Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom

Review by Carl Savillo Jr. for Panasonic HDC-DX1 AVCHD 3CCD High Definition DVD Camcorder with 12x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Rating:
You really have to be in the Blue-Ray camp to enjoy this camera fully. If you have a Sony Play Station 3 you’re set for playback and the future with Blue-Ray for High Definition movies. Otherwise you will need a Blue-Ray player for playback of the miniDVDs and any other regular DVDs you record to. Also, so far it’s one of the last camcorders from Panasonic with 5.1 sound and High Definition recording, which is a big plus for sound. It’s seems the newer camcorders are actually going backwards with 2 channel sound instead of 5.1. With Nero 8, which you’ll have to buy separately, you can copy movies to your computer for editing and burning back on to a larger size regular recordable DVD, i.e., DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+-RW or DL disks (they don’t have to be Blue-Ray recordable DVDs). The camcorder records Blue-Ray format to regular DVDs. You just have to remember that they still won’t play back on a regular DVD player, you’ll need a Blue-Ray player or a Play Station 3. There have been complaints about this, but you’re recording High Definition video now, so why would you except to play it back on a lower quality DVD system? This camera is for the future. If you want a DVD recordable camcorder, there are cheaper, less capable models that that do that. But if you want High Definition recording, with 5.1 sound, then this is the camera to get. One other thing to remember, the recording process to a miniDVD whether it’s with this camera or any other miniDVD camera is different than with tapes. The miniDVD will have to be finalized if you want to use it outside the camera on a DVD player (Blue-Ray or not). There is an extra step involved from tape recording. Some people just don’t understand this and complain. The one thing about this camera is that you can only finalize using the A/C charger and not with the battery in the camera. This means you’ll probably shoot video and finalize the disks at home, not outside where you are shooting. Other miniDVD camcorders may allow finalizing with battery power which may be more convenent to do, but I don’t find not having this a drawback for this camera.