Panasonic named it a pro camcorder in their press release but to them, it’s really a last minute camcorder. With all the picture adjustments that this camcorder has, it’s definitely a pro camcorder compared to their own HDC-SD1, the Canon HV20 and the Sony HC7. Compared to the Sony A1u, that’s a different story and if they have included a focusing ring it would have been just as, or more professional than the Sony HC1.

Besides with that price, you get a 4 gig memory card, hard drive storage unit and their professional warranty that includes 1 year parts and labor compared to their consumer warranty of just 3 months labor and 1 year parts that’s offered to the HDC-SD1.

Anyway, if you truly want a camcorder that is more than capable of producing a low budget independent film than you might as well consider the 60 gig JVC GZ-HD7. It has similar features that are in the Panasonic AG-HSC1U but with the added bonus of a focusing ring around the lens. I’m almost certain that it’s going to have a 24p feature but it really doesn’t matter if it doesn’t because unless you’re converting to film, a focusing ring is infinite times more important than 24p.

Now if you don’t like the JVC GZ-HD7, then you could wait about a month to see what will be unveiling at the NAB.


http://catalog2.panasonic.com/webapp...Model=AG-HSC1U

"Fast, accurate Auto Focus with no hunting! (Manual Focus as well)"

It’s too bad that I didn’t try testing the manual focusing capability of this camcorder. For Panasonic’s next AVCHD camcorder, a focusing ring around the lens better be included or I’ll go berserk.
At least Panasonic does pay attention to its costumers by saying that the auto focusing doesn’t hunt.

I must say that I was very impressed with the speed of focussing on the Panasonic SD1. It is noticably faster even than Canon's Instant AF on the HV10. The focussing even worked while zooming and at very high zoom-factors.