I was thrilled with how small this camera is. It fits in your hand as if it were a half full 12 oz. can of soda. It's very light, but the fortunately the image stabilization makes it shoot like it was a heavier camera.
br /
br /I ran into an issue with iMovie '07 (part of Apple's iLife '08) that caused the screen to stretch wider, making people look fat. This will likely be resolved soon by Apple, and for now I've taken to using the 1440 X 1080 resolution which imports just fine.
br /
br /I've also fitted a 37mm mount size aftermarket wide angle lens which really helps for shooting indoors. Some have complained that the video is a bit more grainy while indoors and in darker conditions than the HD1, but I can't complain.
br /
br /So far, the battery life seems to run an hour and 10 minutes, which is better than the 55 minutes it's rated for.
br /
br /This camera does not include an SD card, so you'll want to pick up a 4GB (40 minutes) or 8 GB (80 minutes) card. I got the class 6 version of those SDHC cards for a faster transfer. I think I might stick with the 4 GB size in the future so I can easily burn the files to a blank DVD which holds 4.7 GB. Also, make sure you have a card reader that supports SDHC. It also doesn't include an HDMI cable, so pick one of those up if you have a TV capable of HDMI. Belkin makes the least expensive cable at $20.
br /
br /And finally, if you're a Mac user, you should know that only the Intel Macs (that have been out since January of '06) support the AVCHD editing.
br /
br /Some have complained about the low light grain that this camera tends to have. I've noticed it as well, and apparently the HD1 is slightly better indoors. But this wasn't a huge issue for me.
br /
br /The only thing that would make this camera perfect for me would be an external mic input.

I had been waiting for my SD5 to ship from Amazon, but I saw the camera at Circuit City in stock and $50 less so I decided to just get it there.
br /
br /The camera feels great in your hands. It is small and light, but even in my large hands it feels stable. I like that the battery is now inside of the camera and not attached to the back. This lets the center of gravity sit right there on your hand.
br /
br /The LCD screen looks good, though a little pixelated in darker rooms.
br /
br /I brought the camera out yesterday to go for a walk with my infant son. Even while walking and trying to film my son the image was quite stable.
br /
br /One piece of warning, if you use this camera with a Mac be sure to have a large internal drive or get an external one. With the new iMovie 08, it works with the AVCHD wonderfully but when it imports it converts it to AIC. The video still looks great and they are easy to work with, but they files are quite big. If you import at the Large setting, you lose very little in image and one hour of video is about 13GB. If you import at full resolution you're looking at 40GB per hour. Wow.
br /
br /For my own workflow, I import with Large to save the space. I then put the source AVCHD files on a DVD so I have the option of importing them later at the full resolution. This allows me to reuse my SD cards but still have the original footage.
br /
br /Overall, very nice camera. The Menu options are easy to work with and the final video is just great.

This is the first camcorder I have bought in a while. My last one was a Canon MiniDV that did progressive frame shooting. I've been researching for months on and off and following the progress of HD camcorders.
br /
br /I personally love this camera, there are only a few, mute things about this camera that I miss.
br /
br /Pros:
br /
br / - It's small and very light weight; almost too light. I *almost* found myself wishing it were a little heavier to make it easier to hold the camera steady. But it's great like it is.
br / - The picture quality is great. Having had a progressive scan camcorder before, I notice the interlacing, but it's no where near as bad as the MiniDV camcorder I had before that did interlacing. There is a slight grain to the picture in low light, but this is to be expected, and after reading several reviews about how "horrible" the low light was, I thought it was great. It wasn't near as bad for me as people were making it out to be, but that's a subjective thing. (I viewed this on both a 720 and 1080 screen)
br / - Audio is good, it doesn't make me too loud (since I'm holding the camera and the mic is right next to me) and I can clearly hear thing that are farther out.
br / - Battery life is great. I can easily get over an hour, and it seems to indicate it can do more than that, though I haven't put that to the test yet and the manual says I can only get a maximum of 1 hour and 25 minutes (55 minutes actual). So we'll see.
br / - I kind of like that the battery and SD card are tucked away underneath. I don't agree with a previous review that the door and hinge are made cheaply. It seems standard to me.
br / - I love the SD card recording media. No more tapes! No more mini-DVDs! No more having to hook up your hard drive based camcorder to the computer to copy files!
br /
br /Cons:
br /
br / - I imagine I'll miss that there's no external mic input. But I bought this anticipating to use it as a point-and-shoot camcorder. I'm just starting a family and wanted to capture everything, and this will do it. I don't plan on making any little movies with it. (I'll probably continue to use my progressive scan camera for that)
br / - The field of view is narrow. I don't know if this is just how camcorders are these days, or if I'm just used to my Kodak digital camera that has a wide-view mode. I ended up buying a 0.5x and 0.7x lens to put on it, and this helps be get "the big picture" so I can capture more of what's going on in a scene.
br / - I don't know where to get an extra battery. Do the SD1 batteries work with this? Where do I buy them? The manual gives me model numbers of 3 different batteries, but finding a place to buy them is though; and the ones I do find are $100+!
br / - It doesn't remember my last shooting preferences. Sometimes I turn on the back light or another feature. But if I turn the camera off for a moment and back on, I have to go turn that feature on again.
br /
br /
br /Recommendations:
br /
br / - Buy bigger capacity memory cards. I bought 2 - 2GB, and I'm filling them up faster than I can copy them to my computer. I ordered a 16GB one which should help a lot. Another reviewer mentioned that it's good to get 4GB ones so you can easily copy them to a DVD, that sounds like a good idea.
br / - Get a wide angle lens. I really didn't like how narrow the view was, whether this is normal or not. (though with my 0.7x lens, I can only zoom in 2x before everything becomes out of focus and there's no fixing it. Just a warning!)
br / - Check out the back light compensation for low light shooting. It helps a lot!
br / - Check out the contrast compensation feature! I love this! It makes shadows lighter without making everything else saturated and ugly. Very cool!
br /
br /
br /Other Thoughts:
br /
br /I have a new iMac with iMovie08. The importing does take a bit, and a lot of disk space. Editing is good, and after an export the quality is good (if you have your settings right).
br /I'm anxious about the first video editor that natively supports AVCHD, cause it is frustrating that I can't just "shoot and edit" anything. I have to shoot, copy, transcode, edit and then export. Too much of a process to make lots of family movies to give to close family. (Maybe that's a good thing for them, eh? hehe)
br /
br /
br /This camera is exactly what I was looking for except for the AVCHD (and mic input), but hopefully the future will prove the format to not be a problem anymore.

Panasonic got a lot of things right with this camera. It has a fantastic form factor--small, light, and very comfortable to hold and use. It's ready to point and shoot, and for folks with more video experience, there's good options for manual control of white balance, iris, shutter, gain, etc. Auto-focus is quick, zoom control is easy to keep smooth, and image stabilization is exceptional.
br /
br /I already have high-end prosumer DV cameras, but wanted something light and convenient for informal shots of my new son. The SD5 has fit the bill perfectly. My only complaint is Panasonic's decision to ditch the external mic jack. Ugh! Otherwise, I've been nothing but happy with this camera. I've read some reviewers comment about grain that appears in low-light images. It's endemic to small sensor chips trying to take small amounts of light to produce high-detail video. As small cameras go, I think the SD5 is average to good at low-light, and well above average when it comes to focus, image stabilization, and color reproduction.
br /
br /Editing wise, I use a Mac, and I'm able to easily pull in the AVCHD video to both iMovie 08 and Final Cut Express 4 for editing.
br /

To summarize my overall thoughts about the Panasonic HDC-SD5, for regular outdoor video shooting, the SD5 is excellent! I will skip discussing its still image cabilities because it simply was not designed with that in mind, trust me.
br /
br /Now, the first question the HDC-SD5 raised for me was "is it better than the one it replaced, the HDC-SD1?" Half a year ago I used the predecessor HDC-SD1 for a few weeks and loved it, and after a few weeks now with the SD5 I find that it is a slightly better camera under good lighting conditions and slightly worse under lowe lighting conditions. On the plus side it is about $200 cheaper, has the same battery life, is lighter, smaller, and yet no less handy to operate. Now, the "$200 cheaper" might raise a flag, and clearly some of the lower cost comes from certain cheaper features. For starters, the new smaller chasis is endowed with a smaller lens, down from 43 mm to 38 mm, smaller image sensors, down to 1/3 inch from 1/2, and the SD1's amazing 5.1 audio microphones have been replaced with simpler stereo ones in the SD5. In general, I say thanks for translating these changes into the greater affordability of the SD5. The bonus with this camera is the Full HD 1920 (on the new, smaller sensors) vs. former 1440 horizontal resolution (on the older, larger sensors).
br /
br /Outdoors, the SD5's recordings are marginally sharper than the SD1's, with equally beautifully rendered colors. Basically, it took my 70" 1080i screen to be able to discern the extra resolution, and was the main reason I returned the SD1 and waited for the SD5 to come out. I could not tell the cameras apart when played back on smaller screens. Shadows and bright areas are handled as well and manual settings are available to allow you to adapt more precisely to your scene's lighting.
br /
br /The only drawback to the SD5 is the reduced amount of light that the smaller 38 mm lens allows to enter the camera. The image generated from the combination of a smaller lens, smaller sensors, and increased processing wizardry, falls short of the SD1's low light capabilities. Indoor shooting is grainier and the colors look faded compared to the SD1. That's important to keep in mind for capturing birthdays and holiday get togethers. Add some lighting if you can. Luckily, white balance is very good in auto or manual mode, so if you do have to work with indoor lighting you can get back to very good colors and resolution even indoors.
br /
br /For those of you following the Panasonic HDS-SD? evolution closely, I have to note that it is too bad the HDC-SD3 never made it to the USA. It was identical to the SD1, except for the better 1920 vs. 1440 resolution, and was the camera I really wanted to buy.
br /
br /At the end of the day the HDC-SD5 still has the excellence to be an entry level wannabe director's camera, and if like a good director you also address an indoor scene's lighthing needs properly, you will be rewarded. Outdoors, it's a wonderful, easy, point-and-shoot experience with amazing image stabilization that results in excellent video.

Fantastic HD flash camera that takes great video in well-lighted scenes. Very small and comfortable to hold. It uses a smaller sensor than the HDC-SD1 so the video quality isn't as high, but it's not all that noticeable. Dark scenes do seem grainy, however.
br /
br /Unfortunately they removed the external mic jack (as well as 5.1 audio) from the SD1, so your audio options are limited to the built-in stereo mic.
br /
br /Another annoyance is the price bundling. They force you to buy a bundle with the Panasonic hard drive. Frankly, I'd rather just buy the camera for two hundred dollars less without the bundle, but that doesn't seem possible right now.
br /
br /Otherwise, I think it's probably the best flash HD camera out there. However, once they come out with one that has a larger, higher-quality CCD and external mic jack, I'll probably be upgrading.
br /
br /Finally, make sure you have plenty of hard drive space to store all your footage (get a Drobo or similar device).
br /

Be careful---depending on who is selling the product, you may or may not get the "included Panasonic 40GB hard drive". The vendor who I received the product from said that Amazon listed the camera with that title even though they never intended to ship the hard drive alongside it---fortunately they were kind enough to give me a partial refund. Look around--the hard drive is on back order at most sites as of now anyways. Also, I can confirm (it even says so on the box)---no SD card is included. On a brighter note, the camera is.....perfection :)

I'm not an expert or professional videographer or editor but a very experienced pro-sumer who, over the years, has "played" with lots and lots of video gear for fun and profit (mostly the former) -- currently own half a dozen camcorders including an old broadcast Betacam. At present, Sony HVR-Z1U my favorite all-purpose unit. Wanted something that would go with me any/all the time. I've only "played" with the SD5 for about a week-- mostly motion, a few stills. Takes a little getting used to something so tiny but bottom line: for an in-the-palm camcorder, I cannot believe how well it performs. Color, resolution all beyond my expectations and the OIS is ... I have no words for how good. Shot a swim meet, hand-held, at a poorly-lighted high school pool... zoomed in 10X panning with a swimmer and not a clue the SD5 was a less than 1 lb. camcorder in the trembling hand of a 65 year old. Couldn't import to FCP on my non-intel G5 so edited painlessly with imovie on the Macbook and wow! Stills are not great but better than I expected and the best I've gotten with a camcorder. For what it is and what it's supposed to be it is absolutely, freakin' AWESOME.

Great camera. Use of manual controls helps with iris and white balance.
br /Scenes that are too hot can be manually iris'd down. Scenes that are dark can be gained up. Contrast compensation and backlight add to the mix and ease of use through the thumb toggle. After purchasing an additional
br /battery, hdsc card, card reader and hdmi cable all is well. Pre-read
br /works great, battery life was about 90 minutes. And the zoom toggle is nice and smooth. Even the digital zoom (up to 100x) is not as pixilated
br /as you may see in other cameras. All in all pleasantly surprised.
br /Camera playback via hdmi on a Panasonic HDTV happens automatically
br /and the picture is superb. SD playback after encoding with Nero7 looks like standard definition. Great bang for the buck.

I have been waiting for a long time for a camcorder that has no moving parts for recording (spinning DVDs, Hi-8 tape, miniDV, Hard drives, etc). With the arrival of the HDC-SD5, my wait is over. The HDC-SD5 writes all the information on SDHC flash memory cards, which are basically high capacity SD cards. My first impression of this camcorder was WOW! This is small, how can something this small record in High Definition too? That's right, one of the first consumer products to record in full 1080i high definition on flash cards! I have been playing around with the camcorder for a few days now and I have to say the resolution is amazing. A bit about the camera and what I liked: It is small, ergonomic, very easy and intuitive controls, quiet, great 10X Leica optical lens, lots of connections (audio out, HDMI, component out, USB), stability control against hand shaking. You can also add 37mm filters to the lens. Outside shots are clear and sharp with pretty good colour representation. Indoor it does get a bit grainy once you zoom in, but it is otherwise comparable to other camcorders. The camcorder output signal is in 480p and 1080i only (so make sure your TV can take these signals). I was very happy to learn that the camcorder has 1080i output through the component out as well (my TV plays 1080i through component)! This meant that I did not have to pay for an HDMI cable. Battery lasts just over 1 hour and my 8GB card lasts for about 40 minutes of 1080i High Definition recording. My 8GB card is only a Class 4, but it can still be recorded on in High Definition (You don't need a Class 6). The recording is in Blu-Ray format, so you can copy your info on a regular DVD-R and you have to play it back through a Blu-Ray DVD player or through the Panasonic DVD player/burner (VW-BN1). More on the burner later on. The remote that comes with the camcorder is slick. It has most of the controls you need and is pretty small
br /
br /A couple of things I am upset about: the connections are on two sides of the camera (behind the LCD and behind the strap - where your palm would be), the Digital audio is Dolby Digital 2-channels (unlike the SD1 predecessor that had a 5.1-channel), there is no hot shoe for flash or external microphone connection.
br /
br /The VW-BNB1 DVD burner: The only connection on it is a mini-USB Type connection?. There are no other controls on the DVD burner other than the eject button. To play the DVDs that I previously recorded from the camcorder, I must hook-up the camcorder as an "intermediary" that transfers the signal to the TV. The burner does not burn Blu-Ray DVDs. It burns the videos in Blu-Ray format on regular DVD-Rs. One good thing about the burner is that you can hook it up to the computer via USB and use it as an external burner. Although you can take 2.1MP digital JPGs, only videos can be burned to the DVD.
br /
br /Overall, I am very please with the purchase.
br /

I purchased this camcorder from Circuit City as it would have taken 5-6 weeks for Amazon to ship this to me.
br /I am looking for a spare battery for this camcorder. Has anyone been able to locate a spare?
br /The camcorder takes EXCELLENT footage with an outstanding picture quality when played back on an HD TV. I am extremely happy that I purchased this model after carefully reviewing all the competition. I highly recommend this camcorder and am really happy I chose the SD format over mini-dv tapes.

This is an outstanding camera both in convenience and picture quality, however if you're looking for a fast editing platform you may want to hold off and get an HDV cam like the Canon HV20.
br /
br /I bought one of these to supplement my Sony HDV camera. I purchased it because I was looking for something a little more portable that would let me edit clips quickly and easily on the road with my Macbook. This is where this new platform falls short.
br /
br /Problem 1: While it's now easy to edit AVCHD video on both the Mac and PC, the video needs to get re-encoded. The encoding process is slower than real time, which means that 10 minutes of video could take 20 or 30 minutes to get onto the computer for editing! HDV clips on my Mac are generally captured in real-time, meaning 10 minutes of video takes 10 minutes to capture.
br /
br /Problem 2: I was planning on buying a few 4 gig SDHC cards (they hold about 40 minutes of video) and transfer the raw video to DVD-R for long term storage. Easily done, but on a Mac you can only edit the video if it's coming out of the camera. Which means that if I decided I wanted to go back and grab a video I shot a few months ago, I'd have to copy the files first back to the SD card then through the camera onto the computer. Perhaps this is more of an Apple problem than a Panasonic problem, but nonetheless not as easy as pulling an HDV tape off the shelf and recapturing.
br /
br /These two deal breakers aside the image quality you will get out of this camera is nothing short of stunning. If you're looking for your first HD camera you will be hard pressed to find something of comparable quality in any format at this price.

Overall, the results of this camcorder is good if there is appropriate lighting. Mechanically, the device is small, and easy to carry around. I like the concept that it uses SDHC instead of other media such as tape, DVD, or Hard drive. The relative chance of mechanical failure should be lower. I use 16 GB SDHC from Patriot, and it works out pretty well so far. One SD shoots about 2 hours and 40 minutes in full HD resolution, and can be backed up to DVD media (AVCHD format) quite easily with the included DVD burner. The very down side of this camcorder is the grainy noise and faded effects when shooting indoors, or in low light settings. One earlier reviewer mentioned about HDC-SD1. According to the consumer report org, it seems to be better equipped to handle indoor, and low light senarios than SD5. Well, it was too late for me when I saw those information. Check it out before you make this investment if these factors are important to you.

The Good: Excellent bright light video quality, compact. The bundled burner worked well to create AVCHD DVD.
br /The Bad: Low light recording is not too great. In Auto mode the white exposure sometimes cause video to have blueish or yellowish tint. DC Adaptor's cable is too thick and pushes against the battery compartment door (it may break the delicate sliding hinge in the long run)
br /The Ugly: Terrible still picture

I will update this review later, after I have had an opportunity to use the several key functions better.
br /For now, I wanted to address some of the questions raised by the 2 previous reviews.
br /Although Amazon's description doesn't make it clear, the camera should come with everything you'll need to record, play and store full-HD video (except for the SDHC card). Apparently, there's more than one entry in Amazon for this item, with different prices. Search for "HDC-SD5" to show them all. That includes all cables, software (to transfer to your computer) and a stand-alone DVD burner/player (in case you don't have a computer). True, DVD+ formats are not supported. Just buy new DVD- disc.
br /If you want to play HD video directly from the DVDs, you'll have to also buy a Blu-ray player (PS3 anyone? This is endless...). You can always play the DVDs (in AVCHD format) via the supplied DVD player hooked up to the camcorder hooked up to your TV. Or you can play them in your computer (if you have a decent large monitor) using the supplied software.
br /In your computer, with the supplied software, you can also make videos in the DVD-video (mpeg2) format, and play anywhere, but they'd be in standard resolution, not HD. Incidentally, the supplied software is dog slow. It took 20 mins to make a DVD out of my 3 min test video.
br /
br /UPDATE:
br /The video quality is OK. Much inferior to what you see from off-the-air TV signal. I'd say even a bit inferior to compressed satellite HD signal. But it's a lot better than what I'm used to from my old Sony Hi8.
br /In any case, I compared it with a friend's Canon mini-DV camera (also HD) and quality is equivalent.
br /So, I can't say it's the camera's fault. Maybe the AVCHD spec calls for too much video compression. OTOH, I appreciate that I can store 80 mins of footage in an 8GB card, which fits in one (dual layer) DVD disc.
br /The quality of the still pictures are horrific. Worse than that from a good quality camera phone. Forget about that feature.
br /The camera is too small for my hands. I have trouble using the mini thumb joystick (which is essential for controlling all features in this camera). I don't think the camera would lose any sex appeal if it were, say, 120% of its current size in every dimension. Maybe Panasonic would lose the "smallest 3 CCD HD camera in the world" claim, but it would be a lot more functional.
br /Clearly, the Achilles heel is the 10x (optical) zoom. You can have up to 700x digital zoom, but that's such a bogus feature, it's like cheating yourself.
br /Amazon doesn't let me revise my rating, but I'd give this camera a solid 4 star, not 5.

I've been using my SD5 for several weeks now and I can find very little negative to say about it. Unlike the other reviewer's comments, I really like the small size of the camera and find the ergonomics work well for me. I was able to master the use of the camera after only a couple of sessions, and it connects without problems with my MacBook Pro. I've been using iMovie 08 to edit the film, which couldn't get any easier. Because of the large HD files, transferring the video to iMovie 08 can take a while, but I just do something else with my computer while the files are being converted. The video and sound quality are stunning, and the 10X optical zoom works smoothly and stays in focus. I filmed a live performance this past weekend, and even with the existing stage lighting the quality was remarkable. I've learned that it's best to use the included DVD burner to save the files to DVD first before transferring to iMovie for editing, and the combination of these things works really well. The only thing I had to buy aside from the camcorder package was an 8 GB SD card, which I got for a bit more than $100. All in all a terrific little camera with stunning image quality!

I have extensive video experience with consumer, prosumer and broadcast equipment, so my opinions will be a little more critical than an "average" video consumer.
br /
br /Pros: Small size, uses SDHC cards instead of tape or hard drives, price/performance ratio is reasonable, well over 2 hours of footage at maximum resolution on a 16GB SDHC card (I was able to buy one for under $100 online).
br /
br /Cons: White balance was constantly wrong in auto mode and needed to be reset several times in manual mode before colors would be accurate outdoors; indoors colors had a constant color cast and picture was grainy and lost sharpness due to lower light levels, but much more than other consumer cameras I've owned. Still photos taken with this had little detail as you might expect from a camcorder.
br /
br /Outdoor scenes were generally sharp but suffered from some mild blockiness during pans (probably due to AVCHD compression) that I found unacceptable in a camera at this price level. When zoomed in objects lost much of their detail, an effect that seemed different that the digital zoom pixelization you can also get.
br /
br /As others have mentioned, no mic jack, can't switch memory card while on tripod, optical stablization looked strange to me, but camera is so small, it's hard to keep steady, needed a quad-core machine to shuttle footage edit.
br /
br /All in all, not happy. I returned it....and frankly I don't know what to buy to replace it.
br /

I'v been using this video camera for about 4 days now, and been shooting some HD footage. Before I say how wonderful this video camera is, I have to tell you that keep in mind this camera is not a professional camcorder. Even it has 3ccds like the professional camcorder does, but it will never shoot footage as good as the professional camcorder.
br /If you are looking for consumer camcorder then this is right one for you. I shoot some day light footage and some night time footage; the day light footage is amazing, very sharp and the color is one of the best. the night time footage is not as good as I hoped for, it does have some artifacts. Over all, I just love this video camera, I keep it with me every where. It's small and yet powerful.
br /I used to think to buy sony cx7, but I shoot some footage use cx7 and edited in final cut pro 6. I didn't like the overall picture quality, also the color taking from sony cx7 is very plane. The most important is that HDC-sd5 has manual option which makes things "easier". What I mean by that is you can control many things when you can't do with auto mode, like under the sun your auto mode most likely change the camera to different color settings, but when you move to the shade, the color changes again. when you want to edited those footage, you most likely find yourself into some color inconsistency which you don't want it. But if you are under manual mode, you can control over these settings and make sure your colors throught out the events are the same. But then again, these things not all the people will play around with, so it's really a personal thing.
br /editing in final cut 6 is very fast, it does took some of your HD disc space. but if you use other tape based HD camcorder, it's going to take same amount of space as sd card based. don't see what's the different here. One thing i have to say that, final cut pro 6 convert all my footage into apple prores 422 which in someway a lot smaller then DV tape based camcorder (DV tape also can convert to prores 422).

I have used this camera for about 2 hours of video shooting. I have to say the features and quality on the camera are awesome. I am using it for sporting events and it does a great job under the various lighting conditions that I have encountered. When played back through an HD TV you can plainly see how the basketball players have tied their shoelaces.
br /
br /But.. The DVD burner burns AVCHD format and is only readable by Blueray players or players that are AVCHD compatible (I haven't found one yet!).
br /It also only uses DVD-r/rw/ram. You can't use DVD+ anything.
br /I was also hoping to pop the SD cards into my pc and edit or convert the format. So far I have not been able to read any SD card used in the camera. (Leave it to Sony to get all proprietary. The AVCHD format is a joint effort between Matsuhita and Sony)
br /The codec is H.264 and should be able to be downloaded and installed on a PC but I have not had luck doing that yet.(Follow up edit: You must have a card reader capable of handling high capacity SD cards. Works like a charm now.)
br /
br /The camera does an awesome job though!!
br /

I am not particularly techie, but was heading off to Disney World with my kids in November and my old digital tape Canon camcorder was dying. I did a fair bit of research and decided the flash drive standard made sense - compatible with my Nikon SLR and such an improvement over digital tape, I figured I would be satisfied.
br /
br /I am. The quality of the video, especially when outside, is extraordinary. I'm really blown away. I have a five year old 1080i TV and this is the first HD image I have seen on it. The camera is small, easy to cary (even on rollercoasters!), and very intuitive - even for me!
br /
br /Down strokes are the wind noise and low light performance (though I think that goes with the territory). Inside shots are fine. Inside shots at night with marginal light are pretty grainy. But I think this needs to be compared to my old digital tape camcorder. By comparison, the Panasonic does much better. I'd be interested in hearing how the comparable Sony does (didn't want to deal with the Sony sticks).
br /
br /Transfer to the included DVD burner is easy enough, though the connections are awkward (a casualty of the small size). Battery comes out to hook up AC jack. Various covers come off to access USB, etc. It all works fine, it just isn't so convenient.
br /
br /I bought the upgrade to ULead (Studio 11 Plus), but haven't played with it yet in HD for the AVCHD format, so no comment. I did however just buy the new Panasonic Blu Ray player (BMD-30K). This combination is pretty smooth. Burn your HD video on to a standard DVD-R and plop it in the Blu Ray - wow. Everything works. Slide your SD card into the Blu Ray, same thing. All of a sudden, it is pretty seemless. So you can back up and store all your HD video on cheap DVDs. I'll get to the HD editing down the road, but you can split scenes and delete the part you don't want while still in the camera. I agree with another poster who suggested using only the 4G SDHC cards - they hold 42 minutes and fit perfectly onto a DVD-R.
br /
br /Overall, I am very pleased, especially with the combination. Very close to 5 stars.

The picture quality is not so great in normal room light. Lot of grey pixels everywhere. We can not expect sunlight inside home. The sensors could have been better.

Pros: Great compact camcorder, smallest on the market. Take outstanding quality video and pictures, outdoors or indoors. Very comfortable to hold and intuitive micro joy-stick controls with one hand. SD-cards are much cheaper than memory sticks.
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br /Cons: Video transfer function requires plug in the A/C, while you have to take the battery out to plug in the outlet. Also you cannot directly charge the battery while it's in the unit. These are quite inconvenient. For video transfer it's much easier to just take the SD-card out and transfer the video directly.

Up until this camcorder I was recording off of the HDV format. With the emergence of Blue-Ray as the winner of the HD war, I decided to switch. After much research, I bought this model refurbished from Amazon Warehouse Deals. The first one arrived without a battery, so I returned it. The second one arrived in great condition (except for a tattered box) with all parts accounted for. This is my second transaction with Amazon Warehouse Deals for a refurbished product, and I think they offer great value if you can live with the fact that the box has been opened and may not be in the best of shape.
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br /I only shoot family events (vacations, birthdays, etc.) but I wanted to make sure that all of our personal, memorable moments could be viewed for years to come in as best quality as affordably possible. So, along with this camcorder I also bought a Panasonic DMP-BD30K Blue-Ray DVD player, plus the Panasonic VW-BN1 DVD burner. I couldn't be happier with my choice for all three. Now I have a fairly simple process for taking family videos, saving them to disc, and playing them in the Blue-Ray format.
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br /As others have mentioned, the HDC-SD5 takes outstanding video outside in bright light, but is not so great indoors, in low light situations. I was torn for quite some time between this one and the HDC-SD1, because the SD1 has quite a few features the SD5 doesn't, namely a microphone input jack, 5.1 Dolby sound instead of only stereo, 12X zoom instead of 10X, and larger image sensors for better low light performance (1/4" instead of 1/6"). One advantage of the SD5 over the SD1, though, is its resolution, with full HD output at 1920 X 1080 compared to 1440 X 1080 with the SD1. I am admittedly not sure how much difference this makes, or if this compensates for the smaller CCD sensors in the SD5. Regardless, what finally sold me on the SD5 was simply its compatibility with the VW-BN1 burner, which I believe from internet readings the SD1 does not have and which I consider to be about the greatest thing since night baseball. It is SO EASY now to transfer my recordings to a DVD-R disc in full Blue-Ray HD. Since they are unedited, they transfer "warts and all" but I don't usually edit my home videos anyway. Maybe some day I will, but for family footage I just never bothered with it. With the BW-BN1 burner about 40 minutes of recorded video only takes about 20 to 30 minutes and voila! My memories are stored on DVD. An amazing feature, in my book.
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br /My only dislikes about the SD5 are no viewfinder, which is starting to be more and more common for small camcorders, and the quirky placement of the input jacks for the HDMI and the USB connection, which are beneath a panel under the hand strap; very awkward. You also have to put in a fake battery that is connected to the power cord for AC hook-up, which causes you to have to insert this fake battery in the battery slot on the BOTTOM of the camcorder, run the cord through the battery cover via a tiny slot in the cover in order to close the cover, in order to operate the camcorder, that lay in the house that Jack built. It won't turn on with the cover open. Really goofy, no? You also cannot utilize the USB via battery power (which also means you can't operate the VW-BN1 burner via battery power) so you have to go through this exercise every time you want to do anything with USB connectivity. Presumably this "USB via AC power only" rule is so you will not lose power during a file transfer, etc, so I can understand the rationale behind it, but the placement of the jacks and the AC hookup process really makes it a pain.
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br /The SD card slot is also on the bottom, by the battery, so you have to open the battery cover every time you want to remove/replace it (you access card slot on the SD1 model via the flip-out LCD screen). The Panasonic Blue-Ray player I bought will read video right off of the card, so I find myself accessing it often, and it's also less than convenient.
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br /As much as it may sound as though I am knocking this camcorder, I am very happy with the purchase and love shooting video with it, largely because I view it as part of my overall system (camcorder, burner, player). As mentioned before, the video quality is outstanding, but only so-so in low light. The sound is also excellent, despite the downgrade to stereo from 5.1. However, if the SD1 would work with the VW-BN1 burner, I would have gone that route. As a final comment, I will NEVER go back to mini tapes now that I have gotten used to the SD cards, which seem to be dropping in price almost every day.
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br /Anyway, I hope this long-winded review helps you in your decision making, thanks for reading!
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this is my first HD camcorder , at first i was confused between the canon HF10 and the panasonic HDC-SD5, to be honest am not photo expert, i want something light, small, comfortable and reliable for my travel in august to Munich and Paris.
br /after i tested the camcorder , its very easy to use , almost no weight, after all am very pleased with the results , for both the pictures and the motion videos .
br /add to that u will get every single wire or cable u need with this camcorder which u dont get with most of other camcorders. all u need is HDSC flash card and u are ready to get wonderful life memory videos .

I purchased this camcorder to get reasonable quality high definition video and not have to deal with CDs, tapes or hard drives. I found this unit easy to use right out of the box and the first few video projects have been very acceptable. The Panasonic HD Writer Software that ships with this product makes it very easy to transfer the video files to the computer and then erase them from the camcorder. Although a trial version of Pinnacle Studio Plus version 11 ships with this unit, you will need to purchase Pinnacle Studio Plus (or Ultimate) versions 11 or 12 or Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 to easily edit and produce high definition videos. Either of those products directly handle the AVCHD format. To render HD video you will need plenty of computing power so be sure to read the software manufacturer's system requirements. You can export the AVCHD video clips from HD Writer to other formats so that you can use your existing video editing programs.

I have owned the camera for 2 weeks now and am returning it. I currently own 3 other video cameras, but this is my forst HD camera.
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br /Everything about the camera is wonderful except for one MAJOR flaw, there is a high pitched whine when I play back the vodeo through the camera. It is quite noticeable to say the least and simply unacceptable for a camera in this range. There is no tape transport, no hard drive....in fact no moving parts at all, nothing I can think of to be making the whine.
br /Perhaps it is only the particular one that I have purchased, as the other reviews seem fine.....I did see a proffesional review somewhere that had the same problem.........maybe I have that actual camera ....lol.

Incredible image resolution, very light, also very small.
br /Miss a viewfinder.
br /Very difficult to find acessories in the US . . . had to order battery adapter cable ( to use a bigger battery ) from Japan.

Great qulity with good lighting source, not so good if you try to shoot it dark or poor lighting. the rear mic is located next to the little joystick and the record/stop bottom, easy to record noise when your finger moving around those botton. not so user friendly software and is not recording to usual computer format, you will need to take out the battery and put in another corded battery which came with it then you can capture it to the computer and then it will convert it to whatever format you prefer
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br /last thing, make sure when you buy it said w/ dvd burner or not, i think is a better deal if you buy it with the dvd burner even you don't really need it, i also recommend to buy the 40gb memory from panasonic about $100, or like me, bought a 8gb SanDisk Extreme III which can transfer 20mb/s, you don't wanna buy a cheap SD card for this camcorder

I bought this camera after much research. My previous camera was a Sony. I needed a camera that was compatible with Apple. It has mostly worked well. However, some video has not and I've had to rely on PC in order to download my video. I find Panasonic's customer support to be a bit lacking. I also had a hard time finding another battery to purchase. Every site that carried them was out of stock. Thankfully one was sufficient. I love the fact that I can leave the camera on and as long as the LCD screen is closed the camera is off. When I open the screen it turns on. Great feature. I was disappointed not to have a neck strap. I love the DVD burner. That was one of the main selling points for me. Travels well. The video quality is great but I haven't had much time to play with video I have taken. Video is definitely a memory hog. Be prepared to have room.

Very nice point shoot. Menu's easily accessed. Wish the fade option could be left on by default. Must buy with the DVD burner. Very easy to burn archive. Videos from DVD burner play back great on PS3. I use 4-gig SD cards so I can fit all of it on one DVD.
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br /In low light conditions, the pix gets grainy, but this is common for camcorders. Out performs my last mini-dv jvc in low light, so all's good.
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br /Great package size. Love how small this guy is.
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I have used this camera several times. It is easy to operate - I am not a tech. person so the simpler the better for me. The only issue I have had is with the stability feature. I recorded my son's basketball game and when I replayed the game on our television (super easy to do) the picture jumped and jiggled all over the place. I thought I was holding the camera still but the replay showed otherwise. I thought that the stability feature would reduce or eliminate any movement. In my case, it didnt (and I checked to make sure that the feature was "on"). So, for the next game I used a tripod. That worked so much better. I was able to zoom in and out and remain in focus. I used the handle on the tripod to point the camera from on end of the court to the other while the boys were playing. The replay of the tripod game was excellent. The camera shoots clear, crisp pictures with good sound quality.

Simple, light, compact, and comfortable to operate. Had difficulty finding minus DL DVD's for the included burner. Burner fits easily into camera case for traveling
br /Conversion of native format still a little shaky if you don't have a Blu-ray player

Very light camcorder.
br /It was a concern for me about editing avchd:
br /The included software (HD writer) is not very powerful, but it's ok to save your video in HD format.
br /I use video studio pro x2 to edit in AVCHD without any problem with my laptop(window vista, 3GB memory)
br /The quality of the picture is not very good in low light situation.
br /It's an excellent flash memory HD camcorder for the price
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THIS VIDEO CAMERA IS THE BEST IVE EVER USED,TRUE BLU RAY HIGH DEF,BRIGHT COLOR AND CRISP PICTURE.I USE A 16GB SDHC CARD,YOU DO NEED A BLU RAY PLAYER FOR HD,BUT YOU CAN ALSO RECORD IN STANDARD 640X480 WHICH CAN BE WATCHED 0N ANY DVD PLAYER!GREAT VALUE UNDER $800.

The last camera I had has been collecting dust for years. Too boring to use on a regular basis. The Sony is officially retired. The colors, the definition, the ease of SD capture made it so easy. I have a new puppy and all of this recording in such great clarity has turned me back into a creative artist. And it's so easy to pop out the card and plug it into a reader, into my Mac and into iMovie or Final Cut.
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br /I got a 16GB SDHC card on Amazon, so the prices are good on those as well. And I've shot over an hour at a time with still plenty of room. Great! Nice thing is that every start stop is it's own scene. Sure DV cameras did this before, but with this, I can just selecdt and delete a scene just like a picture on a digital still.
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br /Just be sure your computer has the power to process video in ADCHD. For a Mac you need an Intel based machine and iMovie '08 or later or Any HD final cut. I don't know about a PC but check your specs.
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br /Overall, it's great and I waited since february, watching for the right price.

Very nice camera. Not the best in poor lighting. very light and easy to handle. We've got a baby comming in the next month so we plan on using it much more in the future. I've only done a few hours of video editing but so far thats gone well.

An excellent cam-corder, writes directly to SD-HC cards so the camera is small and light. great pictures and video and a free DVD burner as well.

so, this camera is basically awesome.
br /the picture is great (yes, it's true that it's a little grainy in low lighting, but that's just fine), it's easy to use, a perfect size, and it's super light, but not too light.
br /ont of the things i love most about it, though, is the image stabilization. this makes it so that you get the same, stable results you would get while using a tripod by just holding the camera in your hand (unless, of course, you have REALLY shaky hands for some reason), making it really easy to get a great shot anywhere.
br /the only thing, though, is the filetype. i had a LOT of trouble in the beginning figuring out how to get it onto my computer and in a filetype that i could work with. that part's not that simple.
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br /but other than that, a great camera. for everything from home movies with the family to amateur independent films. an AWESOME product.

Badly marred by auto color balance problems and AMAZINGLY HIGH RIPOFF BATTERY PRICES!!! (Nearly $100 for a battery that runs an HOUR - IF YOU ARE - VERY - LUCKY!)
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br /Panasonic is headed into BAD SONY territory here. BEWARE!!!
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Bought this HD camera before Christmas to record kids. Very small, and has nice feel when holding.
br /Chose this one over Canon because it records on Flash SD, very skeptical of hard drives in cameras. Don't like Sony because of their Memory Stick Due standard. Got an 8gb SDHC, fits about 85 minutes of high def. So hopefully as prices on SDHC drop, I'll buy more cards, they are very handy. Plus I just could not pass up the deal that was offered at one of the retail stores.
br /Great picture when lighting is good, not so nice when using standard 60w light bulbs in house; but that seem to be the industry standard with all cams right now.
br /Very disappointed with the actual transferring of video: as seems other companies lack the same. The software that comes with camcorder really suck, very limited, and confusing. New software that just came out is also clueless of this standard, they support it, but in such a weird way that most users will never figure it out.
br /The biggest problem that I still face is actual video storage and playback. My computer barely plays this standard (very choppy), transferring to PC is very hard. Once you record on DVD in standard, then the whole HD experience is lost; if you record HD on DVD, you only get about 30 minutes per disc, and you can't play it on non Blue-Ray player.
br /So the only thing I am hopping is get a couple of external hard drives to store the video and wait for Blue-Ray recorder to come out.

I really hate to be negative, but if my experience helps - so be it - if I'm worng - tell me! I'm a pretty big consumer gadget geek and love this kind of product. I was looking for a video camcorder that also takes still pictures to enhance my current Canon G7 (love the G7 - pics and vid's) to capture my new Grand Daughter and Kids!
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br /As mentioned above, my current camera has been the G7 for about a year now, and I really think this is one of the finest cameras I have owned (and I have owned about every other camera out there - most returned). But..... the SD5 did not live up to my expectations at all!
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br /First the good stuff: It is really cool to look at - small, simple design was very easy to set up, and the controls worked fine. I took lot's of test shots with both the video and still options (since that is how the camcorder is advertised videos and STILLS). I'm not going to go into too many positives because the negatives are the important things that people like me really want to read. And at nearly $1000 - well the con's are pretty darn important!
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br /Now the NOT SO GOOD:
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br /Still shots are not good at all - simply an after thought in my option and you will be very disappointed if you think about using it for even a back-up to your other gear! Sorry Panasonic - with all the new technology, lenses, and electronic circuits you could have put in, you could have done MUCH better! I know this is a video camera, but if you advertisement says it take stills, it should do - at least - as good or better job than my Treo 700W cell phone.
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br /More important than the stills - the video! Wow is it a lot of work to download into my computer, and then once there it was horrible to look at!!!!! To be honest - I did not hook it up directly to my HDTV with the HDMI, but frankly, most of MY viewing would be done through my computers (both are pretty fancy brand new duo cores, lot's of RAM, play other videos perfectly, etc..) hooked up as media centers on two of my HD TV's - so the process of burning onto a DVD would rarely happen. You first have to take out the battery, then hook up the AC plug, then use their USB cable (it says in the owners manual to ONLY use there's - don't now why), and then transfer into their software called HD Writer. It took me a bit of searching to find the actual files - said it was going to My Pictures, but is was in a different log-in user! Anyway, once there - you could only watch on the HD Writer unless you convert to Mpeg 2(?). By the way - to convert a pretty small file (about 100 MB, only a few minutes of footage, seem to take forever, even on my pretty fast computer system. Again, to be honest - I did not record the time it took, but it seemed to take forever! The MPEG2 then could be viewed with Window Media Player, but the quality was, well, awful. My Canon G7, looked better right off the SD card - Chip/Chop - no conversion, good color, stable (not choppy like the MPEG2), smaller size, easy! With the SD5 you can not simply take out the SD card and watch video on your computer without first doing all that other stuff - unless there is another way the directions don't tell you. WAY TO MUCH WORK FOR ME!!!
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br /Maybe I just did it all wrong - anyone else, please tell me if there were other options. All I want to do is take good quality video, pop out the SD card, transfer into a folder, and view!!!!! For now the Canon G7 will suffice for that. Bottom line - the HDC-SD5 was returned the next day! I realize it's not a real technical review, but my real world experience! Good Luck
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I owned this camcorder not even two weeks and it broke. The door that houses the battery as well as the memory card is so cheaply made that the tiny piece of plastic bent and the door will not close. This should have been made better. You have to constantly open this door to: remove and charge the battery, to change the flash card, and to use the AC adapter. What a shame this camcorder seem to have everything I was looking for. I'm now checking out the Cannon HG10 and the Sony HDR SR8.

The SD card is an HCSD and requires a special reader. An HCSD reader. You can get them here on Amazon for around $20 or as part of a bundle with a 4-16gb HCSD card.
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br /As for editing the videos, I have the HDC-SD1 camera, this ones predecessor and I use Pinnacle Studio 11 Ultimate. It is the only program out there that will edit the raw .mts files. Nero will let you make a movie with them but not edit them.
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br /One question. Can't you have the camera burn a dvd in standard DVD format? A poster on another review said it was possible.

If you're looking for a practical and tiny Camcorder then this is it !
br /It's not a pro grade cam but still exceeds your daily "move shoot" home videos with a great full HD resolution and clarity.
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br /Highly Recomendnded for any AVCHD format shopper @ a reasonable price.
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br /Don't look any further , just go ahead and buy one...that's what i did :)
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