Shock proof and hybrid camcorders star in Panasonic's 2008 line-up

The rain held off for Panasonic's launch event at the Great Barrier Reef but there was a deluge of another kind: nine new camcorders from Panasonic.

High definition
Panasonic seem to have adopted a policy of renewing its high definition camcorder line-up every half year. Again there's an SD card model and a hybrid, although this time the hybrid is of the hard-disk/SD card type not DVD/SD card.

We've bemoaned the fact that manufacturers have, thus far, bundled a maximum of 4GB worth of memory with their memory card-based camcorders. Panasonic has now heeded our calls, shipping the new SD9 with a 32GB SDHC card -- almost as much as entry-level high definition hard-disk camcorders. This gives us hope that one day soon all manufacturers will heed our calls to bundle an HDMI cable with their cameras.

	HDC-HS9	HDC-SD9
Price	AU$1,999	AU$1,869*
On sale	Late February	Early March
Sensor	3CCD	3CCD
Max shooting rate	1920 x 1080p at 25fps	1920 x 1080p at 25fps
Optical zoom	10x	10x
Image stabilisation	Optical	Optical
Recording medium	SD/SDHC card and hard-disk	SD/SDHC card
Included media	60GB hard-disk	32GB SDHC card
Dimensions (WxDxH)	(not supplied)	65 x 67 x 126mm

*There's also a kit for the SD9, priced at AU$2,299, which includes a portable DVD burner, Pinnacle video editing software and a mini-HDMI cable.

Standard definition: hard-disk and SD card
There are five new standard-def cameras which record onto SD card -- two of which are SD card only, the other three have built-in hard-disks. The hero model of the new range is the shockproof, waterproof and dustproof SW20, which we're looking forward to putting through its paces.

	SDR-SW20	SDR-S7	SDR-H280	SDR-H60	SDR-H40
Price	AU$769	AU$549	AU$1209	AU$989	AU$879
On sale	March	April	February	April	February
Media	SD card	SD card	Hard-disk and SD card	Hard-disk and SD card	Hard-disk and SD card
Included media	4GB SDHC card	4GB SDHC card	30GB hard-disk	60GB hard-disk	40GB hard-disk
Sensor	CCD	CCD	3CCD	CCD	CCD
Optical zoom	10x	10x	10x	50x	42x
Leica Dicomar lens	No	No	Yes	No	No
Image stabilisation	None	None	Optical	Optical	Optical
Water-proof to	1.5m	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Shock-proof from	1.2m	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Quick startup time	0.6s	0.6s	(not supplied)	2.1s	2.1s
Dimensions (WxDxH)	33.8 x 115.4 x 63.4mm	41 x 102 x 59mm	(not supplied)	(not supplied)	(not supplied)
Weight	224g	165g	(not supplied)	(not supplied)	(not supplied)

Standard definition: tape and DVD disc
In addition, Panasonic has announced a new miniDV and a new DVD standard-def camcorder. Both will be available any day now.

	VDR-D50	NV-GS330
Price	AU$659	AU$989
On sale	February	February
Media	Mini-DVD disc	MiniDV
Sensor	CCD	3CCD
Optical zoom	42x	not supplied
Leica Dicomar lens	No	Yes
Image stabilisation	Optical	Optical
Quick startup time	n/a	1.7s