Typical price: £425
What is it: Compact camcorder that records to SD card
What we think: It's packed with features but performance and quality don't stand up, plus there are some design flaws
Panasonic HDC-SD9 Review
Reviewed on: 4 September 2008
Video quality ranges from good to not-so-good. As you'd expect from a 3-CCD model, the SD9 renders very saturated colours. Exposures look good, but even when it underexposes to preserve highlights they're still pretty blown out. At its best -- in good light -- the video is rather soft, except when zoomed all the way in.
In lower light, it either looks as if there's a film over the lens or it's simply overprocessed. Still photos are almost unusable, which is unsurprising given the low resolution of the individual sensors.
We based our judgments from viewing on a Sony Bravia HDTV and PC playback using InterVideo WinDVD. We had problems with the SD9's videos using virtually every editing package we tried, but succeeded with Ulead VideoStudio 11.5.
Conclusion
Though the Panasonic HDC-SD9
is a good little camcorder, we think you'll probably be happier in the
long run by spending a little more for the competing
Edited by Marian Smith
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