Panasonic HDC SD9 - Expert Reviews

Review summary: The Panasonic HDC-SD9 is one of the smallest and lightest full-size camcorders we've tested, and yet it still manages to pack in a good number of features -- you can even manually adjust aperture and shutter speed, which is unusual in this class

Pros: Compact and lightweight; saturated colours

Cons: Moderate to low-light videos look cloudy; some awkward design choices; smallish LCD with terrible colour reproduction; awful bundled software

Verdict: The Panasonic HDC-SD9's compact size is great and it's relatively inexpensive, which is always a good thing. But despite its trio of CCDs, the video quality and performance are too inconsistent for us to give it a full thumbs-up

Award: Recommended!

Review summary: Key improvements over the SD5 make this a still more enticing pocket HD camcorder prospect

Verdict: But there are some key changes. The big addition is progressive scanning for true Full HD �€" the SD5 only recorded interlaced HD. Then there�€™s the new 17Mb/s AVCHD �€œHA�€ quality mode, as well as 13Mb/s HG, although rec

Review summary: Acclaimed for its three CCD sensor set-up, Panasonic's teeny HDC-SD9 is about half the size of competing models. This is due in part to the full HD model favouring SD storage above all else. Indeed, Panasonic has just announced a 32GB SDHC card. The camer

Pros: Small yet well constructed, fast in operation, storage capacity expandable via larger SDHC media

Cons: Storage via SD media only, picture and sound not as impressive as competing larger-build models

Verdict: While it seems like a good mid-range option, performance in low light is not as good as the others, with overall picture quality not as sharp. Auto white balance performance is also variable, and its audio is not quite as 'full' sounding as we'd like. It

Review summary: Acclaimed for its three-CCD sensor set-up, Panasonic's HDC-SD9 is half the size of competing camcorders - due in part to its favouring of SD storage.

Verdict: While you must sacrifice a little quality to get a camcorder as diminutive as the Panasonic HDC-SD9, given the ease of use and responsiveness, many will may feel it's a sacrifice worth making.