Good morning, I am pretty sure I have decided to get this unit, I like the feel and it looks to have what I need. I would still like to get some ideas from other people, what have you heard, what have you seen etc.

Thanks
Sam

Hi Sam,
I too am pretty sure I'm buying this camcorder. I need to buy before June and am hoping I can find a few more professional reviews before I buy. Snowcat and I have discussed this camcorder in the SDR-H20/200 forum welcome thread. I think the H18 and H20 are the same but for different world markets - not sure.

Anyway, here are the reviews I've found so far:
-http://forums.pcphotoreview.com/sho...2296#post202296
-magazinevideo.com translated from french to english

I want a hard drive camcorder. The JVC electronic stabilization was horrible on the MG155 and I don't like the Sony touch screens. That leaves me with the Panasonic SDR-H18 in my $500 price range. I checked it out at Best Buy and I think it's a great camcorder for the price.

Well I just got back from Best Buy a little back with my new (wife approved) SDR-H18. So far I have time to unpack it adn put the batter on to charge, I am going to get some play time later but the main selling point for me was the OIS, I tried the SOny (didn't stabalize very well and we both hated the touch screen) I tried the JVC and it just didn't feel right. I will post more later once I get some time to try it out.

BTW - The main reason the wife liked it was due to the weight, she loves the size and feel.

So I have had a little time to play now and I just have to say I love this unit., THe controls are very easy to reach and to work and the weight makes it very easy to hold for long periods. I tried a quick pass at moving video to the computer and it was very easy, I had many options to either watch the video right away or burn to disk etc. I plan on getting more time to play this weekend but so far, again, I love it and I am sure now I made the right choice.

Sam

Cool, thanks for the update!

Hi Sam. Thanks for the info. You're about the best source we have until we get a review! Could you share some more of your experiences, particularly have you done any low light tests yet? How's the audio? Does it record to mpeg-2? Are you using the included software or another program? And how about battery life?

Any thing more you can share with us would be appreciated.

So I have not really had much new time to play, this weekend I am going to spend some real quality time with the unit and I will put together my notes and get something up. Please ask any more questions and give me some specific items to test etc.

I did connect it to the PC and played a little with the built in software and found it to be easy to work with and very fast for transfer. More as I play.

Sam

Thanks for the reply Sam.

I've been going back and forth between the SDR-H18 and the H200. I'm most concerned with low light recording and the single CCD vs. the 3 CCDs in the H200. I have a 2 and a half year old and want a HDD camera for those spontaneous moments so I don't have to fuss with tapes. But many of those spontaneous moments come inside and not outside with blaring sunshine.

As for the software, I found another poster (different site - Circuit City maybe?) who said he wasn't able to use an editor other than the one that came with the camera. I thought that odd if it records to mpeg-2. It could be that only the camcorder software can be used to upload the clips, and that would be fine, but I can't imagine I would use it to edit and burn considering the other choices out there. It may be that he just didn't have the know-how to do it any other way.

Pound for pound, I am leaning to a Pana vs a Sony. The H18, with 32x optical, optical stab, and a non-touch screen just can't be touched by the Sony's in that price range. The H200 is a little out of my range presently.
I look forward to your post.

So I got some time to play a little and I discovered a couple of things, I am not a video guru but I found the average indoor light (some afternoon light coming through) to be enough for decent recording, I am going to try more later when it is just room light. Also once connected to the PC the camera showed up as a drive and I was able to copy the files right off the camera (not using the supplied software), and they were in a .MOD format, I quick change of the extenstion to .MPEG and I was able to open them in my video editing software (again not the supplied software) so it seems they are a standard format and can be used in anything. I was using ArcSoft Showbiz Version 2, I also pulled it up in Video Edit Magic 4.1 but it wanted to convert it to AVI and when I skipped that step I only had audio not video (it also wanted me to download a new MPEG codex which I also skipped).

More as I get there, if anyone wants a copy of the file I took I can mail it, the whole file is pretty small.

Sam

The H200 will perform much better in low light conditions, especially with the strength of colour.

Here is an independent review of the H18, which is sold as the H20 in some other countries (including my own).

H18 and H20 - Same camera, different number.


http://www.tech.co.uk/gadgets/digit...nasonic-sdr-h20

Thanks Snow and Sam.

I bought a JVC GZ-MG155 from Costco but later bought a Panasonic SDR-H18 for comparison, intending to return the one I like less. I really don't want to abuse Costco's return policy (and never before I returned any electronics), but I need the hands-on experience before choosing one over the other for my upcoming trip. I've been reading this site for some time so I think I should register to contribute something back.

I have pictures and videos taken, but I currently don't have time to put together a complete blog or review, so you may have to take my words for it.

JVC actually rests in my hand better (My hand measures 7-3/4 inch from my palm-wrist intersection to the tip of middle finger). Panasonic may be a little too big for me to fit in my palm, but that depends on how you put your three middle fingers on top of the camcorder. Also the recoding button on JVC is easier to reach with my thumb, but no significant difference. What I really like about Panasonic is that the joystick can be reached by the right thumb, which is similar to many camara control knobs. The JVC's joystick is located on the the LCD screen, so you need to use your left hand to control it. The joystick control functions are different between these two, though. For Panasonic, you can switch among record/play video/image real quick, all with your right thumb. I like that.

When starting up (I mean switching the power button from OFF to ON), Panasonic is way faster. Maybe one or two seconds and you are ready to shoot. For JVC, the booting process is probably about 5 seconds or more. It's likely you will not use the power button much, instead by pressing record and pause once you started. But the quick start by Panasonic may come in handy in some situations. For shutting down, it's the contrary. Panasonic takes a while to shutdown but JVC is fast. Guess you don't care much about shutdown speed.

About the quality... I used them at the second highest quality setting. Note that JVC has 4 quality settings, and Panasonic only has 3. The quality setting I used for Panasonic will fill the 30GB disk in 13 hrs and the JVC will fill it in 10 hrs. I know it's not a fair comparison but they are the setting that I will most likely use. As you can expect, JVC is actually better at that quality setting. Panasonic's video is more smooth and some details are sacrificed, and JVC seems to be more distinct in details but is noisy. I think quality settings is not the sole deciding factor in the difference. It seems JVC does less noise reduction to preserve more details. There may be some settings to change the noise level in both camcorders, but I did not have the patience to read the manuals through (my fault).

There is significant color difference. The JVC seems to have higher red gain, so outdoor shots look more colorful (I actually like that). Panasonic, in comparison, looks more pale, or ordinary. But at low light situation, Panasonic shows more color (reddish, I mean. Sorry because most of my furnitures are in red tone), and JVC looks pale. I heard that Panasonic is better at low light, I can attest that it's true. There's a mode (MegaPix? I forgot) that can dramatically blow up the gain at low light, but you can only use it to take static or barely moving objects, because it drops frames. So not really useful, at least to me.

The image stabilization is good for Panasonic, and JVC's is almost non-existent, as many reviews said. You can feel the difference at the telephoto end. But if you use your camcorder at 1x, there's no difference -- you don't stablize anything much.

I think Panasonic has brighter LCD screens. I don't know if it helps in glares. I don't take any pictures with them, but in spec JVC has a much better resolution than Panasonic. Oh, talking about resolution. I tried to find Panasonic's video resolution before I bought it, but I couldn't find it even in the downloadable manual. So listing it here may help somebody. It's 704*480 (widescreen). The resolution for JVC is 720*480

Sorry for the hastily written report but hopefully you can get a general comparison between the two. As a conclusion, I like JVC's size and feel but I like Panasonic's control. I like JVC's color and picture quality ourdoors or at mid-light, but Panasonic wins in low light. Image stabilization may be a big no-no for JVC but for me I don't know how much I will use telephoto. I haven't made up my mind but I think I'll keep the Panasonic and return the JVC.

(If anybody knows a free site to put several 20MB videos on, I might be able to upload some videos for you to judge yourself. But I'll be on a business trip in the next two weeks and I don't know when I can upload these.)

Well, I finally broke down and bought the H18. Overall, I would have to agree with most of what Sam and Mr Clips have described.

Sam - are you having a problem opening the video files in WMP? I am suspecting a codec issue but haven't had much time to look into it yet. It may be a conflict with the InterWin audio decoder that is also installed on my system. If any one else can direct me in this regard, I would appreciate it. The mpg's play fine in both the bundled software and in InterWin (that was bundled in my Media Center 2004). I haven't used the editing function of the bundled software yet.

The quality of video is sufficient for me. I use the highest quality setting. Low light is decent enough. The MagicBright, or whatever it's called, is useless. Stills are worthwhile to view on the camera and they would be acceptable as digitals for someone who is not interested in printing them out.

I agree with Mr Clips that the camera is a little awkward in my hand. I have to readjust it occasionaly. I have never found the record button or the joystick to be out of reach but I do have to adjust periodically to use the zoom. Maybe it's just me though. The zoom works well and is smooth, but only after you get used to it a little.

It doesn't turn the video world upside-down but you shouldn't expect it to. Overall, for the price and the convenience of HDD, I am happy.

Seajam, mclips and Sam, thanks for taking the time to post your reviews - they're much appreciated. I'm definitely leaning toward the Panasonic H18 when it's my time to buy.

Reading through the reviews above has been most helpful to me. A few questions for those who have bought the H18/H20:

1) Have you noticed any fringing, or jagged lines around subjects ?

2) How do you rate the difference in image quality between the highest setting (XP ??) and the second highest (SP ??)

3) Overall, how does the picture compare to what you've experienced with Mini DV (digital tape) camcorders ?