I bought a Panasonic HDC-SD9 for a great price ($350 brand new) almost a year ago and it takes great video in HD format, HDMI out, etc. It shoots in native HD1920 and has various options to lower the HD quality to preserve flash memory space 16GB SDHC Flash Memory for a low price. The user manual only shows up to 16GB but I don't think anything is stopping it from using 32GB SDHC cards. The one complaint was the OEM battery which only lasts about one hour at full HD quality. Then a solution was found...
I purchased a VW-VBG130/260 replacement kit from Dino Direct. For $15.99 (Buy.com sells it for $119.99). It comes with the specific charger (required), a car adapter and 4-5 hour extended life battery. The trick here is that the original Panasonic VW-VBG130 and 260 have a chip that sends the battery life via a current through the power socket on the camcorder. With the replacement, this chip (which is patented) doesn't exist so a nasty message saying "This battery cannot be used" shows up on the screen if it's not covered. The battery kit comes with 2 lugs to cover the power socket! I now have a 4-5 hour battery!Another issue was editing the AVCHD (Sony format) HD video. Sony Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum (I got my copy for $49.99 on eBay) has native MTS/AVCHD support and it works great! It imports and reads MTS files directly without issue in its high definition greatness. It also allows to share edited videos quickly to Youtube through the software. Now with all the tools and batteries for ease and convenience of operation, this makes the smallest full HD camcorder in world one of the best in its price class. People who thought they were stuck with a dud for so long can now rejoice.
(www.gizmodo.com)
