Recorded a short clip with the Panasonic SD 100, right out of the box.
Very easy to figure out, not so easy though was trying to figure out where to plug in the USB cable.
You must remove the battery. The USB port is on the back of the battery. Then you have to plug in the power cable and power adapter. This whole process seemed convoluted to me. The USB post needs to be somewhere other thatn BEHIND the battery.
Next up I connected the camera to the USB and took a look at the files. They are AVCHD files. First time I'd seen them.
Do not like. I had no idea what to do with them. I mean, NO IDEA. So I did a Google search adn started seeing all kinds of converters you could buy to convert AVCHD to Quicktime and such. After searching for a while I decided to open up iMovie 08 to see if it could import the files. It did.
Turns out that iMovie actually converts the AVCHD files into something it can edit.
Here's more information from Wikipedia:
"Apple's Final Cut Express 4, Final Cut 6.0.1, and iMovie '08 (Bundled with all new macs) do not support editing of AVCHD clips directly. Imported AVCHD clips are auto-converted into the Apple Intermediate Codec format, (MAC OSX 10.5 or greater and intel mac)."Would have been nice if iPhoto recognized the camera right away and let me know this. Maybe I did something wrong.
Next, I opened up iMovie 08 and it recognized it and imported it. After cropping the length slightly, I exported at 960 x 540.
Then I posted to a bunch of sites to see how they'd handle the HD video. The embedded video above if from Facebook, which does a very nice job of embedding HD on blogs. I also posted it on my video blog via blip.tv and on YouTube.
I'll be trying it out some more today...
Disclosure:
Panasonic flew me out, and put me up at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. Nice place. I'm in a room with a Tarzan theme. All the rooms have themes. They treated invited bloggers to dinner at PF Changs. I'd never been and thought it was just another chain. Not so.
If you missed my earlier post about them, I'll repeat, I had the most amazing marinated cucumbers I've ever had. I also enjoyed the 14 Trees Merlot. We all had a nice time. Looking forward to the show today.
I plan on seeing that HD Scuba mask, Sarah Austin between 12 and 2 at the Intel booth, and Red Soz player David “Big Papi” Ortiz at the Sharp Electronics, LVCC, Central Hall, Booth #11024 between 2 and 3.
Tonight I'll be at the Panasonic Tweetup. You are invited. Yes. You. It's at the Panasonic CES booth #9405 in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center -- and begins after the exhibit hall closes for the evening, 6:30 - 8:00. You need to have a CES pass to get into the convention center.