Capture timeless moments on video and in rich, high-resolution still images with this high-definition 3CCD camcorder that features MagicPix technology for low-light shooting. Advanced optical image stabilization delivers crisp, clear image quality.
Average Customer Rating:
4.3 out of 5
Rating Breakdown
(7 reviews)
5 stars
(4)
4 stars
(2)
3 stars
(0)
2 stars
(1)
1 star
(0)
7 of 7 (100%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.
Customer Reviews for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Review 1 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
5.05
Packs a punch
10/12/2008
By Anonymous Reviewerfrom Minnesota
Value for Price
5.05
Picture Quality
4.05
Ease of Use
3.05
Features
2.05
What's great about it: tiny, fairly easy to use, great price What's not so great: poor quality on auto mode and low light
"Have used the camera a handful of times. When in sun and bright light the camera is amazing. If you are in clouds and lower light, need to shoot in manual mode with a higher shutter speed. The software that comes with the camera is useless. Even with 3GB of RAM my computer still can't process the Pinnacle program. The Panasonic HD writer is easy to use and seems to work good... if, you don't want to edit your video other than splicing. I've used Vegas Movie Studio 12 Platinum for editing with ease."
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 2 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
2.05
Returned to Store
08/18/2008
By MackerAgainfrom California
What's great about it: Very light weight, compact, excellent picture What's not so great: What a hassle to download
"I bought this camera and was very pleased and quickly filled the SDHC memory cards. The headache came in when I tried to download them and re-use the memory cards. To make the story short, I had to purchase the VW-BN1 DVD recorder, which seemed to work OK, but I had to get rid of all my DVD+R and buy DVD-R, because that's all the DVD recorder would take. It recorded OK, but I was unable to play the DVD on my computer, laptop, or any other DVD player in the house. I had to unplug the DVD recorder and move it to a room where a TV was located, but wait, there was no adapter from the DVD recorder to the input on TV. Yet even more money. It was like a giant step 10 years back and not worth the time, effort, enery and money. I returned the Panasonic back and got something for a lot less money that is far more convenient to download. If you don't mind spending money on accessories or moving from one room to another, this is really a great camera. If you want something that downloads quick and easy, this is not the camera for you."
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 3 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
5.05
great camera for a great price
08/18/2008
By Fostersfrom Minneapolis, MN
What's great about it: Great quality on manual settings What's not so great: Poor image quality without sunlight - even in well lit indoor environments - on auto settings only
"Great little camera; picked it up from best buy for 599, and included 2 4gb sdhc cards in that price. Can't beat that price even online unless for a refurb. The bad: For some reason on automatic settings, the iris shoots up to 18db and when trying it out, inside the house, with 2x 300w halogen lights burning and somewhere around 200watts worth of compact fluorescent - equivalent of another 600 watts give or take of incandescent, the camera would simply produce grainy video. low light mode, night mode, nothing helped it, unless it was filming a light bulb, it was grainy. Black things were especially bad. Last but not least, HD Writer, the panasonic program it uses to copy/edit and whatever else they claim it does, is absolutely worthless. "copy" means copy everything, relevant or not to the public\documents folders on your computer (not the user\documents folders). Also, it keeps referring to everything as an image, and even stores the files/folders inside the pictures folder, not videos. When it copies the card to your computer, first off, it'll copy everything, the card has about 15 folders with a 4-5 level deep structure; finding your file in windows explorer is something much like finding your car on the interstate using google earth. Then there's the format. The camera saves the files in AVCHD format, with an *.m2ts extension. You may or may not have the codecs to handle this but they're available on the net. Converting this format with the awesome HD writer program yields 1 option, convert to mpeg2. that's it. You have to convert a video to find out it'll convert it to a non-hd resolution video. There's no way to change that... coupled with a few more annoyances, like idiot-prompts "You clicked close are you sure you want to close?" on every single button, the program will render itself worthless in no time. Only other con mentioned seems to be the joystick. Not a huge deal to me, the remote does come in handy if you're not pleased with it. The good: Now that I've ripped on it, the good... the price cannot be beat, period. The image quality, once you set the thing to manual focus, and turn the iris on to 0db, and if you further go to an aperture of around F2.0-F2.4, the image becomes much more HD-like and much less grainy. Black objects are black, and the camera does a great job overall. I've yet to test it outside, in daylight, but even at night time it does fine (as long as things are on manual). With low light mode on, it helps it a bit over it's normal look without the image becoming fuzzy from movement. With night mode on, like every other camera, it makes the exposure time significantly higher and things tend to get blurry with very little movement. This is to be expected, but the results, using a tripod, can be excellent even at night. Another great thing about the camera, is the image stabilizer. Usually, they're not worth much, but on this camera, even someone after 2 gallons of coffee could take a steady video. You really have to try to overcome the stabilizer.
The camera is extremely light for what it is. The very few moving parts make it pretty much dead quiet. In a quiet environment, you can no longer hear the buzzing of a minidv or dvd motor (or maybe even hdd, have yet to try one of those though). The light weight makes it great for my main purpose - racing. With my old minidv camcorder, launching the car on slicks would sometimes cause my camera stand to tilt backwards due to the inertia of the heavier camcorder. I have a few videos of my car's ceiling because of that..
It's also nice of Panasonic to include a trial of pinnacle studio; to show you how a video editing program should behave. I've already bought pinnacle studio ultimate - figured the money saved on the camera are well invested into a much better processing program. It is night and day. I can convert my videos into whatever I want pretty much with the custom options, and the people wanting ease of use will also find the presets handy - converting stuff to 3gp for example for use on a mobile phone, or converting to ipod format automatically takes the guesswork out. I wish Panasonic would have taken a look at pinnacle studio before they hired a drunken code monkey to program HD Writer."
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 4 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
5.05
perfect
08/09/2008
By gork1905
What's great about it: too small What's not so great: not too good at nights
"ı m happy to buy thıs camera ıt ıs so portable and ıt has very good design."
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 5 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
5.05
Excellent Camera
08/08/2008
By xveedsxfrom Watertown, NY
What's great about it: Small Compact, HD Quality What's not so great: None yet.
"The Panasonic HDC-SD9 is a great camera, especially for the price that it came with. The light weight yet powerful 3CCD HD 1920x1080 Video it putouts is extremely nice. Every camcorder you buy will come with a manufacturer's basic editing software. Also the trial is Pinnacle Studio Plus v11.1, which retails at $100 (which is why it's a trial...)
Other than that, its small, lightweight, very easy to use, still shot camera is decent, but overall this camera does exactly what I need to do."
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 6 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
4.05
One of the best
07/21/2008
By starskymeetstech
What's great about it: nice picture What's not so great: hard to use editing software
"I love this camcorder, although it is really hard to use the editing software, and to convert files"
Would you recommend this product to a friend?:Yes
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Review 7 for Panasonic 2.1MP High-Definition Digital Camcorder with 2.7" LCD Monitor - Black/Gray
Customer Rating
4.05
very good
04/02/2008
By iamniknakfrom san diego,ca
What's great about it: lite and easy to use What's not so great: not mac friendly, trial software.
"this is a very good cam easy to use. 24fps is nice but picture and sound does not sync in imovie. trial software 15days not good."
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