Panasonic's new HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9 camcorders shoot 1080p

Panasonic has a pair of new HD camcorders, the HDC-SD9 and HDC-HS9 (pictured after the break), that should make any prosumer proud. Both cameras feature 3CCD sensors that record at full 1920 x 1080 to the AVCHD video format. The SD9, which is smaller than last year's SD5, records to SD and SDHC cards, while the HS9 can do SD and SDHC, or record to its built-in 60GB hard disk. Teamed with a 16GB SDHC card, that gives the HS9 29 hours worth of full HD recording. Both cameras feature face detection for auto-adjusting exposure and contrast to best portray skin tone, and Panny's Intelligent Shooting Guide for providing shooting tips on the LCD so users can adjust settings before capturing sub-par footage. Both cameras also have HDMI plugs, 5.1 channel surround sound (with five built-in microphones) and a high-speed burst still shot mode, with 24fps at 2.1 megapixela. The cameras will both be out in March 2008, with the SD9 retailing for $800, and the HS9 selling for $1,100.

[Joe @ Jan 6th 2008 3:29PM]

29 hours? Wow!

[Bryant @ Jan 6th 2008 3:34PM]

The Canon HV20 can do full 1080p at 24fps. This isn't anything new...

I'm waiting for the person who will inevitably reply here saying that the HV20 shoots 1080/24i. I can't wait to prove that person wrong.

[roger_huston @ Jan 6th 2008 3:45PM]

get a life.

[GRZA @ Jan 6th 2008 5:14PM]

uuhh yea. HV20 1080i son, there's a little difference

[Eugenia Loli-Queru @ Jan 6th 2008 5:43PM]

The HV20 does not support true 1080p via its tape, only via its HDMI port. And it's not practical or having a whole PC with you to capture via HDMI, so in all purposes, the HV20 does not deliver to the average Joe what its sensor can do.

[Adam Maras @ Jan 6th 2008 6:09PM]

The HV20 can record pure 1080 *progressive*, not interlaced, footage
via a pulldown (the pulldown is needed to store the frames via the HDV
standard). Remove the pulldown and you've got the original footage.
It's something many amateur videographers know that ordinary
gadgeteers wouldn't.

[LondonConsultant @ Jan 6th 2008 7:58PM]

Bryant: You may love your HV20's vertical resolution, but its horizontal resolution is only 1440 - such a pity it hasn't got the full 1920...

[Bryant @ Jan 6th 2008 8:50PM]

"Bryant: You may love your HV20's vertical resolution, but its horizontal resolution is only 1440 - such a pity it hasn't got the full 1920..."

Now *that's* a valid point. The workaround for that would be the HDMI port but that's a hassle. I was just driving a point that the HV20 can record in 1080p.

[Ben @ Jan 6th 2008 4:20PM]

Now we're talking. :-) 1080p, hooah.

[padam @ Jan 6th 2008 4:32PM]

I wonder if it has a microphone port, however 5.1 recording seems very impressive - at least on paper.

[Tim @ Mar 4th 2008 5:11AM]

If the camera turns off when the screen is closed, are you able to still shoot with it closed? i.e is there another way to turn the power on and off?

[Solidstate @ Jan 6th 2008 6:38PM]

I prefer the form factor of the HDC-SD7 - what happened to a western release of that model?

[steve @ Jan 7th 2008 7:24PM]

While I do love Panny products, I'm a little worry about the 29hr of full HD on 16GB business. This is ~500MB/hr. Many 704x396 h264 encodes are > 500MB/hr. This makes me worried what kind of PQ sacrifice was made to achieve that.

[Z @ Jan 9th 2008 12:11AM]

You wouldn't have 29 hours worth of HD recording on just the 16GB card. Engadget was saying that you'd have 29 hours worth if you combined a 16GB SDHC card along with the HS9's 60GB HDD.

So based on Engadget's estimates, 29 hours on 76GB worth of storage would be the equivalent of around 2.5 GB/hr.

[ck @ Jan 7th 2008 11:50PM]

Hey Steve, maybe I'm missing something but isn't 29 hours on 60 GB, like... 2 GB/hour not 500 MB/hour... maybe I missed something in the translation.

[Desperaton @ Jan 10th 2008 12:06PM]

Can someone please explain to me how the get 1920x1080 (maybe only from hdmi), when the CCD:s are only 560000 (or was it 520000) pixels? 3 * 560000 < 1920 * 1080... Until I get a satisfactory explanation to that problem, I will not buy this camera.