Panasonic HDC-SD5EG High Definition Camcorder - Memory Format

December 10, 2007 | By Doug In Digital Camcorder |

Panasonic HDC-SD5EG High Definition Camcorder - Memory Format
Customer Review: Panasonic HDC-SD5 camcorder
I have tended to stick to Sony camcorders but decided to try the Panasonic after reading a couple of reviews of it. On receiving the camcorder and opening the box I was amazed at its incredibly small size. The control buttons are all well laid out at the back of the camera and the functions for operating the camera (accessed by the joystick) are easy to understand, the only niggle being the very small joystick which is very fiddly to operate. The camera is very comfortable in use with the side contoured to fit the palm of the hand. The camera gave excellent clear video and photographs due no doubt to the 3 CCD and the Leica lens. The supplied software is very basic but there is another disk with Pinnacle Studio HD but unfortunately this is a trial version. For some strange reason when downloading video or photos to a computer the supplied AC adapter has to be used and this means removing the battery so I suppose a card reader would come in useful here. One big disappointment was that the camera does not come supplied with a SDHC card so you have to buy your own; these are around 50 to 60 pounds for an 8GB class 6 non Panasonic one and hold approx 85min at full HD. All in all I would not hesitate in recommending this camcorder.

Sony DCR-HC45 Handycam Mini Dv Camcorder with 2.5” LCD screen
MINIDV CARL ZEISS 2.5 LCD INA 40X OPT. ZM 2000X DIG. ZM NS
Amazon Price: ?162.00
Used Price: ?146.99
Customer Review: Compact and good value
A great little standard definition dv camcorder which fits comfortably in the palm of the hand and produces good quality footage for general home&family use. The supplied software from Sony will only allow capture to PC via Firewire/iLink which means you have purchase an extra cable because its not included in the box. However you can capture video to PC via USB (cable included), just turn on the USB Streaming option through the onboard menu (set off by default) and then use a suitable third party program which can detect it (I suggest Virtualdub, its free and fully featured). I definitely recommend this camcorder to anyone on a sub ?200 budget - from my own research, I could not find another model that could beat it for value in this price bracket.
Customer Review: Sony Software does not support USB Streaming
The Picture Motion Browser software that comes with this doesn’t have tool to download video using USB streaming. The only option that comes with it is iLink . So, if your PC doesn’t have iLink then this handycam is useless. Even the iLink cable is not supplied by Sony. I was really surprised to see that USB streaming is not supported. Sony used to supply Picture Package software previously, which had USB streaming and it was really good and now their latest handycams with latest software doesn’t have this feature. So don’t go this if you rely on only USB2.