Panasonic HDC-SD5 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Other Features
Faders – Accessible in the first page of the joystick menu, faders will add that cinematic wonderment to your shots by beginning and ending recorded clips with a fade-in and fade-out. Choose between black and white.

Pre-Record – According to Panasonic, their “clever new function” automatically stores the first three seconds of footage prior to pressing the record start/stop button so you won’t miss that wacky car accident. The pre-roll is stored in an internal cache and is tacked on to the beginning of the captured clip from the moment you start recording. The only downside, it seems, is that you have to remember to press the Pre Record button in the first place, which is just another stop en route to the record button. We’ll get to the bottom of this in our testing room.

Quick Start – Here’s another rapid camcorder function. When selected in the menu, the HDC-SD5 is will spring into action in just 1.7 seconds when the LCD screen is flipped open. Since the new LCD open button only pops the screen out slightly, you’ll have to manually flip it out the rest of the way, which is not as quick, is it?

MagicPix – Panasonic’s “night mode” can be selected in the second page of the joystick menu. MagicPix automatically drops the shutter speed below 1/60 to compensate for low light environments. The darker the exposure, the slower the shutter. As a result, recorded footage will appear stuttered with significant ghosting, which is great for a dream sequence.

Backlight Compensation (BLC) – When selected in the second page of the joystick menu, backlight compensation, or “BLC”, automatically adjusts the overall exposure of the picture to suit that of a backlit subject.

Soft Skin Mode – Found in page 2 of the joystick menu, soft skin mode specializes in softening the contrast of a subject’s skin tone with the ultimate goal of smoothing wrinkles and banishing blemishes.

Tele Macro – Tele macro is accessible via page 3 of the joystick menu. When selected, the HDC-SD5 automatically zooms in its full 10x optical range, focusing on subjects in the foreground. This feature can also be executed manually by simply placing your finger on the zoom slider and shifting it to the right.

Auto Slow Shutter – Auto slow shutter—appropriately titled by Panasonic as the A.S.S. feature—automatically drops the shutter speed one step below the base manual shutter speed. In the HDC-SD5’s case, 1/30 is the slowest shutter speed, so when auto slow shutter is selected, the camcorder will drop as low as 1/15, doubling the camcorder’s light gathering capabilities.

Conclusion
As usual, we love the feel of a Panasonic in our hands. They generally do a great job with design, and the HDC-SD5’s sleek, compact body sets a new high watermark. The increased resolution over last year’s HDC-SD1 remains to be evaluated. From what we saw of the on-the-floor footage, the AVCHD compression artifacts are still seriously impeding performance compared to HDV camcorders. Doubtless, most consumers are tired of tape and want to move on to a non-linear format. SDHC cards seem like a good choice. You may also want to consider the larger HDC-SX5, which records to both SDHC cards and DVD. The best bet with this camcorder would be shooting to card and backing up to DVD, which can be done in camera. The SX5 also has a viewfinder and hot accessory shoe.

Sony’s HDR-CX7 is virtually identical to the Panasonic HDC-SD5. It offers a little more simplicity and a touch screen interface (love it or leave it), but not much beyond that. The manual control suite pales in comparison and the Sony-proprietary card format – MemoryStick Duo and PRO Duo – which will end up costing you more in the long run. Third party manufacturers will be pushing out cheap 8GB SDHC cards in no time.

The Panasonic HDC-SD5 seems to be a solid step in the right direction for Panasonic. An increased LCD resolution, reduced weight, and thoughtful design are all tempting reasons to consider the camcorder. If they could just return the mic jack and add an accessory shoe, we’d be in business.