Panasonic HDC-SD9 Camcorder Review

-VW-VBG130 Battery Pack
- AC Adapter
- AC Cable
- DC Cable
- Remote Control
- Button-type battery
- AV Cable
- Component Cable
- USB Cable
- CD-ROM: Pinnacle Studio 11 Trial and HD Writer

You’ll need a couple SDHC cards and since the HDC-SD9 is capable of recording two hours of video in the highest quality on a 16GB SDHC card, that would be a wise investment. A 16GB SDHC card runs anywhere from $100-200, depending on where you get it—online is the best bet.

Other Features (5.0)

Fades - To spice up that honeymoon footage, why not throw a romantic fade or tow in the mix. Located in the Video Menu, you can choose between Black and White.

Auto Ground Directional Standby (AGS)- To prevent 45 minutes of shaky, gravel and ant documentation, turn on Auto Ground Directional Standby. When the HDC-SD9 is left recording and the camcorder senses that it has dropped below its normal horizontal recording level, it will automatically shut off, saving you the battery life and gigabytes you need for those endangered species on the rest of the trail.

Pre-Record - The golden shot of that monster truck crash will not go unrecorded if you select and implement the Pre-Record function correctly. When activated, Pre-Record constantly records three seconds of footage that is stored to an internal cache. The moment you hit the record button, those three seconds are added to the clip. As long as the camcoder is pointed towards the action, your slow reaction time in hitting the record button is corrected for.

Intelligent Scene Detection - It's inevitable--you're going to amass a mountain of scenes, some good, some bad, and some completely worthless. When you select Intelligent Scene Detection in Playback, the camcorder displays only scenes it deems with proper exposure, focus, and composition. This is a handy weeding tool, unless your bag is bad cinematography.