Panasonic HDC-SD60K SD Based Hi-Def Camcorder with 35X Intelligent Zoom (Black) Reviews

Average Customer Rating -

42 customer reviews

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A preliminary review, and comparison to the Sony HDR-CX110, October 9, 2010
I first purchased the Sony HDR-CX110, in the same price/feature class as this Panasonic. If you are considering respectively camera, here's what I can tell you. Be forewarned that I have single had today to play with the Panasonic, and I hold only used each model contained by Automatic mode. I will post updates if I discover anything significant:

SONY HDR-CX110:

Wins:
+Size - the Sony is much smaller, easily fitting into my cargo/tactical pants pockets;
+Image point - the Sony has much better [on fully auto mode] color and contrast;
+Both an HD and an SD camcorder - Can make AVCHD or MPG, in-camera!;
+10mm Threaded Filter compatible - The Sony have a manual lens cap, and a filter thread on the outside of this. While you won't know how to protect your filter with the cap, you can at smallest keep your lens protected;
+Manual Lens Cap - User preference, but I close to having fewer "automatic" moving parts to break-down.

Looses:
-Image Stabilization - not strong satisfactory for my hand held video needs - I believe the IS on this model is digital single - you can spend a couple hundred $ more for the CX300, which has Optical IS, you might find better IS [out of my price range];
-Artifacts - I noticed several blocks surrounded by my video test. I don't know if this was from the digital picture stabilization trying to figure out how to handle lagoon water on a windy time, or something else. I did not notice this in the Panasonic, but enjoy only done limited conducting tests.

Panasonic HDC-SD60:

Wins:
+Lighting - Panasonic SD60 has built-in video light and still flash - these will probably be of constrained use, in only close station, but there if you need it. In preliminary conducting tests, these both worked fairly well;
+Image Stabilization within this model is optical, and includes two modes - regular, for simple hand-held video, and "active" for filming while moving. Both worked well, much better than the Sony, but will not completely exterminate camera shake.

Looses:
-Size - While still quite small, this camera is large when compared to the Sony [longer and heavier]. I probably won't be carrying it within my cargo/tactical pants;
-Automatic Scene Mode - It takes much too long for the camera to adjust to lighting conditions, and it cannot come across to find the right color temperature for indoor lighting - I have not played beside manual mode, yet, but masses reviewers write that the manual mode is much better;
-No SD mode - only writes AVCHD files;
-Automatic Lens Cap - User nouns, but this seems to be another piece to breakdown;
-No Filter Threads - Can this really cost much to implement? I can't install a polarizer, UV or any other filter to enhance my video or to protect the lens.

Conclusion:
I tried the Sony first, because of the ability to transmutation it from an HD to an SD camcorder at the push of a button - Writing either AVCHD, or Standard-Def .MPG files, when appropriate. After I discovered that the Sony IS was restricted in its ability, I returned the Sony for the Panasonic. The Panasonic's IS is much better, but the Sony does give the impression of being to have much better image characteristic [Automatic modes tested, only!].

Overall, I'd choose the Sony, but only if using a tripod most of the time. I'll hold on to the Panasonic for hand-held videoing.

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Best budget camcorder under $500, June 25, 2010
I've done a pretty good amount of research on budget hi-def camcorders between $400 and $500 dollars. In my judgment, this is the best camcorder in this price range. I would notably recommend this camcorder to anyone looking to just film home gatherings, vacations, or for film budget movies. The camcorder has an attractive design, fits in your palm, and is the fail-safe weight. It takes fantasic video, have a 3 second pre-record function, face tracking, good freestyle life, a flash & video light, average photos, and dolby digital audio soundtrack. My only complaint is the location of the record button, it is a bit awkward. I be going to go with the Sony cx110 which have mostly the same specs, but decided on this camcorder since it have optical image stabilization (which works flawlessly) instead of an electronic stabilizer. It also has an LED video hurricane lantern and a flash, for photos. It supports SDXC memory cards, which can hold 64GB or more. If you prefer flash memory over using a hard drive, like me, you are better stale with this base model and getting a 16/32GB SD card. I bought the 32GB Transcend SDHC card from Amazon and it works without blemish with this product.

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A nice camcorder!, July 1, 2010
This is a replacement for my 10 year old Panasonic camcorder so the first piece I noticed is this thing is SMALL, but they are adjectives pretty small compared to my old camcorder. Without going into too much detail I'll just write down the things I found much better than I expected and the couple things I am a little disappointed in. I don't enjoy experience with any other new camcorders so I can't vote this one is better or worse than any of the other new models.

Pleasantly surprised:
- The image stabilization side is very very suitable.
- The video picture quality is impressive.
- The freestyle lasts longer than it is suppose to (manual says 50 minutes but I seize double that).
- The software that comes with it is certainly biddable enough for me and is easy to use. It allows you to arrange your clips into a video and write it to a standard DVD contained by standard definition, to a standard DVD in high definition or to a blu-ray disc. You can delete portions of clips, tag on transitions between clips, add text to a clip (first clip only) and build a menu peak.

Things that are a bit of a disappointment:
- The automatic white balance isn't the greatest. Within a single lighting environment and a single shot the auto white balance will change from a little too yellow, to for a moment too blue to just right. I've given up on auto white balance and very soon use manual white balance. Manual mode is a bit of a hassle but worth it to avoid the white symmetry swings the automatic setting produces.
- The wind cut filter can't be turned off surrounded by auto mode. This isn't a big deal to me now that I use instruction manual mode (because of my white balance complaint) but if I did want to use auto mode there are times you involve to have the wind cut filter bad or the sound will get totally messed up (like when an audience is clapping along to a song).
- Low table lamp recording is fairly deafening. It isn't horrible. I decided it is acceptable for my use but my 10 year infirm camcorder did better in low light.

Everything else in the region of the camcorder is about what I expected. It's easy to use, nice zoom scope, still camera mode can't compete with a real still camera but that shouldn't come as a big surprise. Overall a highly nice camcorder for the money. Is it the best camcorder for the money? I have no idea, but I can read aloud I'm happy with it and it is able of producing very nice video with merely a little effort as long a within is sufficient light.


UPDATE - one month later: I've have the camcorder for over a month and have shot 10+ hours of video with it. I'm still impressed next to this little camcorder. It can produce some beautiful video. I'd give it 5 stars if the white be a foil for worked a little better. I still stand by my original comments.

One software aspect I discovered and like a lot is the expertise to capture a still photo from the video. I'm sure all video software have this feature but it is new to me. With the still invasion feature you can get a 3.6 inch x 6.4 inch 300dpi jpg from the video. The software allows you to look at the video frame by frame so you can takeover a still picture at just the right moment. This is very nice for making small snapshot photos, specifically of fast action subjects. One irritating thing about most still cameras is shutter fill (the delay from the time you push the button to the time the picture is taken). Many times great shots are missed because of that delay but by capture still images from the video you can always capture the shot at just the right moment! It's a fun feature.


UPDATE #2 - 2 months next: I've shot over 20 hours of video with this camcorder now and I'm still incredibly happy with it. I purchased a sandisk 16GB card (holds in the region of 2 hours of video) and I'm keeping an eye out for a Vw-VBK360 extra battery for use on vacations. The Vw-VBK180 mobile that comes with the camera lasts at smallest 100 minutes of actual use yet is only suppose to finishing 50 minutes. I don't know why I'm getting so much time out of it! I do shut off the camera between shots (by closing the viewing door) but doesn't everybody? Seems like a fluent thing to do.

I still use manual mode for white harmonize. I'm much happier with the results using manual white match rather than automatic white balance. The auto white harmonize in my old camcorder as ably as the white balance in my daughter's little Flip camcorder works fine but not within this new camcorder. It's my only authentic complaint.

I did a little test to compare my prehistoric camcorder with the new camcorder within low light conditions. The new camcorder produces a pretty noisy video in relatively low fluffy but my old camcorder produces a pretty nice video under indistinguishable low light conditions. I'm not talking completely dark - living room, in the evening, lit next to 2 floor lamps. But I found a flaw in my experiment! What I discovered is both camcorders produce fairly good video within STANDARD DEFINITION (note: the new camcorder only files in HD but the software provided with the camcorder allows you to convert it to standard definition). It is just in HIGH DEFINITION that the video from the new camcorder is strident. Since my old camcorder only collection in standard definition it wasn't fair for me to compare my prehistoric camcorder standard definition video with my new camcorder dignified definition video. So for what it's worth, my new and old camcorders produce nearly the same quality standard definition video within low light conditions. Maybe you have to step up to a more expensive camcorder to attain low noise, high definition video.

I've get to say, even though low light standard definition video looks better than low muted high definition video, once you've viewed lofty definition video in normal lighting conditions you'll never want to jump back to standard definition ever again. The difference is remarkable!


UPDATE #3 - 3 months later: I verbs to use this camcorder a lot and am still very content with it. There are a few things I'd change if I could but nought too serious. Manual focus is painful but I've only used that once. Getting to the backlight compensation mode is pretty painful and I wish at hand was a button on the camcorder that put the camcorder in backlight mode approaching my old camcorder has but again, not the lapse of the world.

I just responded to a very honourable question in the COMMENTS SECTION going on for manually setting the white balance that I didn't mention earlier explicitly very important: When you manually set the white match the setting DOES stay at whatever you set it at when you turn off the camcorder. In other words, the white stability setting you select "sticks", which is a very good item! If I had to manually reset the white balance setting every time I shut the camcorder past its sell-by date I would not have kept this camcorder. Fortunately that is not the satchel. You can set the white balance to whatever you necessitate and you only need to convert the setting when your lighting conditions change.


UPDATE #4 - 4 months later: I've individual used the camcorder a couple of hours this past month and don't have anything modern to add. This will be my last update to my review unless I discover something prominent. All, in all, it's a totally nice camcorder!

Addendum to update #4 - On 11/5/10 I broke my camcorder. It was entirely my fault. I hit the outer edge/end of the LCD blind quite hard on a rock-hard object and the screen is very soon blank. The camcorder still works but the LCD screen is history. Can't blame the camcorder though. To give you an model of what I really think of the HDC-SD60K, I'm replacing my broken HDC-SD60K with a contemporary HDC-SD60K. I just ordered it from Amazon (again) and was pleasantly surprised to revise the price has dropped 25% from what I paid a bit over 4 months ago! It's a nice camcorder and I thought is was a good buy when I bought it 4 months ago but at it's current price it's a no-brainer!

Kudos to Amazon! I ordered another HDC-SD60K camcorder (to replace the one I broke on 11/5) on Saturday 11/6 and it be delivered Friday 11/12 and that was using the super shareholder free shipping option!

I thought I'd see if the automatic white balance works any better surrounded by my new HDC-SD60K camcorder compared to what I'd experience in my feeble HDC-SD60K. You never know, maybe my old one be defective or maybe Panasonic tweaked the HDC-SD60K in olden times 4 months to improve the way the auto white stability works. So I shot some video in IA mode, inside and out. Nope. No different than my original HDC-SD60. The picture change tint within a single shot when panning or zoom as the camcorder continually adjusts the automatic white balance filter base on what is in the image at any extraordinary moment. Oh well, I've gotten use to manual mode anyway and the results are far better.


I hope you found this information adjectives. I'd like to thank the people who took the time to write camcorder reviews when I be researching them. It's very helpful to carry insights from end-users. I'm glad I bought the camcorder that I did and I'm even happier that I decided to upgrade from my standard definition camcorder to an eye-popping high definition camcorder!

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All-around camera, August 8, 2010
I've have this camera for a couple of months now, and I am pleasantly surprised by it. I've never owned an HD camera, and this is my first new camera purchase surrounded by about 15 years or so. I've been using my phone camera for most pictures or borrowing my wife or daughter's digital still camera for the occasional have need of. This camera is many times better than my Droid phone camera mainly because of the versatility. That is, the phone camera isn't great for video, or zoom and slow motion playback or low standard lamp situations. I scrubbed Amazon for quite a while formerly purchasing, reading all the reviews I could find on other cameras looking in this price scale down to about 1/2 the price of this camera. Although this one didn't have frequent reviews, and wasn't cheap, it was well-liked by those who purchased it, and presently I know why. It has a bunch of advanced features which I haven't used but I will detail the ones I have used.

The camera fits contained by my pocket reasonably comfortably, it's slightly larger than my wallet. It's a touch wider than my hand when I hold it but comfortably fits surrounded by the palm of my hand. The controls are easy to use once you draw from used to them. There are 3 modes, playback, video and still. The still pictures are quite impressive. I sold a saloon on eBay and the pictures were huge and very crisp on my computer. They be amongst the largest pictures on eBay after I posted them, larger than most of the car dealers selling anyway. I believe it's 4.3 megapixel, but not adjectives megapixels are created the same. I think this 4.3 talent is better than a 4 megapixel camera phone.

The video quality is exceptional. Oddly, on playback using my TV this camera seems to own better video quality than most of the HD programming I watch on Dish Network. I'm not sure how that can be possible, but it is better. I can see every pelt on my daughter's head and every blade of grass when I watch a playback. During video tape, there is a box that appears around faces, apparently it's recognize and focusing on those faces.

I've used this camera in several provoking situations and found it to be very good. I've used it low reading light for example, and it has a built-in light that comes on automatically. We be at a restaurant recently which was bleak, and I recorded video for a few seconds and the picture was somewhat dark, but the muted automatically came on for both the video mode and still picture mode (flashed). The people whom you are copy might find the light annoying (in video mode as it stays on), but as the cameraman the playback image looks great - you can turn sour the light manually, easily.

The zoom is pretty incredible. I be recently at Brewer's baseball game, from the 1st dais line I was competent to zoom in on the center fielder to fill the frame, he be about 500-600 ft away from where I be sitting. Zooming out, I turned the camera back on myself and my son for a nice wide angle shot at arms length. During playback on my TV, I could even see the contracted stripes on the center fielder's shirt. The stabilization (anti-shake) mode (OIS) allowed me to see the players on playback with no noticeable shaking or movement on my subdivision. With the OIS turned off, I could not hold the camera steady enough for the long band zoom shots. You don't need a tripod to steady the camera but I've used a tripod and it works well near this camera.

The battery life is pretty apposite about 3 hours of use or so playback and at least an hour or more surrounded by record mode reduce. I'm thinking something like getting the larger battery as although it might heavier, it would be nice to have the extra freestyle life and a spare battery.

I also record my golf swing using the high-speed record mode. Although I couldn't get the super-slow motion playback that you see on TV golf, but I be able to stop the club head legally well for my purposes anyway. I could see my driver shaft was bending relatively a bit which was a surprise. I was also competent to see the club shaft angle fairly well during playback. The controls for playback contained by slow motion are a little clumsy but not too bad once you return with used to it (press the pause button, then hold down the FF or Rewind buttons).

I plan to use the camera for soundtrack my daughter's lacrosse games this school year. I expect from what I've seen that it will work economically for that purpose as well.

The biggest complaint that I have is that still pictures enjoy a problem with red-eye when using the flash. Even when the person isn't looking directly at the camera, the center of the eyes are red. It's an annoying problem that I can't give the impression of being to fix. Other than that I've been pretty happy next to the camera's usability and quality.

Accessories:

The camera comes with a detailed user-manual, a charger, 2 connector cable, and a CD disk containing software for IBM-compatible computers. However, just plugging it into my Mac computer worked fine near without any additional software.

The two cable included: a USB cable for connecting to your computer, and cable to attach to your TV for playback. The cable for playback is one of those 6-connector types (red, green blue, video as well as yellow (video), and red/white audio). Unfortunately, it's singular about 5' long. Although the video quality be quite good near the included cable, I went for the additional HDMI mini-cable as I looked-for to see the quality difference - which frankly is hard for me to relay the difference, but the accessory cable below is much longer (nearly 10' instead of the 5' cable that comes with the camera) thus I recommend it.

I purchased a cable (Panasonic Mini HDMI Cable, 9.8 Ft) and a memory card (SanDisk Ultra 32GB SDHC Card (SDSDRH-032G-A11) - both of which I recommend. The memory card was a bit more than I wanted to wages, but works quite well. There may be be cheaper memory cards available that work as okay, not sure.

cable:

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