Panasonic HDC-SD900 review

The Panasonic HDC-SD800 impressed us with its superb image quality. The HDC-SD900 has the same sensor and lens, but adds a high-resolution screen, some additional controls and an electronic viewfinder.

It’s £170 more expensive than the SD800, but still a huge £600 cheaper than Canon’s flagship Legria HF G10. While Panasonic’s camcorder is pleasant to hold, thanks to a carbon fibre-effect palm grip, it doesn’t feel professional-grade, like Canon’s model. The screen has a springy action when you open it and the focus ring doesn’t have the same industrially-engineered feel as the HF G10’s.

The SD900 does have the advantage of being far smaller and lighter, though, and we preferred its manual controls to the Canon’s. Depending on what you select from the touchscreen, the ring around the lens can adjust focus, white balance, shutter speed and aperture. There are also supplementary zoom controls next to the screen, which allow for more subtle adjustments than the top-mounted zoom rocker can provide. While the HF G10 helps you focus by zooming in to a section of the frame, the SD900 highlights in-focus parts in blue. We found both systems equally effective. While it’s not a patch on the HF G10’s display, the SD900’s screen has double the number of pixels of the cheaper SD800’s and makes it very easy to compose shots.

The SD900 has a 35-420mm equivalent lens, which isn’t as wide as the Canon’s, and we’d rather have a wider angle than a slightly longer zoom. Its video quality is far superior to the more expensive HF G10’s, though. Instead of one 1/3in sensor, it has three 1/4.1in chips, one each for red, green and blue light. Each sensor has 3.05 megapixels, compared to 2.37 on the Canon. The multiple sensors and increased pixel count gives the SD900 far superior detail in daylight – everything is sharply defined and lifelike. Canon’s camcorder has the edge in poorly-lit conditions, though – the SD900’s footage isn’t particularly noisy, but it can’t match the HF G10 for low-light clarity.

Both cameras have effective image stabilisation, but we found the SD900’s video was steadier than the HF G10’s when walking around. Panasonic’s camcorder doesn’t have the Canon model’s Powered IS stabilisation, though, which gives you rock solid handheld shots without a tripod.

Unlike Canon’s camcorder, the SD900 has no built-in memory, so you’ll need to use an SDHC or SDXC memory card. A couple of 16GB cards should be sufficient for even the keenest videographer, providing two hours and forty minutes of recording (on the highest detail settings) for around £35. The HF G10 is only available with 32GB of built-in memory, an unnecessary extra cost given it already has two memory card slots.

Panasonic’s SD900 is a well-priced camcorder. It may have the same lens and sensor as the cheaper SD800, but the high-resolution screen, electronic viewfinder and excellent manual controls are worth the extra money if you need more fine control over composing your shots. While its low-light footage and build quality can’t quite match the Canon HF G10’s, its video quality in more favourable lighting conditions is far superior. Compared to the Canon camcorder, Panasonic’s HDC-SD900 looks like a bargain.