Panasonic HDC-SD900

Last year proved to be a bumper vintage for Panasonic's camcorders.  The TM700, for instance, put in the best performance we've ever seen when picking out the detail in our test card, beating not only other AVCHD camcorders but also SLR cameras.  It seems that the 2011 crop is likely to be just as impressive if the SD900 is anything to go by.

Handling

Let's start by looking at what it's like to use.  As the name suggests, the SD900 records onto an SD card, but you'll have to supply one yourself.  That means you'll need to choose the right card for the job, and we suggest you take an SDHC card with at least 8 GB, which will give enough room for an hour of AVCHD video.  A Class 6 card is a minimum to support the amount of data produced in HD, and if you give it a Class 4 card, the SD900 won't even start filming.

It's pretty easy to use, but the quality of the finish leaves a lot to be desired.  The power switch, zoom controls and viewfinder all feel a little fragile.  Disappointingly, the touchscreen display that displays the main menu has a resolution that's half as good as most of its competitors at just 460 000 pixels.

One thing that is definitely worth drawing your attention to is the fact that the SD900 could well be the last mass-market camcorder to have a focus ring and a viewfinder.  With its rivals, you have to use a scroll wheel and follow the action on the LCD screen.  Instead, Panasonic has decided to get rid of another very useful feature, the separate battery and charger.  You now have to charge the battery inside the camcorder itself, like with most other camcorders, which unfortunately makes it impossible to film using one battery while you're recharging another.

The SD900 only films on Class 6 SD cards	Built-in 5.1 channel mic

Video Quality

This is one area where the SD900 puts in an exceptional performance, producing 1080i video that's much better than what any of its rivals can manage.  Looking at the results from our test lab, it did a better job of capturing our test card than the Sony CX700, the Canon HF S21 or even the GH2 SLR camera.  It's clear that Panasonic has maintained the high standards it set last year.  That must be even more frustrating for its rivals because the manufacturer has managed to do this using an AVCHD bitrate of 17 Mbps, whereas the others all require 24 Mbps.  That's not all, either: the SD900 also offers 1080/50p as a recording option, where the quality is even better.  It's just a shame that the LCD screen can't match this quality, because anybody trying one out is unlikely to realise how good it really is.

35 mm wide-angle exterior shot	12x zoom interior

For colour reproduction the SD900 uses a triMOS system with three separate sensors to measure levels of red, green and blue to get the amount of each just right.  Colours are lively and even, without being too warm or too cold.  The white balance responds quickly to changes of scene when you move outside.  The SD900's only weakness is its sensitivity in low light levels.  Sony has set such a high standard with its Exmor sensors that it's difficult for anybody to beat them.  Even though the SD900 has a f/1.5 LEICA lens, at 3 lux, the frame is dark and suffers from a little noise.  Overall, the results are still very good and you can easily shoot a video indoors.

The lens has a wide-angle of 35 mm and a zoom of 12x.  That's nothing earth-shattering because Sony's camcorders now open as wide as 29 mm, but it's good enough to capture a wide scene.  The optical image stabilisation, though, left us breathless, with almost perfectly still results even when zoomed in.  It's clear that all the manufacturers are making real progress in this area.

Panasonic has also worked on the audio quality, with a built-in 5.1 microphone at the front which can pick up sound from 360°.  There's also a line in to connect an external mic.