The Panasonic HDC-SD80K is the latest version of Panasonics very successful digital camcorder range complete with intelligent zoom function. This intelligent zoom function will allow you to shoot with up to 42x magnification and still maintains a good quality image unlike most other camcorders. The Panasonic HDC-SD80K camcorder also comes with a hybrid optical image stabilizer which eliminates the troublesome hand-shake blur which can frequently occur especially when zooming in on a subject. Unlike most other camcorders the Panasonic HDC-SD80K HD SD Card camcorder uses SD cards not an internal hard drive to store footage on this limits the storage capacity to 64gb which is compensated by fast data transfer speeds and disk access.

The Panasonic HDC-SD80K video camera also has a wide range of new and improved functions such as face recognition, smile shot on still images which is linked into the face recognition and detection setting on the camera. It can produce up to 3mp when taking still shots and 2.7mp when extracted from a video shot. The Panasonic HDC-SD80K HD SD Card camcorder also has new wind and mic noise cancelling functions allowing for a clear and cleaner sound for your videos. Most of the Panasonic HDC-SD80K camcorder new and improved functions are automatically set when you choose the format of your shots the intelligent picture function then takes over and gets the correct settings to make the best shots this takes all the stress from using this camera and makes using the camera much easier.

The Panasonic HDC-SD80K review is pretty limited as the camera has not long been on the market so the reviews for this camcorder are few are far between the CNET reviews site editor gave a good review of this camcorder and said it was one of the best in this price range. However other Panasonic HDC-SD80K reviews I have not been able to come up with due to the fact this is a fairly new model and not many people have written an in-depth review of this camcorder.

The main pro’s and cons for this Panasonic HDC-SD80K video camera are as follows:

Pro’s

            Excellent video quality including HD format

            Good noise cancellation on the mic and from wind noise

            Fast date rate transfers from its use of SD cards

            Easy to use automatic picture modes via its intelligent zoom function

            Great quality videos with easy transfer to a computer or online

Cons

            No internal hard drive for storage of videos

            Limited to 64gb Storage via SD cards

            Can be complicated in the manual mode

The Panasonic HDC-SD80K seems to me to be a lot of camcorder for very little money being priced at around the $388 on Amazon this is very little for a camcorder which seems to tick all the box’s alright it does not have a internal hard drive but who needs one with SD cards being so cheap and it makes it much easier to transfer to your computer if it has a SD card reader. The software allows for easy conversion to upload to sites such as FaceBook or YouTube and you can connect the camcorder direct to your HDTV via a HDMI slot all in all a very good camcorder for its money.

Local stores often have a very high mark up on this type of product, you can often save around 40% by shopping online. Even if you do decide to buy locally, at least double check the price by taking a look at a few online vendors. 

If you are looking to buy the Panasonic HDC-SD80K, you can buy it cheap online on Amazon.com through this link.