Customer Reviews
Panasonic SD5 
2008-05-30
An excellent cam-corder, writes directly to SD-HC cards so the camera is small and light. great pictures and video and a free DVD burner as well.
ah. may. zing. 2008-05-09
so, this camera is basically awesome.
the picture is great (yes, it's true that it's a little grainy in low lighting, but that's just fine), it's easy to use, a perfect size, and it's super light, but not too light.
ont of the things i love most about it, though, is the image stabilization. this makes it so that you get the same, stable results you would get while using a tripod by just holding the camera in your hand (unless, of course, you have REALLY shaky hands for some reason), making it really easy to get a great shot anywhere.
the only thing, though, is the filetype. i had a LOT of trouble in the beginning figuring out how to get it onto my computer and in a filetype that i could work with. that part's not that simple.
but other than that, a great camera. for everything from home movies with the family to amateur independent films. an AWESOME product.
HDC-SD5 w/DVD Burner 2008-03-22
Very nice point & shoot. Menu's easily accessed. Wish the fade option could be left on by default. Must buy with the DVD burner. Very easy to burn & archive. Videos from DVD burner play back great on PS3. I use 4-gig SD cards so I can fit all of it on one DVD.
In low light conditions, the pix gets grainy, but this is common for camcorders. Out performs my last mini-dv jvc in low light, so all's good.
Great package size. Love how small this guy is.
Nice, but difficult to find acessories in the US 
2008-03-01
Incredible image resolution, very light, also very small.
Miss a viewfinder.
Very difficult to find acessories in the US . . . had to order battery adapter cable ( to use a bigger battery ) from Japan.
Great Camcorder with just little minor dislike 2008-02-27
Great qulity with good lighting source, not so good if you try to shoot it dark or poor lighting. the rear mic is located next to the little joystick and the record/stop bottom, easy to record noise when your finger moving around those botton. not so user friendly software and is not recording to usual computer format, you will need to take out the battery and put in another corded battery which came with it then you can capture it to the computer and then it will convert it to whatever format you prefer
last thing, make sure when you buy it said w/ dvd burner or not, i think is a better deal if you buy it with the dvd burner even you don't really need it, i also recommend to buy the 40gb memory from panasonic about $100, or like me, bought a 8gb SanDisk Extreme III which can transfer 20mb/s, you don't wanna buy a cheap SD card for this camcorder
Great Little Hi Def Wonder 2008-07-18
The last camera I had has been collecting dust for years. Too boring to use on a regular basis. The Sony is officially retired. The colors, the definition, the ease of SD capture made it so easy. I have a new puppy and all of this recording in such great clarity has turned me back into a creative artist. And it's so easy to pop out the card and plug it into a reader, into my Mac and into iMovie or Final Cut.
I got a 16GB SDHC card on Amazon, so the prices are good on those as well. And I've shot over an hour at a time with still plenty of room. Great! Nice thing is that every start stop is it's own scene. Sure DV cameras did this before, but with this, I can just selecdt and delete a scene just like a picture on a digital still.
Just be sure your computer has the power to process video in ADCHD. For a Mac you need an Intel based machine and iMovie '08 or later or Any HD final cut. I don't know about a PC but check your specs.
Overall, it's great and I waited since february, watching for the right price.
Great HD cam 2008-07-05
this is my first HD camcorder , at first i was confused between the canon HF10 and the panasonic HDC-SD5, to be honest am not photo expert, i want something light, small, comfortable and reliable for my travel in august to Munich and Paris.
after i tested the camcorder , its very easy to use , almost no weight, after all am very pleased with the results , for both the pictures and the motion videos .
add to that u will get every single wire or cable u need with this camcorder which u dont get with most of other camcorders. all u need is HDSC flash card and u are ready to get wonderful life memory videos .
Panasonic HDC-SD5 Performs as Advertised 2008-07-05
I purchased this camcorder to get reasonable quality high definition video and not have to deal with CDs, tapes or hard drives. I found this unit easy to use right out of the box and the first few video projects have been very acceptable. The Panasonic HD Writer Software that ships with this product makes it very easy to transfer the video files to the computer and then erase them from the camcorder. Although a trial version of Pinnacle Studio Plus version 11 ships with this unit, you will need to purchase Pinnacle Studio Plus (or Ultimate) versions 11 or 12 or Ulead VideoStudio 11.5 to easily edit and produce high definition videos. Either of those products directly handle the AVCHD format. To render HD video you will need plenty of computing power so be sure to read the software manufacturer's system requirements. You can export the AVCHD video clips from HD Writer to other formats so that you can use your existing video editing programs.
Decent camera (BIG) BUT.... 
2008-06-30
Badly marred by auto color balance problems and AMAZINGLY HIGH RIPOFF BATTERY PRICES!!! (Nearly $100 for a battery that runs an HOUR - IF YOU ARE - VERY - LUCKY!)
Panasonic is headed into BAD SONY territory here. BEWARE!!!
Great Camera 2008-06-08
Very nice camera. Not the best in poor lighting. very light and easy to handle. We've got a baby comming in the next month so we plan on using it much more in the future. I've only done a few hours of video editing but so far thats gone well.
