Panasonic Announces HDC-SD3 and HDC-DX3 AVCHD Camcorders

by John Neely
Published on Apr 3, 2007 7:54 AM

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 The new HDC-DX3

  
April 3, 2007 - Panasonic announced two new AVCHD camcorders today in Japan,  the HDC-SD3 and HDC-DX3.  These new camcorders will join the company's debut HD consumer camcorders, the HDC-SD1 SD/SDHC cam, and HDC-DX1 DVD cam, both announced only a few months ago.  The new AVCHD camcorders primary improvement is the ability to capture 1920 x 1080 "full HD" video.

That compares to only 1440 x 1080 on the HDC-SD1 and HDC-DX1.  Even though the SD3 and DX3 support higher-resolution video capture, they feature the same data rates found on Panasonic's current AVCHD camcorders - 13Mbps, 9Mbps, and 6Mbps.  That means the new cams will use a higher degree of compression though it's not yet known how that will affect video performance.  The SD3 and DX3 will be available in Japan on April 25th, and enter the domestic market priced lower than the SD1 and DX1, at Y150,000 and Y140,000 respectively.

Consumer camcorders that record in so-called "full HD" have burst onto the market in greater numbers than  ever before in 2007, and Panasonic's new AVCHD models place them on par for resolution with the top camcorders from Sony and Canon.  The HDC-SD3 is also only the second AVCHD camcorder that records to SD/SDHC card, a media type that Panasonic has invested in more heavily than any other manufacturer.  In our reviews of the SD/SDHC-based HDC-SD1 and DVD-based HDC-DX1 (in progress) we found that flash media offered significant advantages.  The speed, durability, and convenience of flash media was particularly notable in our comparison of the SD1 and DX1, as the DX1 was among the slowest DVD camcorders we've encountered in terms of seek time, disc finalizing, startup and shutdown.

Both the HDC-SD3 and HDC-DX3 will ship with HD Writer 1.5J, allowing users to write AVCHD clips to disc for playback on compatible devices.  Authoring software that converts AVCHD video to MPEG-2 is sold separately, and will enable the creation of discs for playback on non-AVCHD hardware.  Panasonic's AVCHD software runs on Windows Vista, XP, and 2000 but no Mac OS X solution is currently offered.

The HDC-SD1 and HDC DX1 both feature 3 x 1/4 inch CCDs, and each sensor boasts a gross pixel count of 560K pixels, and 520K effective pixels for both video and still image capture.  The optical zoom lens on both models maxes out at 12x, with an aperture range of  f/1.8-f/2.8, and 35mm conversion equivalent of 38.5~462.0mm.   The digital zoom can be disabled, capped at 30x, or set to a maximum of 120x.  The filter diameter is 43mm.

The new models include the same ports and terminals found on the step down models:  AV and composite video out, HDMI out, external microphone jack, and USB 2.0.  The new camcorders have not added a headphone jack, an omission that we criticize in our reviews of the HDC-SD1 and HDC-DX1.  The HDC-SD3 ships with a 4GB SDHC memory card and both camcorders include HD Writer 1.5J software.  Today's announcement covers the Japanese market only, but European and North American camcorder announcements typically follow Japan within weeks or months.