light" construction for a camcorder of this price. The design does not interfere with ergonomics, and we enjoyed the joystick on the back, which allows rapid navigation and adjustment. While there are some manual controls (focus, exposure time, white balance), they aren’t numerous, and the HDC-SD1 is more for use in full automatic mode. The optical 12x zoom may appear a bit light, but you will get full use out of it with the high performance optical stabilizer. In addition, the 12x zoom offers a remarkably stable image. They did not forget the sound, and the HDC-SD1 has a 5.1 surround input. The cherry on top is another separate audio entry, but unfortunately nothing for headphones. The LCD screen is large and particularly nice to use. This is fortunate, because otherwise there is no visor for filming in full sun. The camcorder comes with a Class 2 SDHC 4 GB card, and we think that a faster one (class 4 or 6) will be necessary for high definition video. The HVCHD format encodes videos in three quality settings; 13, 9 and 6 Mbps or a maximum transfer of 1.65 MB/s. These are bitrates far from the 25 Mbps of HDV format.  AVCHD is still a very recent development and video editing software that is able to handle these files is still rare. Thank goodness for Panasonic’s HD Writer, but it’s too limited.

Image quality

Panasonic’s triCCD still does a good job and the HDC-SD1’s images are precise with a nice contrast. However, in the category of HD camcorders, it’s not the best and, for example, the Sony HDR-UX3 displays more details. The Sony also has more contrast, which reinforces sharpness in images. Side by side, HDC-SD1 videos seem softer, but they don’t lack punch thanks to a saturated colorimetry. In our test lab (lamp simulating daylight), white balance actually tilted towards red. Outside, colors are truer, but are still a bit warm. Even more bothersome was a very marked afterglow on moving subjects. Finally, an average sensitivity allowed filming in low light rendering images with very little noise. The photo mode was a little disappointing with a format in 1920 x 1080. This seems a bit light, but you can snap shots while recording video.