The smallest and best ultracompact 3-CCD camera
I've owned the camera for 3 months now, and am very happy with it. I needed a camera tiny enough to carry in a purse, yet capable of high quality video, and this is it.
Tape-based camcorders make DV video on tape - those DV cameras make video which cannot be converted to DVD unless you go through a cumbersome operation of playing the video in the camera while at the same time "capturing" the video on a computer over a firewire cable - a process which is error-prone to say nothing of being a time hog. If you shoot 5 hours of video, getting it onto computer takes 5 more hours. On the other hand, a mpeg-based SD-card camera like this transfers its video to computer simply by inserting its SD card into your computer's card reader slot. If you use an aftermarket DVD author program like TmpgDVDauthor, you don't even have to transfer the files off the SD card - you can "drag and drop" the filenames and create a TV-viewable DVD without any hassles, directly from your card reader.
This camera is the replacement for Panasonic's still-amazing "worlds smallest true camcorder" SV-AV100. It has greatly improved low light capability, and incredible richness of color. To say nothing of its still picture capability, with pop-up flash, even.
Though the camera advertises itself as having "3.1" megapixel stills, they are actually closer in quality to a typical 2 megapixel camera. This is because the camera uses its video CCD's to make the still, with Panasonic's "pixel shift" method. You cannot compare this camera to digital still cameras which have a gigantic CCD to make their stills with - being a video camera, one should be thankful for these stills in such a small package. With care, the stills can be enlarged to 4x5 inches on quality photo paper and look very good, but 8x10 inch enlarging is overdoing it. If you want digital still camera type stills for portrait enlargements and critical still photos, get a digital still camera in addition to this camera.
The camera's 10x zoom is useable because of its excellent image stabilization. The lens mechanism adjusts itself at high speed to counteract jerky hand movements, keeping your picture sharp. This does not mean that holding the camera in shaky hands will not produce a moving picture, but the fast "quiver" that ruins videos will be gone, and the individual frames are amazingly sharp. A tripod or monopod for extreme zoom shots is still best, but the image stabilization is a marvel, even better than in the earlier camera.
There are some good still cameras which have a "video mode" which can be used to make DVD's, but none of them have all of these features: (1) 48kbps stereo sound, (2) 60-fields per second interlaced video, (3) 640x480 or larger video resolution. Most, like the often praised Casio EXP-505, have only 30fps video, which will cause a "flicker" when converted to DVD video. The interlacing, which updates at 60fps, is necessary for making fast action look smooth on your TV. Don't make the mistake of trying to use a digital still camera's "video mode" in place of a true camcorder with fully-interlaced video like this one.
Sample video and user comments are on the ad-free nonprofit site www.zyvid.com, which has the largest forum for the camera and the SV-AV100, replacing the old JackBrown forum.
Critics of the camera forget how tiny the camera is. When a camera is the smallest of its type, minor compromises are to be expected. But the excellent quality and color in its video are comparable to any consumer camcorder, even the much larger ones. It's a real marvel.
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Poor Low Light Vedio Recording
This product has very poor Low Light(Indoor) recording.
In fact my Cannon S115(powrshot) 3.1 MP, 10X Cannon digital camera out performs this expensive model in low light.
Even capturing the Photos in Indoor was pretty bad, compared to cannon digital camera.
In Bright Sunlight Outdoor, the color of SDR-S100 were lot Better.
If you do most of your recording Indoor, i would suugest not to buy this exoensive model.
I am returning this camera.
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