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Panasonic SDR-H200 30gb Hard Drive Camcorder

76

Good
  • Pros
  • High video and image quality
  • Long battery life
  • Cons
  • High price
  • One-handed operation is awkward

User Reviews for Panasonic SDR-H200 30gb Hard Drive Camcorder

  • Reviewed by: Sagittarius2008

    Duration of ownership: 3 Months

    Strengths: High video and sound quality, good image stability, easy to use

    Weaknesses: Terrible video software, outrageous burning process due to maker's software dependency, no possibility to add a flash lamp.

    Overall Evaluation: Mediocre. The 3CCD system feature led me to buy it because my priority was video quality, which I found poor in some high valued brands like Sony. However, the problems I found to pass the saved video to a DVD were dissapointing. Working with a MPEG format, the device should allow to pass the MPEG video files directly from the Camera HD to another storage media without neither loosing the sound line nor having to use the maker's software.

  • Reviewed by: sinofsky

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Panasonic, great video, large hard drive size, and the ability to use SD Memory

    Weaknesses: Image quality for pictures is really grainy

    Overall Evaluation: Bought this camera for my fiancee for the holidays for we have a 7 month old son who was a preemie and has been growing up fast. I chose the right camera! So easy to use that she figured it out quite quickly and she is not a tech person! Can't pass up this camera for the price I got it on Amazon (under $600), and I do not regret the purchase for a second! So if you are looking for a solid camcorder that will grow with you, get this CAMERA!

  • Reviewed by: amalarasan

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Compact size, light weight, Hard disk, 3 CCD, inbuilt light, video quality.

    Weaknesses: Need to open the lens cap manually, not very great on low light.

    Overall Evaluation: I am panny fan when comes to the camcorder. This is my second panasonic camcorder and a good upgrade over my GS65. 3CCD has a huge difference in the video quality and it is much better than a 1 CCD camcorder. This is compact and light weight and fits right in a small camcorder bag and is very easy to carry. outdoor video quality is as good as pro camcorders, but low light is not very great, even though this does a good job, but I expected more.One touch CD transfer was good and fast.I am giving 4 stars because, you need to manually open the lens cap. This camcorder comes with an inbuilt lens cap like the ones in the digital cameras, which opens automatically when you poweron. But in this camcorder, you need to open the cap manually.

  • Reviewed by: Ezeeview

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: 3 CCD, 30 GB HD, Ergonomically placed controls

    Weaknesses: No other software available apart from Imagemixer which is provided along with the camcorder but which lacks video editing features, 10X optical zoom is insufficient

    Overall Evaluation: Best buy. I bought this camcorder after reading lot of positive notes about it. It really gives you best value as far as picture is concerned as a effect of 3CCD. The picture, sound quality is very good. All the controlls are conveniently placed except zoom button which sometimes makes you loose the subject. The battery life is average. The 10X optical zoom needs some advancement. Optical Image Stabilizer is not very effective. The video writing process to DVD is time consuming and can be done only with Imagemixer which may not be suitable in case you want to have some editing features. The still capability is mediocre.

  • Reviewed by: rwalker1957

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Ease of use-Great picture-Hard drive recording

    Weaknesses: None so far

    Overall Evaluation: This is a great camcorder. I found it very easy to use out of the box. Some advanced features may take a little tweaking but point and shoot very simple. Loaded software, took a small video and transfered with relative ease. Colors are very good and quality is good. A great camcorder for someone not quite ready to go the HD route. That will be down the road for me, but with this camcorder and it's quality that may be a while.

  • Reviewed by: joshdym

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: hard drive of course, optical image stabilization seems to work well, 3.1 MP still pics is nice plus(no need to lug stillcamera), 3CCD- good image quality, nice small size- not too small, easy to use

    Weaknesses: lens cap is not automatic though it is built-in which is nice, 10x optical zoom is on low-end (but this is trade-off with better image quality), price is a bit high

    Overall Evaluation: Overall a great camera, everything I expected. However, I have not yet started uploading/burning DVDs so I'm not sure how easy that will be. (It'll be years until I run out of 30GB of hard drive...)I compared specs with Sony SR-62 and JVC-GZMG255. Similar price range but the 3CCD and 3.1 MP won out. Reviews of these cameras differ regarding low-light capability, I suspect they are all similarly mediocre. This one seems ok in low-light so far. If you have a little more $ to spend, the higher-end Sonys like SR-200 or 300 may be a good bet (not SR-82, that just has more memory). I think the Sonys look a litle cooler and also have a touch screen for what that's worth. I haven't researched the Canons though. Also, I think high-def is unnecessary at this point, especially for the amateur like myself. Professionals may want to lay out the extra $ or hold out for price to come down on the high-def hard drive cams.Bottom line- if you are an amateur who is willing to pay a little more for good quality video and likes the benefit of 3.1 MP stills, this camcorder is for you.

Panasonic SDR-H200 Review

by Tracey Capen

- Not graced with sophisticated styling, the Panasonic SDR-H200 ($720 as of April 24, 2007) has no more in the way of extra features than competing models that cost $100 to $200 less. One possible reason for the high price is the camcorder's three-chip (red, green, and blue) CCD imaging system. In tests conducted by the PC World Test Center, our jury awarded the SDR-H200 scores of Very Good for both video quality and still image quality.

Read Complete Review ยป

News, Reviews, How-To's about Panasonic SDR-H200

  • Top 10 DVD and HDD Camcorders Though they record in the same file format, the optical disk-based models we tested delivered better video quality for the price than competing hard-disk drive models.

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