Panasonic HDC-MDH1

Good for videotaping lectures – I bought an MDH1 for videotaping lectures. Its good points are you can set it up on a tripod and leave it for hours and it will take pretty good quality HD. I am too far back from the lecturer for panning and zooming without jerking and it is necessary to have a second camera (I use a Nikon D3300) for cut out shots but that is ok. The sound card on the camera seems perfectly adequate for my needs and the best setup is a cheap wireless kit plugged into the audio plug on the camera and lavalier. The MDH1 is my workhorse which holds the basic video and audio together and I can work in other things such as cutout shots, closeups etc. with an slr and supplement the audio with other audio from e.g. a shotgun mic/Zoom H1 recorder or a recorder plugged into the pa mixer where possible. It takes good video outside and there is plenty to hold on to. The position of the eyepiece seems to have been designed for Herman Munster (I have to look about 40 degrees above where the camera is pointing) but one gets used to it. I carry the MDH1 around in an old small cabin-sized suitcase. Excellent for what I want and good value for the money.

Value for money, good start up Pro type camcorder – Purchased one of these little beauty from iiBuy recently for under one grand, and really love it! It's only 1.8kg light weighted gadget, takes standard SD card and image quality is surpurb! Over the weekend I decided to take it to shoot one of my best mate's wedding at the harbour, nearly 4 hours of non stop shooting is not an easy task but it did it for me! Price, light weight pro camcorder, SD Card slot Microphone isnt too sensitive under windy situation

Not bad for the money – I have just shot my first HD wedding video with the MDH1. I am very happy with the image quality, which compares very favorably with footage from my faithful Sony MiniDV camera. I used a 16Gb SDHC card which allowed four hours of shooting at HX (third highest)resolution. The camera doesn't really sit properly on my shoulder, mainly due to the eye piece design, but it's not a major problem due to the very low weight. The five hour battery actually gives about three hours of stop-start recording and it's not possible to recharge the battery while the camera is using the AC power supply.

For weddings, you'll need to buy a decent shotgun microphone as the supplied external mike is not directional and is greatly effected by touching the camera cases. The combination optical/electronic image stabilizer works brilliantly, and the second accessory shoe is very handy for a video light. The convenience of non-linear recording allows you to review any scene by touching its thumbnail on the LCD screen.

The supplied HD Writer AE 2.5S software will allow you to organise and trim your clips and author your video to DVD, but has no audio capabilities, such as adding a music track. If you intend to buy a video camera which records in AVCHD format, you will need an aftermarket editing program from Pinnacle, VideoStudio etc.

Overall, I'm happy with the MDH1. It's the modern day equivalent of the Panasonic MS-4 from the early nineties: Big, cheap, reliable and robust. Easy to use, reliable, good value for money Poor ergonomics, microphone