Panasonic HDC SX5 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition Flash Memory & DVD Camcorder with 10X Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Normal Price:$999.95
Our Price:$590.69
Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Manufacturer: Panasonic
Model: HDC-SX5
Binding: Electronics
Publisher: Panasonic
Label: Panasonic
Floppy Disk Drive: None
Features for Panasonic HDC SX5 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition Flash Memory & DVD Camcorder with 10X Optical Image Stabilized Zoom:
- Record HD video direct to SDHC cards and DVD
- 1920 x 1080 full-HD recording; HD Advanced Pure Color Engine
- Leica Dicomar lens with 10x optical zoom; built-in Advanced O.I.S.
- Intelligent Contrast Control; Pre-rec function-Reviews Give The Lens As 12X
- 2.7-inch wide-angle LCD monitor; 170-degree viewing angle
Small Picture
Medium Picture
Customer Reviews
A good HD camcorder at a great price! 
2008-06-10
Well worth the price and then some. I'm tempted to give it 5 stars due to price but the low light picture is not good enough and AVCHD is too annoying at this time.
Pros:
- HD Camcorder with 3 CCD and O.I.S. (prevents blurry images)
- 2 Good and inexpensive media options (mini DVD and SDHC)
- AVCHD Should have a long future ahead with Blu-Ray winning the HD war
- Easy to use
- All the features I need and more
- Crisp vivid footage outside and in bright lighting
- Price (About half that of similar camcorders)
Cons
- Not the best HD image in low to standard indoor situations (Even in low light it is much better than my standard def camcorder but not 'crisp')
- Not as 'cute' as some other smaller camcorders
- AVCHD is all but impossible to edit easily with today's h/w and s/w. (I anticipate this will get better)
- You need a Blu-Ray player to play AVCHD. (You can use the camcorder to play the movies until the ps3 or blu-ray players prices drop.. or if new DVD players get the codex for AVCHD)
Over all I am quite happy. Once I get a Blu-ray player and a better PC to edit the video it will be great. But for now the picture is great and the remote that comes in the box makes using the camcorder as the player easy. I figure could wait for the prices to drop on blu-ray and better AVCHD editing to come out... but I might miss a couple of years of HD family movies so I'll deal with some inconvenience today for better video for tomorrow.
Great camera, need to have a blu-ray player to enjoy 2008-05-15
This is a great camera. To truly enjoy it, a Blu-ray player is required.
Very happy! 
2008-04-18
Sure, it's not perfect, but for the price, you simply cannot beat this. Pick up a couple of 8GB memorycards and you are good to go (they are cheap!).
Pluses:
-Optical Image Stabilizer
-HD!!!! (1920x1080i) - Good Quality in daylight/normal light indoors
-SDHC cards (cheap and high capacity)
-DVD burner if you want to make Standard Def captures and burn for regular dvd playback. (can also be used to store HD content, but needs special players for playback)
-Battery Capacity is very good
-Nice LCD Screen
-Prerec, if activated, it continously records the last 3 seconds, so when you hit record, it will remember and store the previous 3 seconds as well. Good if you are a bit slow to start recording..
Minuses:
-A bit large and clumsy (partly due to inclusion of dvd burner and large capacity battery!)
-Noisy picture in low light situations
Note: Works well with PS3, if you have the 80GB version, stick the SDHC card in directly, if you own the 40GB version, buy a cheap USB adapter that supports SDHC.
Its What you need!! 2008-03-22
I have been playing with this camcorder for a day and I am impressed!! The image stabilizer makes my shots look like the camera was on a mount. After a few sec. of playing around with it or a few min. of reading the manual its a sinch to use. Very user friendly and definatly worth the money. I have previewed many other camcorders and this fits the bill.
The only down side is you have to buy SD cards and Miny disks. If it had an internal hard drive It would be an A++ But then again the price would be alot higher and there would be a lot of noise. This thing is SILENT! Its small and there are plenty of thing you can buy to go along with it. For the price and A- rating you wont beet it!! PS.Get the 8GB card with it. You are going to buy it any way so why wate?
