Panasonic HDC-SD1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

by Guy Bruner
Published on Jan 11, 2007 6:00 PM

Intro Performance
Format
Tour
Auto / Manual Controls Still Features
Handling and Use Audio / Playback / Connectivity
Other Features Comparisons / Conclusion


 
 
The Front
The predominant feature on the front of the HDC-SD1 is its Leica Dicomar, 4 – 40mm, 12x zoom lens (equivalent to a 38.5 - 462.0mm 35mm lens). The lens is rated at F1.8 at 1x zoom that decreases to F2.8 as the lens is fully zoomed in to 12x. An automatic shutter-style lens cap protects the lens from harm when the camcorder is turned off or taken out of record mode. The lens hood accepts 43mm diameter filters. To the left of the lens is the photo flash for still pictures.
 
The Right Side
The right side of the HDC-SD1 is very clean. At the front, behind a hard plastic cover are the USB 2 high speed and HDMI ports. Toward the center rear of the right side is the 20mm round speaker. The rear of the right side is covered with a soft-textured, silver plastic that seemed to be pretty comfortable. It was hard to tell as the camcorders were mounted on security poles that were tethered to the display stand, thus making it impossible for me to cradle the camcorder in my hand. Rounding out the right side is a standard Panasonic loop strap that can be adjusted through its Velcro fastener to most any hand.
 
The Back
The back of the HDC-SD1 is its business end. Smack dab in the center of the back is the power/mode dial. A small detent on the right of the mode dial prevents the camcorder from being turned on inadvertently. Pressing the detent allows turning the mode dial out of power off and on to the three operating modes: video recording, playback and PC. The PC mode is used to connect the camcorder to a computer to transfer video and stills from the SDHC card.
 
In the center of the mode dial is the record/pause pushbutton. I found the position of the record/pause button to be very practical for this mostly cylindrical camcorder. To the right of the mode dial is the joystick control for navigating the menus and activating or deactivating features. The joystick is also used to focus the lens in manual mode. Below the mode dial are buttons for Menu and delete (Trashcan). Pressing the Menu button activates and deactivates the menus on the LCD display. The delete button is used in playback mode to delete an individual clip. Each clip on the SDHC card gets its own icon and can be randomly accessed. If a clip is unwanted, the user selects it on the LCD display, presses delete…and away it goes, freeing up precious space on the SDHC card for more video.
 
Below the mode dial is the battery compartment. A serious negative is that the battery on the HDC-SD1 is enclosed inside its compartment. That means that larger capacity batteries will be virtually impossible to use. Panasonic ships the camcorder with the VW-VBG130 battery that gives approximately 1 hour and 5 minutes of recording time. The battery cannot be changed if the camcorder is on a tripod.
 
The Left Side
The left side shows a lot of the eye-candy design of this camcorder. The back of the LCD and its hinge mount are coated with an enamel-looking, pearlescent white coating. I think the design aesthetics of chrome, silver and pearlescent white will appeal particularly to women. The 3” widescreen, 211K pixel LCD panel is the most predominant feature of the HDC-SD1’s left side. The LCD display is very important to the user because lacking a viewfinder, the LCD is the only way to see what you are shooting. The LCD seemed very sharp with vibrant colors. The menus were particularly easy to read. However, I cannot say how it will hold up in bright sunlight. It is easy to wash out a LCD in bright lighting even when using the Power LCD function that considerably brightens the screen. I think LCD hoods or shades are going to be popular accessories for HDC-SD1 owners. The camcorder can be set to power on almost instantly when the LCD is opened. The speed of power up is an important feature of the HDC-SD1. The LCD panel can be rotated around its horizontal axis to permit viewing the scene when the camcorder must be positioned above or below eye level.
 
Opening the LCD panel exposes the ports and controls inside the LCD cavity. Starting at the top left of the cavity is the reset button. To its right is the Power LCD button followed by the Auto-Manual-Focus switch to the far right.  Below this top row of controls and behind a sliding door is the SDHC card slot. To the right of the card slot is the coaxial jack for the AC power cable. Directly below the SDHC card slot are three jacks. From the left, they are the proprietary audio-video (AV) multi-cable jack, component video jack and external microphone jack. AV standard definition analog and component video cables are provided with the HDC-SD1.
 
The Top
The top of the camcorder is artfully svelte…well, the whole darn camcorder is an artistic statement. Predominant at the front under a perforated cover that outlines the placement of each of the five microphone elements is the highly touted zoom 5.1 Dolby Digital surround microphone system. Panasonic demonstrated the zoom surround feature in their booth and it was impressive, indeed. Users will have more control over the microphone through the microphone level adjust feature that is accessed through the menus. Microphone level adjust permits turning off the automatic gain control and adjusting the mic (either internal or external) level to allow increased dynamic range such as might be preferred when recording an orchestra.
 
To the rear of the microphones is a textured strip made of the same silver plastic material as on the right side handgrip. The user can rest fingertips on this strip while holding the camcorder in the right hand. I suppose this makes for a more secure grip, but it looks like more artistic statement to me. Behind the strip is the new zoom toggle rocker. Panasonic has taken the hint and substituted a very easy to use toggle instead of the old slider that we find problematic. The toggle has a very light feel and is easy to position for just the right slow crawling zoom. Kudos to Panasonic for this significant improvement. Behind the zoom toggle is the photo shot button. The photo shot button is positioned a little far back for me as the button was a long reach for my index finger. But, not as long a reach as the photo shot button on the HDC-DX1 which I absolutely couldn’t reach without affecting how I was pointing the camcorder.



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