Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic HDC-SD200 High Definition Flash Memory Camcorder With SD Card Slot & 3MOS Sensor - Black

Great product, love all the automatic features on there to help get the best results.
Very simple to use - my wife just picked up the camera and started filming my daughters birthday party without any problems...
Pre-record feature is particularly useful for those special moments you normally miss by being too late to record (select the option and it will include the previous 3 seconds prior to you actually pressing the record button)
Also like the option to take a still picture whilst simultaneously recording video - just ensure you have a steady hand.

BUT ...

The camera does not come with an SD card.
You will need at least SDHC Class 4 card, which can be difficult to find in the shops, especially in large sizes (8Gb +).
Best bet is to buy via the web (7day shop offer great prices). BUT dont be like me. Make sure you leave enough time for the SD card to arrive via the post (a week should cover it) otherwise you get the camera really efficiently from Amazon (thankyou) but no card so you cant use it - very frustrating...

Plus if recording in HD, remember that you will need a powerful PC to allow editing / playback - otherwise you will get the message of doom, telling you your pc is not powerful enough for playback but will do so at 2 frames per second...
- not quite the HD experience i was after...

Since ordered new HD spec laptop from Dell Studio XPS 16 (incl. BlueRay writer and 1080p screen) but now waiting a further 2 weeks for that to arrive...
Hoping that will be the end of the purchasing for a while.

The camera is surprisingly tiny but easilly handled and produces excellent stills and video. I like nearly everything about it but there are one or two things that I don't find so good.

I find that the photoshot button for taking stills requires very careful handling if you are not to blur the shot. I also think the camera would be infinately better for the inclusion of an eyepiece. The screen is very good but is very hard to use in bright or sunlit conditions. The supplied battery is the smaller 1250ma type, but to purchase the latger 2640ma model costs nearly £150. This is extortionate in the extreme and only encourages the use of other makes of battery. I am surprised that Panasonic can't see this.

This full HD camcorder produces stunning quality video, as you would expect. The controls are simple to use and the software supplied does the job for basic editing, which is all most people will need.

The battery lift isn't amazing but it does the job and you'll have the charger with you most of the time.

It's a shame there is no view finder and there is no shoe for external mic or light. You have to buy the more expensive models for those features. Panasonic should also ship it with a mini-HDMI cable but they're cheap enough on Amazon.

Also, there is no Firewire out port so I don't believe it can be used as a webcam.

All in all a great purchase, especially for the price.

Beautiful piece of kit. I have never needed to have resolution at max (I use HX1920) which is still HD and keeps the file size down.

The AVCHD format is natively supported in Windows 7 Media Player which is useful for playback.

But make sure you buy a SDHC card (class 4 minimum) or the camera will just be an ornament. Also, be aware that spare batteries are expensive.