Review: Panasonic HDC-SD10
When you first clap your eyes on the Panasonic HDC-SD10, you’ll want one.
You’ll look at your existing camcorder (providing you own one, that is) and wonder how Panasonic has squeezed so much technology into such a small and lightweight gadget.
You might wonder why you didn’t wait to buy one… Or whether you can afford to upgrade.
Because the HDC-SD10 is guaranteed to turn heads. Like an Apache helicopter landing in a Tesco car park; or that moment when Susan Boyle first opened her mouth to sing on Britain’s Got Talent.
The HDC-SD10 is technically the ‘little brother’ to the Panasonic HDC-TM10. The main difference (bar a big splash of glossy black on the hinged LCD) is the lack of a dual storage system.
But while the SD10 doesn’t include the TM10’s 8GB of internal flash storage, it still comes equipped with an SD slot for easy solid state recording.
Panasonic should be applauded for providing an SD-only option. But when you consider that there’s barely £30 between the price of the two models, the HDC-TM10 provides better all-round value.
Don’t believe me? Over on the Panasonic UK website, you can compare the two models side-by-side. As you’ll see, they’ve got almost identical highlights – they weigh the same (227g without the battery), they both have a 1/ 6″ MOS image sensor, 1920×1080 full HD resolution, a 16x optical zoom (plus 40x, 1000x digital zoom) and a 2.7-inch, touch-sensitive LCD.
It’s even more impressive when you consider that all this is somehow shoehorned into a compact 48×63x115mm (WxHxD) chassis.
It’s a good bet that 99 percent of people won’t read the manual that comes with the HDC-SD10. They’ll just switch it on, hunt for the record button and work things out as they go.
To its credit, the HDC-SD10 isn’t complicated. Powered by a small, cube-shaped battery cell, there’s enough juice for almost two hours-worth of filming.
The 725mAh cell slots neatly into the main body of the camcorder. Here you’ll also find the on/off button and a nifty Pre-Rec mode. This buffers three seconds of video every time you open the lens cover. Press record and your clip will include those three seconds. Handy.
The third button here is labelled ‘Manual’. Again, 99 percent of people who buy the HDC-SD10 will never even touch it. And even if they do, they’ll quickly switch it back off again. For this mode is for all those camcorder veterans who don’t want to be aided by all the beginner-friendly technology that Panasonic has built in.
Things like automatic scene selection, face tracking, intelligent contrast, or the clever Auto Focus and Auto Exposure (AF/AE) system.
One feature that the Manual mode doesn’t turn off is Panasonic’s Advanced Image Stabilization (O.I.S). Even experienced video enthusiasts will appreciate the technology here, which is designed to compensate for camera shake.
According to Panasonic, O.I.S auto-detects and corrects any unintended movement 4,000 times every second. It’s a feel-good feature. While you might be conscious of the HDC-SD10 visibly shaking in your hand as you record, the final footage is often nowhere near as bad as you feared it might be.
That’s O.I.S in action. It’s a big draw for beginners. Of course, you could always use a tripod…
That said, many factors can affect the quality of your video footage. O.I.S does its best to eliminate judder; Intelligent Auto (iA) is on hand to automatically pick the best contrast, brightness and ISO settings for optimum results.
The Panasonic HDC-SD10 also features four recording modes – the highest quality option (HA) encodes 1920×1080 HD video at 17Mbps, HG at 13Mbps and the normal HX mode encodes at 9Mbps. A lower quality, 1440 x 1080 HE mode encodes video at 6Mbps.
While the footage isn’t true HD, you can fit more video onto your SD/SDHC memory card of choice.
Get out and about with the HDC-SD10 and it’s easy to appreciate how beautifully compact and extraordinarily light it is. Flip open the 2.7-inch LCD (and then the lens cover), set the time/date and you can be shooting your first HD video clips in under five seconds.
You need a memory card, of course, which slides neatly into the discreet SD card slot on the top-edge. Here, you’ll also find the simple controls for operating the 16x zoom and for taking still pictures (at 1.17 effective Megapixels). The record button is on the back panel and can be easily accessed with your thumb.
With very little effort you can produce professional-looking high-definition video footage that’s well-lit, sharp, clear and steady. As previously mentioned, the LCD on the HDC-SD10 is touch-sensitive and there’s a strip of buttons below the 230×400 pixel screen.
The Auto Focus/Auto Exposure mode can be accessed by simply clicking the onscreen option and then touching the subject of your shot. The Menu button, meanwhile, gives you access to further options, including various video and scene tweaks, plus picture settings for when you use the HDC-SD10 to capture still images.
The advantage of accessing this functionality via the LCD is that you never need to look away from your subject.
And when you’re done (or the battery has run out), you can review your HD footage and photos via the LCD or output the feed to a TV. The HDC-SD10 includes connections for component, HDMI, mini-USB and composite via an AV socket.
Panasonic has also provided support for VIERA link, enabling you to browse through the contents of the SD10 using your TV’s remote. Other options include printing photos directly to a PictBridge-compatible printer or burning images/video straight to DVD. Last, but not least, hook the HDC-SD10 up to a PC or Mac and copy across the MPEG4-AVC video files and JPEG images.
If we hadn’t already seen the HDC-TM10 with its dual storage capability (and 40GB maximum capacity), then the HDC-SD10 would attract phrases like “the best little camcorder we’ve seen”.
This week, however, it’s the second-best little camcorder we’ve seen. Available in glossy black or red, Panasonic is proving that you don’t need to pay big money to get an HD-capable video camera. In fact, on this evidence, going high-def is cheaper than you might think.
Twinned with the Panasonic HDC-TM10, the only way to tell these two HD camcorders apart is that the HDC-TM10 features 8GB of extra flash memory alongside its SD/SDHC slot.
With only a £30 difference in pricing (at least on Amazon’s UK store), the SD-only HDC-SD10 feels a little redundant. Given the choice, we’d opt for the slightly pricier TM10 every time.
We liked:
Like the HDC-TM10, the HDC-SD10 is gloriously lightweight and surprisingly versatile.
The range of automatic features (from face detection to intelligent scene selection) means that it’s easy to produce great HD footage even if you’ve never picked up a video camera before
Extra (and longer-life) batteries are available to extend your shoots, while Panasonic also supplies a DC cable so you can run the HDC-SD10 off the mains.
We disliked:
The HDC-SD10 doesn’t like fast panning.
And for only £30 more, you can get the superior HDC-TM10, which features 8GB of internal flash memory, plus an SD card slot. Plug in a 32GB SDHC card and you’ve got 40GB of blank space to play with.
Verdict:
Panasonic has a great heritage when it comes to camcorders – the Panasonic HDC-SD9 is another TechRadar favourite.
If we hadn’t already road-tested the HDC-TM10, then we’d be tapping our login details to Amazon to see how many of these lovely little camcorders are currently in stock.
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