Manage updates with the Download AppPanasonic SDR-H18
Manufacturer: Panasonic Part number: SDR-H18
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- Combining the simplicity of SD recording, a roomy 30GB hard drive, a long zoom, and pleasing image quality, the SDR-H18 is a good choice for a standard-definition, hard-drive camcorder.
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Where to buy
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CNET editors' review
Panasonic SDR-H18 price range: $999.90
- Reviewed by: Phil Ryan
- Reviewed on: 07/26/2007
The good: Records to hard drive or SD card; optical image stabilization; 32X optical zoom; comfortable grip.
The bad: No macro mode; menu button a bit hard to reach with a thumb; USB jack hidden behind battery; awkward manual control switch.
The bottom line: Combining the simplicity of SD recording, a roomy 30GB hard drive, a long zoom, and pleasing image quality, the SDR-H18 is a good choice for a standard-definition, hard-drive camcorder.
User reviews
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Very good HDD camcorder DO NOT pay attention to the other review
by figueroa7 on May 29, 2007
Pros: easy hdd access to your movies thru the computer
Cons: the still picture quality is not good
Summary: the camera does what is supposed to do: record your videos in the hdd and transfer them into your computer.
For the previous person who reviewed this camcorder: you do ...Summary: the camera does what is supposed to do: record your videos in the hdd and transfer them into your computer.
For the previous person who reviewed this camcorder: you do not need the actual software that the camera brings, you can just drag and drop your .mod files into your system. Use "sdcopy" to transform into .mpg files and keep the wide screen aspect. Second if you need to edit you can convert your .mpg files to .avi with "super" from erightsoft...and them import to programs like premiere pro of final cut.
I hope this helps, also the playback quality is fine.28 out of 32 users found this user opinion helpful.
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descent price for size and picture qualty
by eckhaaw on March 30, 2007
Pros: high storage capacity
Cons: limited data transfer options
Summary: I purchased the SDR-H18 for the HDD and because it had at least as good a picture quality as the other Panisonics I had owned previously. I also liked the ...
Summary: I purchased the SDR-H18 for the HDD and because it had at least as good a picture quality as the other Panisonics I had owned previously. I also liked the fact that it had the ability to film in 16:9 widescreen or full frame. What I hadn't expected was it to be limited to only using the supplied program for downloading and capture of video. The supplied program appears to have been thrown together without much testing and little thought put in. I'm just a beginner at video editing but this program only allows you to edit the ends of your shot. I find I usually have a segment I want to edit out of the middle and it can't be done with the supplied software. I have also tried other softwares and have found that I can't upload what I have saved from this program.
11 out of 16 users found this user opinion helpful.
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OK, but not editing-friendly
by dressner on November 5, 2007
Pros: LONG zoom, ok video quality and stabilization
Cons: HDD footage seems to be jerky, not editing friendly (see review)
Summary: If you're a soccer mom and you love to zoom, zoom, and zoom in some more, this is great for you. There isn't really anything hard to understand ...
Summary: If you're a soccer mom and you love to zoom, zoom, and zoom in some more, this is great for you. There isn't really anything hard to understand about this camera.
If you plan to edit large amounts of video from this cord, I wouldn't recommend it. I didn't like the jerky video quality of this camera, and it was very sluggish to start recording. I had to go through a program that comes with the camera to convert the video to mpeg and get it into my editing program. If you are going to be capturing lots of video (like I did) this gets annoying after awhile.
But, if you couldn't care less about serious editing and manual controls, this camera can do what you need it to.
I give the camcorder a 6 for video quality and the annoying capture program. I would be pushing it to call this camera "very good".7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great overall package, but images a little dull around the edges
by Onlies on September 12, 2007
Pros: Great focus finding in zoom, easy to navigate, warmer colors
Cons: A little trouble to set up the first time on the computer, images not as sharp as other cameras
Summary: I bought one of these at the same time as a Sony DCR-SR42 camera, for almost exactly the same price. This was superior to that camera in every way, except ...
Summary: I bought one of these at the same time as a Sony DCR-SR42 camera, for almost exactly the same price. This was superior to that camera in every way, except that the image is a little less sharp. You can still read a promo poster across a store, and at short distances looking at the screen is like looking through glass. But at about 8 ft away there starts to be a little softness around the edges. Color is good, a little over warm/dark rather than over pale or bleached (unfortunately I find most cameras fall into one of these two categories). A big con is you can't just drag videos off the folder and watch in Windows Media Player or VLC player, you have to use the supplied software.
This camera is really good about staying in focus while zooming or panning, even when zooming and panning quickly. It charges quickly, the menu is easy to navigate, and the joystick control easy to use. This camera is not hard to fully operate one handedly (if you should ever need that?) and color is good, start up time fast. Image stabilizer is better on this than it was on the Sony.
One funny thing is that it automatically adjusts color warmth; its very good at getting it right, but this takes a second.
Overall I highly recommend this camera, if you can sacrifice a little bit in sharpness for overall ease of use.7 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very handy camera. Good features/quality for cost. Software and files a bit tricky
by NJKirchner on September 27, 2007
Pros: Lightweight, Good fit to hand, easy menus, great capacity, good quality of video, O.I.S. great w/ zoom.
Cons: Provided software very clunky, aspect ratio bug {easy workaround though}, no USB access only w/ AC adapter
Summary: This is my second camcorder, and wow what an improvement. The physical size and capacity are just out of this world. My wife is not very technical and she had ...
Summary: This is my second camcorder, and wow what an improvement. The physical size and capacity are just out of this world. My wife is not very technical and she had no issue getting going with it. The menus are very easy to navigate using the thumb and the display has a good range of backlight options.
If I can edit this review, I'll say more pros later.
But for now my primary issue is with the provided software and the fact that you have to use a secondary program to fix an issue that will cause 16:9 aspect ratio videos to playback at 4:3 on any other player/editor other than the one provided, which is practially impossible to use. I say this because if you are tryint to simply crop a video, it is impossible to find the right start/stop points becase as you move a slider around to find the right frame, it goes chop..... chop..... chop..... and you just keep jumping back and forth across where you want your cut points. This is not an advanced idea, we're just simply talking about scanning through a video. Ok, so it's just the software. But you have to use SDCopy to fix the aspect ratio. BUT YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE TO!
This is really where the score goes down for me, is that I called both Panasonic and ImageMixer and neither will agree that the video files that are on the device or the ones copied over by ImageMixer should play at the right aspect ratio in ANY video player other than the one provided.
In their opinion, because ImageMixer will show it as 16:9 everything is right with the world and we should not expect panasonic to fix this.
So here is a word to the wise to get an INSTANT $25.00 back on the camcorder.
COMPLAIN TO CUSTOMER SERVICE. I am getting a check in the mail for $25 because I have to deal with the problems in their product.
$25.00 people!!! Just say that you shouldn't have to fix something that should work. Not a bad deal. Maybe I should have asked for more.
</rant>
That being said I love the camera, and the fact that it splits each start/stop record into another file is very handy.
The startup to record time of the camera is super fast and the battery life has been great.6 out of 7 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Average Camcorder
by MikeynDnvr on January 5, 2008
Pros: Small, Easy To Use
Cons: Jerky, POOR Backlighting, Difficult Software
Summary: So, after reviewing camera after camera in the $500.00 price range I chose this Panasonic model. It was a coin flip between this one and the JVC Everio-G GZ-MG255. ...
Summary: So, after reviewing camera after camera in the $500.00 price range I chose this Panasonic model. It was a coin flip between this one and the JVC Everio-G GZ-MG255. I eventually chose this one due to better reviews on this and other sites.
First off, I'm not an expert in HDD camcorders. Before using this particular one in fact, I've never used one before. The camera I've been using over the past 11 years is a Sony 8mm Handicam which is clunky and about the size of a shaving bag.
I love the fact this camera is so small and I don't have to mess around with tapes, etc. Isn't that the point of ALL HDD camcorders though?
Filming: I found it's ease of use to be nice. After a brief read through the instructions, I was recording a few test videos. Once loaded onto my hard drive, the software allows you to trim the front or back off each segment you shot. Adding chapters and titles though stumped me for awhile and I found myself toying around with the software for a few hours. One other aspect I liked about this camcorder is it's ability to decrease wind noise when filming outside. Frankly, before I turned that feature on, the portions I filmed sounded as if I were in a hurricane.
I was not overly thrilled with the end result however. Frankly I found the quality of the created DVD to be little better than that of my old Handicam. Here's why:
1. Filming a person with the sun behind her basically turned her into a silhouette and the backlight feature that's supposed to correct that barely works--is much poorer than on my old Handicam.
2. I found the stabilization feature on this camrea to work minimally at best -- possibly not even as good as the Steady Shot feature on my old Sony. A portion of what I filmed, I dod so while walking down the sidewalk. I was beginning to feel seasick when watching it from the created DVD (and that's WITH the image stabilization).
3. Forget about filming in poor light. No, it doesn't have some obnoxious light that blares in the face of who you are filming--but it might have helped. There's a setting for low light called "magic pix" and yes--it DOES brighten whatever you're filming but if you should move the camera at all (or if the subject should move), the result is an extremly jerky, blurry picture. I'll likely never use this setting again.
Am I happy with my purchase? It's too early to say. I can say though that I am a little disappointed. Maybe the similar JVC choice would have been worse. As I mentioned before, I don't have other HDD experience to compare this to--but one would think the end result would have been much better than what I've previously filmed with the 11 year old technology of a 8mm Sony Handicam. Overall, it wasn't.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great overall but limited editing capabilites
by dlester on December 18, 2007
Pros: Great video quality, light and easy 6 second startup
Cons: Slow at focusing in low light, poor marks for back end editing
Summary: First off, there is no doubt in my mind after reading reviews and Consumer Reports that this camera is the best for it's price range. However, no one ever ...
Summary: First off, there is no doubt in my mind after reading reviews and Consumer Reports that this camera is the best for it's price range. However, no one ever talks about the "backend," or the editing capabilities of the provided software and/or the video files the camera creates, and the files ability to work with other software platforms.
The software provided is pretty cool and works well. However, it lacks in ease of use due to the awkward way of trimming or deleting unwanted scenes. Most software will provide a simple button for this action.
The one greatest disappointment is the video file created by the camera. You CANNOT take the file directly from the camera to your favorite editing program. You MUST use Panasonics software to either edit or convert to a file that can be used by another program. In addition, the converted file I made did not work in Windows Movie Maker or Avid Free DV. The converted video file did work with Roxio's software. But, what the hell! Why can't Panasonic make a HD camcorder that makes a video file that will work with all software platforms? It's not that difficult. You make it a simple MPEG file! Not a .MOV file!
In conclusion, I think that for the "long haul," this camera doesn't work for me, and won't work for you if you like to edit your videos on your desktop with software other than the one provided. I traded this one in for the Sony HD camcorder.
David Lester
Los Angeles2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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It's fine - but there's better out there
by af847 on August 9, 2007
Pros: Ease of use, great controls, ergonomical
Cons: Video quality is just okay.
Summary: I bought one of these but returned it. I just wanted better video quality. But the camera seemed very easy to learn, great to use, felt very solid and was ...
Summary: I bought one of these but returned it. I just wanted better video quality. But the camera seemed very easy to learn, great to use, felt very solid and was very well thought out.
Connecting to the computer and downloading files was a snap. Easy and fun. No issues.
I bought a Sony HDD model and like it better because of the video quality. Maybe I'm picky but I'm glad I made that move.4 out of 8 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Average camera produces files that cannot be edited
by ogman on May 12, 2008
Pros: Good size, decent controls
Cons: Average video quality, but the video cannot be edited
Summary: The camera is okay, but the .mod files it produces are virtually impossible to edit. The provided software is a joke, and customer service is terrible. Avoid this or any ...
Summary: The camera is okay, but the .mod files it produces are virtually impossible to edit. The provided software is a joke, and customer service is terrible. Avoid this or any other hard drive camera until file type issues have been worked out.
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Good enough video qualty, good for editing.
by Luptonium on May 23, 2010
Pros: Ok Video quality, good for editing.
Cons: No support for external Mic, the inability to manually white balance.
Summary: As a person who wishes to start his own production company I was strapped for cash and in need of a camera, HD models werent out yet so I picked ...
Summary: As a person who wishes to start his own production company I was strapped for cash and in need of a camera, HD models werent out yet so I picked this up from Circuit city for about $400 about 4 years ago. It served me well, the videos are easy to take off the camera to play around with but my biggest annoyance is the fact that it does not have a place to connect an external mic. This means if I record in my mini at home studio I have to hook a mic to my PC and record audio and video separately, snd outside of studio work, when I don't have a laptop I have to deal with having background noise, in dolby digital surround sound.
That gets annoying fast.
All things considered not a bad little camera.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Panasonic
- Part number: SDR-H18
- Description: Panasonic's SDR-H18 is an SD Card / Hard Disk Palmcorder Camcorder with 30GB HDD long-time recording and 32x optical zoom.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Product Type Camcorder
- Digital Zoom 1000 x
- Effective Photo Resolution 0.3 megapixels
- Camcorder Media Type Hard disk drive
- Optical Sensor Size 1/6"
- Optical Sensor Type CCD
- Min Illumination 2 lux
- Digital Video Format MPEG-2
- Image Stabilizer Optical
- Digital Scene Transition White fader,
Black fader - Min Shutter Speed 1/60 sec
- Max Shutter Speed 1/8000 sec
- Shooting modes Digital photo mode
- Shooting Programs Surf & snow,
Sports mode,
Low light,
Spotlight,
Portrait mode - White Balance Automatic,
Presets,
Custom - White Balance Presets Outdoor,
Indoor - Exposure Modes Program,
Automatic,
Aperture-priority - Image Recording Format JPEG
- Widescreen Video Capture Yes
- AV Interfaces S-Video,
Composite video/audio Lens System
- Type 32 x x Zoom lens - 2.3 mm - 73.6 mm - F/1.8-3.7
- Lens aperture F/1.8-3.7
- Optical Zoom 32 x
- Lens system type Zoom lens
- Min focal length 2.3 mm
- Max focal length 73.6 mm
- Auto Focus TTL contrast detection
- Filter Size 37 mm
- Focus Adjustment Manual,
Automatic - Zoom Adjustment Motorized drive
Additional Features
- Low Lux / Night Mode Yes
- Additional Features DPOF support,
Backlight compensation,
PictBridge support,
USB 2.0 compatibility,
Direct print - Remote control Camcorder remote control - Infrared
- Software Drivers & Utilities
- Included Accessories Lens cap,
IR remote control,
Power adapter Display
- Type 2.7 in LCD display
Connections
- Connector Type USB,
Composite video/audio output,
S-Video output Microphone
- Microphone Features Wind noise reduction,
Zoom
Memory / Storage
- Media type Hard disk drive
- Memory Card Slot SD card
- Supported Memory Cards SD Memory Card
- Internal Storage 30 GB Hard disk drive
- Image Storage JPEG 640 x 480,
JPEG 640 x 360 - Video Recording Modes LP,
SP,
XP Battery
- Supported Battery 1 x Li-ion rechargeable battery ( Included )
Audio Input
- Audio input type Microphone
- Microphone type Built-in
- Microphone Operation Mode Stereo
Viewfinder / Display
- Display Features Rotating
Physical Characteristics
- Width 2.8 in
- Depth 5 in
- Height 2.9 in
- Weight 15.2 oz
Accessories
- Sony LCE X3TH - case for camcorder (34881135)344.95
- Porta-Brace Quick-Draw Camera Case CC-210-PW - case for camcorder (31039932)399.00
- Sony SPK HCH - marine case for camcorder (35266605)299.00 - 299.99
- CANON XL1S VIDEO CAMCORDER CASE (7032423)399.99
- JVC KA-551U tripod adapter (32090695)295.00
- KATA PRO Video Collection CCC-10-A - carrying bag for camcorder (34400943)325.00
- KATA PRO Video Collection CCC-1A - case for camcorder (34931653)299.00
- Panasonic P2HD-CASE - carrying bag for camcorder (33921985)363.95
- Panasonic SHAN-TM700 - tripod adapter (31027498)249.95 - 399.95
- Porta-Brace Polar Bear Insulated Case POL-3 - case for camcorder (31030134)381.05 - 406.01
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Panasonic products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Panasonic
- Address:
One Panasonic Way, Secaucus, NJ 07094 - Phone: 800/662-3537
