By Capt. Video (Colorado)

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.

By Sinisa Jazic (Parkland, FL USA)

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.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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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