Gadgets and Gizmos

Panasonic unveils HDC-SD9 First Impressions Camcorder

The HDC-SD9 is Panasonic’s third generation of memory card-based AVCHD camcorders. Panasonic has made some improvements and some deletions. In addition to “full HD” status, the HDC-SD9 can shoot in 24P mode. It also has a new face detection system and an “Intelligent Shooting Guide” that points out problematic shots. And it’s very small.

Unfortunately, it lost the mic and headphone jack that kept the HDC-SD1 and SD5 off of our “naughty” list. Panasonic has stated that its top priority this year is manufacturing the smallest camcorders on the market. Judging this year’s releases so far, the company is well-secured in its goal.

Finally, there are four more new models; the SDR-H60 (60GB) and SDR-H40 (40GB) are hybrid SD / HDD units, the VDR-D50 is straight to DVD and the PV-GS90 records to miniDV tapes. All four have optical image stabilization, and the SDR-H60 has an ultra-powerful 50x optical zoom, with all other models packing a non too shabby 42x (pictured above right).

The Panasonic HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9 offer full-High Definition, 1920 x 1080 progressive recording (24 frames per second) and use the AVCHD video format. In addition, the new models feature Panasonic’s original 3CCD system, Advanced MEGA O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer), and a Leica Dicomar lens - three components that also contribute to the high-quality video output.

Advanced MEGA O.I.S. checks and compensates for hand-shake around 4,000 times per second, about eight times more effectively than Panasonic’s previous systems. In a 3CCD camera system, the light received through the lens is split into its three primary color components - red, green and blue - and a signal from each is processed by one of the three CCDs to provide rich and detailed video images.

Both the camcorders are available in March and pricing will be $799.95 for the HDC-SD9 and $1099.95 for the HDC-SH9.