Panasonic HDC-SD100 Questions and Answers

I got the Panasonic HDC-SD100 while out in Las Vegas at CES as part of the Panasonic/Crayon bloggers program.


Steve Garfield and Jimmy Fallon by Veronica Belmont, on Flickr CC BY-NC

Joseph Jaffe just wrote up a summary post on his blog, CES La Vie in HD!, and I commented:

I was just telling my wife that from now on, I'm shooting in HD. It just looks so good. I still need to spend some time evaluating the Panasonic HD camera to see if it meets all my needs, but getting a hands on evaluation like this is really the only way for me to determine if something is going to work for me. With so many features and functions, how do companies expect people to make purchase decisions? In the video I say that this was my first experience with a true HD camera. I've been paying around with a Kodak Zi6 I picked up for $178 at Radio Shack because I had no idea what to get for an HD camera. I didn't even know if I wanted one. But after using the Panasonic HD camera, I know I'll never go back to standard definition for my professional work. For one thing, the camera is so small! I have a cart with wheels to bring all my equipment to a shoot. I do have some open questions about the camera that I'll be researching.

1. Is the absence of Firewire a problem? iMovie 08 seems to require Firewire to capture live video.
2. Can I use this as a live camera via USB? I'm thinking for UStream and/or Mogulus.
3. Do I need to import via iMovie 08, or can Final Cut Pro import AVCHD footage?

I'll be looking into these questions and posting about them on my blog.

If any readers can help with answers, I'd love to hear them.

I'm starting to find out the answers.

1 and 2: Using the Panasonic HDC-SD100 for live video
The only way you can get the camera to operate as a webcam with a Macintosh is to have a Firewire connection. When you plug in the USB cable the camera lens closes. So you can't capture live video, and can't use it as a live camera for sites like UStream or Mogulus.

3. Importing AVCHD
I've been able to import into iMovie 08, then export an XML into FCP. That works fine and I've enjoyed seeing hte quality output of HD footage. Melissa Pierson found out that, "AVCHD support is available only on Intel-based Macintosh computers", so you can't use an older Macintosh. I did find a solution online to convert AVCHD footage into HDV 1080i Apple Intermediate Codec format Quicktime movies over here, How to edit AVCHD footage on Mac OSX? Final Cut Pro 6.0.1 and Voltaic to the rescue! I'll be giving FCP another shot at importing the AVCHD footage.

Pros and Cons
Let's look at the pros and cons.

Pros:
I love the size of the camera, the quality of the output, and the directional mic. It was a lot of fun to carry this camera around at CES.

Cons:
I don't like the fact that you have to remove the battery to plug in the USB cord, and that you have to plug in the power to import footage. The microphone jack is in the front of the camera in an awkward location and my microphone jack size is too big to fit into the jack.

No firewire support might be a deal breaker for me.

What's Next?
I'd like to try out a Canon camera with a Firewire port. Those are also AVCHD. I'd also like to try out an HD camera that saves video in native QuickTime. The $179 Kodak Zi6 does that, why can't a higher priced HD camera do it?

Look for me at CES wearing this Liquid Image HD Video Underwater Camera

Liquid Image's HD Video Underwater Camera Mask, originally uploaded by stevegarfield.

I'm heading out to CES tomorrow morning as a guest of Panasonic.



At least I hope to be heading out, the Boston Twitter Storm Report says "Snow develops across the region this evening to a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain after midnight."

Perfect, freezing rain.





Panasonic had planned to send out five bloggers, but one just had to have emergency gall bladder surgery. Get well soon Cliff.

Greg Verdino explains everything about the trip on his blog. Basically, Panasonic is covering my flight and hotel, and taking us out to dinner, letting us use their products, and showing us what they are up to.

There's no requirement for us to blog about Panasonic, just to make one post a day and one after CES. So if you see the tag LIHD on my post, that's for Panasonic and means Living in HD.

Upcoming Events I'll Be At
Panasonic Presents... A CES Tweet-Up in High Definition - Thursday January 8, 2009 from 6:30pm - 8:00pm
2009 "It Won't Stay in Vegas" Blogger Party -Friday January 9, 2009 from 5:00pm - 8:00pm. Pre-registration required.

On Thursday, sometime between 12 and 2 I'll be at the Intel booth with Sarah Austin doing a video streaming broadcast over WiMax.

Follow Me
Check out SteveGarfield.com for updates. The main page will show my most recent Qik and blip.tv videos, my Friendfeed stream and flickr photos.

You can also follow me on twitter.

What I'm Looking Forward To

People. Although there are going to be 2,700 vendors at CES, there are also going to be 120,000 people there. CES IS PEOPLE!

The last time I went to CES was in 2006.



Back then there wasn't any twitter. We had to walk five miles to school, up a hill, with no shoes.

This year there are a lot of bloggers and social media people headed to CES. So although there are going to be thousands of peope there, I think it's going to feel a lot like a mini-SXSW.

HP is sponsoring a CntrStg bloggers lounge at the Wynn January 7, 2009 - Sunday January 11, 2009 from 4:00pm - 12:00pm. I'll make sure I stop by to hang out over there. You'll need to register for that.

So I'm looking forward to seeing lots of people that I only get to see a few times a year.

I'm also looking forward to shooting some fun video projects. You'll see those when they happen!

I want to wear that Liquid Image HD contraption and shoot some video. Isn't it the perfect looking device for a videoblogger?

Vendors I'm looking forward to meeting up with include Mogulus, Qik, TiVo, Nokia, and Kodak.

I'm very interested in seeing how the Panasonic HDC-SD100 HD camcorder works. The only HD I've had a chance to work with is the Kodak Zi6.

If you are going to CES, drop a note in the comments and let me know what you are looking forward to.

If you aren't going, leave me a note about what you want me to go check out for you.