Detailed Review of Panasonic HDC SD-1

[Paulo Teixeira]

The SD-1 has three 1/4” CCDs. The HD1a has only 1 CCD, 13MBPS compared to 9MBPS.

If the Sanyo had a CMOS chip and a much higher bit rate then the camcorder would have been close to the Panasonic’s, but as is, the HD1a doesn’t even come close to the quality of the SD-1 or DX-1.

[Peter Solmssen]

Speaking only for myself, I would say that specs are interesting and informative, but the purpose of an HD camera is to produce video to be seen on an HDTV. Getting the AVCHD clips to play is a problem all by itself, but so far on my Sony 60 inch model, what I have been able to find and sort of play looks soft.

The Sanyo HD1 is obviously in a different class from cameras costing twice as much or more (and that are twice or many times as big), but the quality of its video, when shot in good light and seen on a good HDTV, is quite amazing. So far, I haven't seen AVCHD clips that are a lot better, and the Sanyo 5MP stills are actually better.

A good example of what it can do (not mine) can be seen at:
http://hd1a.com/2006/reichstag.MP4

If the Panasonic SD-1 proves to be a lot better, I will be the first in line to buy one (as you can tell from my parking on the Japanese web sites to find the first review). So far, I am underwhelmed, as I have been by the Sony versions that I have actually seen, and hooked up to an HDTV. The Canon HDV looks a little better, but I am too old to go back to tape.

I am hoping that Sanyo, or others, will have something interesting to show at CES. I'd be happiest with a Sanyo that had an f 1.9 lens, like the competition.

[Paulo Teixeira]

The SD-1 does come with a 4 gig memory card and the price is for the Japanese market, so the US model may actually be a bit cheaper.

Panasonic was trying to get good video first, and then put a still camera mode as an added bonus. Sanyo on the other hand tried to have good video and pictures at the same time which is why they added to many pixels on the CCD. With that size CCD, the HD1a would have worked marvelously in low light situations if it had fewer, larger pixels. It shouldn’t be higher than 2.5 to 3.0 mega pixel. 2.0 would have been very good.

[Paulo Teixeira]

The 600 hundred dollar price for the Sanyo HD1a is a very good deal by the way, so I hope my posts don’t sound like the Sanyo HD1a isn’t worth having.

[Cliff Gilmour]

I was hoping that we could see a camera on the market this year for $1,000 which would do great HD 720p , 60 fps under all conditions including low light. But from what I am reading even the Panasonic doesn't seem to be a very good deal. I still am considering buying the Sanyo because it's so cheap and I have seen some really great footage. But the Sanyo is very bad under low light conditions and the autofocus is dreadful. And the footage I've seen was only good when it was filmed with a very steady hand :).

I still own a Panasoniv AV 100 camera ( http://dylan.tweney.com/images/dsnap.jpg ) which is a great SD camera. I like the size of the camera and I can't wait until Panasonic, Canon or Sanyo come up with this size HD camera that shoots on SD. (No tapes for me, too unconveniant and no HDD , too much recording noise)

[Etan Shirron]

Currently it looks like the SD-1 offers lower resolution compared with the Canon HV10, Sony HC3 and even Sony's AVCHD cameras. I assume the low-res 3CCD+Pixel shift scheme is to be blamed. At the moment I don't think it can compete with non of the above cameras, especially with its high price tag. But I assume that in two years, AVCHD + Solid-state memory will be the way to go for the consumer market (Assuming that 16 GB SDHC will cost around 80-90$).

[Daniel Moreno]

Check out this review. Might sound to good to be true!

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/pa...c_hdc-sd1.html

[Cliff Gilmour]

How can I play M2TS files on my MacBook?

[Cliff Gilmour]

Originally Posted by Daniel Moreno

Check out this review. Might sound to good to be true!

http://www.simplydv.co.uk/Reviews/pa...c_hdc-sd1.html

So it seems the best thing to buy on the market! Why was there so much doubt then? It might be twice as expensive as the Sanyo HD1a but this is the one we need to buy right now! I will check my creditcard :)

[Guy Bruner]

Cliff,
I would wait if I were you. Right now, there is nothing for the Mac for playback or editing. Heck, even the PCs are having trouble playing the M2TS and MTS files although Elecard has a converter suite that will convert AVCHD into high bitrate MPEG2. Also, a comprehensive review has not been done on this cam yet. All we have so far are subjective comments and a few files from which it is hard to judge quality. Low light videos I've seen look promising but, again, it is hard to know just how good since we don't know the light level they were shot in.

BTW, I was able to read the metadata from the Watch Impress videos using the Elecard Converter Studio. Those files are raw AVCHD which should answer a question raised earlier in this thread. All the more reason to wait for comprehensive testing as the video quality of those files is not as good as I was expecting from AVCHD.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Because of the low pixel count ¼” CCDs, It’s really not surprising that this camcorder has much better low light qualities than the SR1 but I would have liked the reviewer to compare outdoor footage to indoor footage because the SR1 has a higher bit rate than the SD1. If the footage of this camcorder is better than the SR1 in outdoor shots as well then you can definitely consider this a better buy than the SR1.

I’m a little confused about how are you able to focus with this because the reviewer says it has manual focusing but I hope its not as inconvenient as the HC3.

[Cliff Gilmour]

I saw someone selling this camera on ebay and they include this:

http://panasonic.jp/dvc/sd1/img/spec_huzoku.jpg

am I correct that the COMPONENT cable is not included?

Is a D-component cable common and can I buy it elsewhere?