Panasonic has been involved in providing consumers with devices that provide consumers with professional-grade movies and it continues to lead this market with its HDC-SD80K HD SD Card Camcorder, a handheld model that offers a 42X zoom, super closeup capability and great skin tones thanks to improvements in its electronics.
The Panasonic HDC-SD80K high-definition SD Card Camcorder comes equipped with 16 GB of memory,
or more than enough for about three hours of continuous video shooting. You'll quickly find that if you use your SD80K for long periods of videography that it will make sense to upgrade your flash memory card to at least 32 GB. The SD80K handles all three types of flash memory, standard SD, SDHC and the newer SDXC. If your upgrade allows it, we'd suggest using the XC memory card as it offers you up to 32 GB of storage and if you slip out the original card and insert an XC card plus a secondary XC card, you can have access to 64 GB of video memory. That should allow you up to 12 hours of video.
The SD80K has had some major hardware and software upgrades. For example, the upgraded Intelligent Zoom software allows you a 42X zoom. This is a serious zoom figure and at the distances we are talking about, you could find that a simple hand shake or twitch can be translated into major blur. Instead, the Intelligent Zoom, carefully samples the major areas of interest in the image and, working with the autostabilization routine, which has also been upgraded, brings you images that are rock steady with no trace of blur.
In fact, you'll find that your main subjects are in sharp focus, while the background remains in reasonably good focus with sharply defined edges. You'll also find that the software rework in the SD80K works with your subjects' skin tone so that not only do you receive excellent overall color quality, but the skin tones look natural and any blemishes, such as wrinkles or scars are softly taken out of the image so that your subjects look better.
The SD80K is everyone's idea of exactly what a handycam should look like. It is small at 7.4 by 5.4 by 3.8 inches, weighing in at 6.7 ounces. And, it has a 33mm zoom lens available so it looks just right. This is thanks to what Panasonic calls its Hybrid OIS system. As mentioned a series of sensors and gyros works together with the Crystal Pro Engine that drives the SK80K so that your handheld videos remain stable and sharp even at high zoom resolution.
The Crystal Pro Engine processes huge amount of data so that your images remain sharp and at high-definition. The SD80K runs at native resolution for high-definition systems 1920 by 1080 so you have a video device that puts out full HD video that can be shared with other devices with the proper interface cables (HDMI).
Interestingly, the Crystal Pro Engine has been upgraded to so that now not only does it control blurring that may be occurring because the camera itself is shaking in an a general arc (left to right, up to down), but it has added full control of flat blurring capabilities, again from left to right and up to down, so that all possibilities for blurring at long focal lengths are minimized.
Another improvement, granted it is technical so most people won't notice it, unless your eyes can catch very sharp blurring in the background is that Panasonic's engineering crew has upgraded its noise reduction algorithm so that your images remain in sharp, clear focus and that even in low-light situations the potential for noise impression are minimized so your images, again, remain sharp..
That the Crystal Pro Engine's software has been improved can easily be seen in long handheld zoom shots where you will see the edges of the not only your subjects but of the surrounding areas also remain sharp with faithful color rendition.
Whether you are shooting in automatic mode in one of the automatic modes available to you - Sports, Portrait, Low Light (only in motion mode) spot light, snow, beach, sunset, fireworks, Scenery, Night Scenery or Night Portrait, you'll find the SK80K capable in every way. That it is ready for low-light work from the start is evident from the 32.7 mm optic that is available.
With all of this videography available, it's nice to know that you can still shoot a standard 3 MP still picture, or pull one out of a video stream that you see in the 2.7-inch framing viewer that flips out from the side and which can actually be turned around 180 degrees. It's a nice touch in a HD camcorder that is full of nice touches including the ability to produce high-definition video in one of the smallest units on the market.
