Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB, A great little HDD..
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A great little HDD camcorder with one exception.
The first video I took with my SDR-H40 camcorder was of a small conference inside a moderately illuminated, windowless hangar. Since I was new to the camcorder, it was set to auto-white balance. The video came out fine, and better than I expected. When it was accidentally unplugged I was glad to see that it automatically fixed the video file in just a few seconds. Outdoor video is excellent, as is it’s optical stabilization. Panasonic uses a larger image chip than many manufacturers do in this price range.
My only disappointment was that it doesn’t have a very wide angle lens. Personally, I’d be willing to trade the long 42x telephoto for a decent wide angle shot. Unfortunately, this problem is widespread among most camcorder manufacturers.
What I like is the simplicity of operation, it’s excellent video, it’s large hard drive capacity which gives many hours of use, it’s ability to also record on SD & high capacity SD cards, it’s small size (you could fit three of them inside my old 8mm camcorder,) optical stabilization, and value. The software gets the job done, though it isn’t feature-rich. That’s fine with me, and preferable to software with a steep learning curve and lots of features that I’ll probably never use.
Update (2/6/2012): I also found some auctions for this item here.
The featured review for this product, Panasonic SDR-H40 40GB Hard Drive Camcorder with 42x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom Electronics Jan 31, 2007, was written by Sloper Dude.
The average rating for this item is out of 5 stars, according to 3 reviews.
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Tags: 3ccd, an 8th grader could use it, camcorder, digital camcorder, elements, handycam, hard drive, hard drive camcorder, hdd camcorder, hdd video camera, moi files, panasonic, panasonic hard drive camcorder, panasonic sdr h40 camcorder, panasonic sdr-h200, panasonic sdr-h40, premiere, sdr-h40, so easy, video camera
Posted on: August 12, 2010
Filed under: Reviews
Reviews (3)
Sloper Dude
July 6th, 2010 at 1:32 am
A great little HDD camcorder with one exception.
Rated 4 stars.
E. McIntosh
July 17th, 2010 at 4:45 am
What a great “little” camera!
I searched long and hard for reviews on the new SDR-H40 camcorder from Panasonic with very few results. I decided to go ahead and buy it from Amazon and just try it out. Amazon was the least expensive price by the way. This camera is exactly what I was looking for and fits my needs to film my two little boys perfectly. I was buying it to replace a 10 year old panasonic vhs-c camcorder that was well worn out. Right out of the box I could not believe how small this camera was. It literally fits in the palm of my hand. The 40 gig hard drive holds over 9 hours of video on the highest quality setting. More than enough for me I think. The sound was very crisp and clear. The video was average I thought but for the price I paid I have no complaints. I was actually between buying this camera and the Sony DCR-SR45. I opted for this Panasonic because of the price and my satisfaction in the old Panasonic vhs-c camera we owned previously. If you are looking for an entry level, low priced hard drive based camcorder, I strongly recommend the Panasonic SDR-H40. The only complaint I have so far is the included software which is no big deal.
Dan
July 21st, 2010 at 12:53 pm
So far so good
Purchased the Panasonic SDR-H40 about a month ago and have been pretty pleased with it so far. Filming indoors is pretty grainy as I would suspect most cameras in this price range will be. Turning all lights on and up when filming indoors helps though. Sound is OK, but good for basic use.
I’m running it on a MSFT XP system and the software that comes with it - to pull the video files off the camera in a viewable format is clunky at best. I’d recommend upgrading to a more sophisticated or 3rd party video editing software vs. using the standard tool that comes with it. I’m running Adobe Premiere Elements now and it is a much better user experience — from transferring files to editing the video.
On the positive side, the Zoom with optical image stabilizer is fantastic. The menu, interface, design, features/functionality are great — easy to use yet flexible enough to meet most average users filming needs.
If you are looking for a basic HDD camera, I’d give this one serious consideration.
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