March 10th, 2010 
highdefinition 
- Capture high-definition video to flash memory; 1920 x 1080 progressive recording
- 10x optical zoom; Advanced Mega Optical Image Stabilizer
- Face detection technology; Intelligent Shooting Guide
- 5.1-channel surround sound; Zoom mic feature
- Compatible with SD/SDHC memory cards
Product Description
Use of the super-small SDHC/SD memory card helped Panasonic to create the world’s smallest and lightest 3CCD full-HD camcorder. The SD9 fits comfortably in the hand and can be used for long periods without causing fatigue. Panasonic full-HD camcorders record horizontal pixels at an HD resolution of up to 1920 pixels, which results in a total of around 2,070,000 pixels. And with progressive scanning, our hi-def camcorders provide twice as much data per picture as con… More >>
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This is a potentially great camera but has one serious flaw, it does not import into iMovie. I have also read that is crashing other video editing software.
Check the forums at Apple BEFORE you purchase this product. Apple has stated that IF it fixes the problem it won’t be until the next software update.
No point in reviewing any further, if it doesn’t work in your editing software why bother?
Rating: 1 / 5
Please look at the iMove 08 support forum. There is a thread on the front page titled hdc sd9. There is absolutely no person who has been able to fix the crashes between the camera and iMovie 08. Apple is silent. There is hope for a fix soon, as the camera is likely to be popular. It is irresponsible for anyone to claim ANY LEVEL OF COOPERATION between this camera and iMovie 08. APPLE and PANASONIC NEED TO GET IT TOGETHER QUICK OR THIS CAMERA WILL CRASH AND BURN.
Rating: 1 / 5
The single still picture taken from this camcorder is blurred and too bright compared to the video or a picture grapped from the recording/recorded video, even on the same scene and light condition. There must be exposure defects from the product. Also the HD video has lower sharpness than Canon or Sony, and is blurred on bright spots on high contrast condition. I think the factory should recall this product.
Rating: 1 / 5
bought this camcorder a couple of days ago. Loved the crisp images in BRIGHT light. Tried to load film to imovie08 and it promptly caused it to crash. Imovie08 crashes every single time. So if you own a mac and are using imove you are out of luck. Lots of rumors about apple fixing problem in the latest update of ilife/imovie but I am not going to wait. Going to take the 15% restocking fee hit and getting something that allows me to edit on my mac. Check out the apple discussion boards and see what others are saying.
Rating: 2 / 5
The good: everything related to the hardware. The images captured by this camera are exceptional. It works very well in low lighting conditions, I was able to shoot at night with the “Magicpix” feature and got outstanding images.
The bad: the SOFTWARE. The camera comes with two discs: one contains Panasonic’s home grown HDWriter and the other one is a 15 day trial version of Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus.
Let’s start with HDWRiter: this is typical crippleware. HDWriter allows you to transfer scenes between the PC and the media (flash card or DVD), do some very basic editing (split/merge scenes, create top menu) and play the videos on the computer ONLY from the flash card or DVD. As strange as it may seem, the software says it cannot play a clip stored on the hard disk of the PC! In reality, if you open the clip in edit mode (it can take a few minutes for this to happen) it does play, but at a reduced resolution. HDWriter also offers the option to save a clip in mpeg2 format. The punch line is that it always saves the clip in mpeg2 format at a reduced resolution (720×480), even with “Maximum Quality” setting. There is no way to convert the AVCHD clip to a 1920×1080 mpeg2.
Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus: This software simply does not work. It imports AVCHD clips from the camera, but the video it plays is garbled and when it renders it after the edits it is garbled too. I tried this software on 4 different computers, some extremely powerful that exceeded the minimum requirements by quite some margin. The result was identical – this editor cannot import, play and edit correctly AVCHD files produced by the HDC-SD9. The video is always garbled. All the computers are PCs with Windows XP SP2 or Vista.
Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus can import, play and edit the mpeg2 file that was produced by HDWriter. For this one it worked well. However, this is a file in standard definition (720×480), not high definition.
Pinnacle Systems wants $79.99 to upgrade from the trial version to the full version of Studio 11 Plus. Given that the software has proven itself unable to edit the high definition footage produced by this camera, this would be a $79.99 gamble with the odds against you.
At the end of the day, it is not possible to edit any high definition footage beyond the basic split / merge operations in HDWriter. You cannot add text, background music, adjust brightness / contrast or any other basic operation one might expect to do with raw footage. Morevoer, it is not possible to play the high definition footage directly from the computer – you need to burn it on a DVD or transfer it to a flash card.
Because of these shortcomings I am returning my HDC-SD9 back to Amazon. I am really sad because the hardware is top quality, when played from the camera the images are nothing short of exceptional. But what’s the point if you cannot edit them in any meaningful way?
Rating: 1 / 5