Panasonic HDC-SD100 Camcorder Review

by Kaitlyn Chantry
Published on Sep 26, 2008 3:30 PM

 
Intro Performance
Format
 Auto / Manual Controls
Still Features Handling and Use
Audio / Playback / Connectivity Other Features
Conclusion & Comparisons Photo Gallery
Specs and Ratings


Compression (7.0)
The Panasonic HDC-SD100, like several previous Panasonic camcorders, compresses video in the AVCHD format. Since Panasonic and Sony developed AVCHD, we've been waiting for the quality of compression to catch up to the standard set by its tape-based predecessors. With this year's camcorders, it seems like consumers can finally get the quality of tape with the convenience of hard drives and solid state memory. This year's top camcorders look every bit as good as their tape brethren.

Because Panasonic never released its own HDV camcorder, we can only compare the HDC-SD100 to other AVCHD camcorders from previous Panasonic generations.  In this regard, the SD100 is good news for Panasonic—compression seems to get better every year and there is less compression artifacting and smoother motion in the SD100 than last year's SD9. For more details, see the Video Performance section earlier in this review.

The Panasonic HDC-SD100 has four quality settings to choose from, each offering a different resolution, maximum bitrate, and recording time. The highest quality setting, HA, records at 17Mbps in full 1920 x 1080 at either 60i or 24p frame rates. The HG setting (13Mbps) also records 1920 x 1080 in 60i or 24p. HX (9Mbps) records 1920 x 1080, but only in 60i. The lowest setting, HE (6Mbps), records 1440 x 1080 at the 60i setting.

This is a fairly standard range of offerings for this type of camcorder, though we are disappointed that video can only be shot in 24p using the Digital Cinema mode, which has the added effect of heavily oversaturating colors—pleasing to some consumers, but frustratingly inaccurate for others. Many camcorders from the competition offer a variety of frame rates at each resolution/bitrate. Canon is so far the only manufacturer offering the ability to record at 24Mbps.


Media (6.5)
The Panasonic HDC-SD100 records only to SD/SDHC memory cards. There is no internal memory, so make sure you pack your memory cards in the bag before hitting the road. While SD cards don't offer the hours and hours of recording you'll get from a large hard drive, solid state memory like SD cards are less likely to break down than memory with moving parts—like hard drives. Plus, a hard drive increases the size and price of the camcorder.

The HDC-SD100 comes with an 8GB SD memory card, but can accommodate any standard SD/SDHC card on the market. Record times are as follows:

SD Card HA (17Mbps) HG (13Mbps) HX (9Mbps) HE (6Mbps)
1 GB 7 min 9 min 14 min 21 min
2 GB 15 min 20 min 30 min 45 min
4 GB 30 min 45 min 60 min 90 min
6 GB 45 min 60 min 90 min 135 min
8 GB
 60 min 80 min 120 min 180 min
12 GB 90 min 120 min 180 min 270 min
16 GB 120 min 160 min 240 min 360 min
32 GB 240 min 320 min 480 min 720 min


Editing (4.0)
The HDC-SD100, like all Panasonic camcorders, compresses video in the AVCHD format. As we've said before, this is certainly not the ideal compression for consumers looking to edit video. Support for AVCHD is still spotty, even among major video editing software manufacturers. And although these big names get better and better at handling AVCHD, you still need a powerhouse computer to keep from getting bogged down by the unwieldy file sizes.

The HDC-SD100 ships with the "HD Writer 2.6E for HDC" software. This lets you import video, perform simple editing, and output finished movies to high definition or standard definition DVD or memory cards. The program is extremely limited and only works on Windows operating machines. You can find more robust, easier to use software.



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