Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 NOT COMPATIBLE WITH MACS or some PCs April 12, 2008
Rescue America (New York)
51 out of 66 found this review helpful
It claims to be compatible with a Macintosh.
HOWEVER the enclosed software states that it does NOT work with a Mac. When I called Panasonic support, I was told it IS compatible with a mac, but, by the way, they said, only for still photos. In fact, when I tried to transfer movies from the hard drive on the camera to my mac, my Nikon picture project software opened automatically and brought the movies across as still photos.
The very same support person at Panasonic who told me it WAS compatible with the mac at the beginning of the phonecall, then said that I should have read not just the Amazon website, but also the Panasonic website, where it says that while it is compatible with a Mac, that is only for still photos. In other words, you take videos with the camera, but when you transfer them to the Mac they come over as still pictures [the first instant of the video] [my Nikon picture project software opened up when I plugged in the camera and brought them in as Jpg files--- I could not change the suffix to mov]
Panasonic "support" then said that there was software I could buy that would make this work with the Mac but that she could not recommend other software. When I said I wanted not a recommendation but some kind of hint, she could not tell me what that software was. Upon being pressed to give me the name of the software that she said I could purchase that would make this work with a Mac, she checked around and no one else there could tell me the name either. ALSO, she said that since some people view videos taken by this camera on various models of TV, Panasonic can't support all the other equipment that everyone wants to use to view their movies--- in other words, she dismissed Macs [and also incompatible versions of PC] as yet another vendor that Panasonic can't be bothered to support.
I did call Mac. They tried to get the camera to work with ilife but in fact when I opened ilife and plugged in the camera and turned the camera on, the ilife software said that no camera was attached.
I dragged the files from the HD of the camera onto the mac and tried quicktime, but quicktime said it was not a movie file. I also tried to open files from the panasonic HD from the ilife menu but they all were grayed out.
IN SHORT: DO NOT BUY THIS CAMERA IF YOU HAVE A MAC. If you have a PC, check the fine print at the Panasonic website to find out whether your version of PC software works.
My feeling, after dealing with panasonic support [they would neither take it back nor help me nor even accept my helpful suggestion that their product information, rather than claiming compatibility with Macs, very prominently feature lack of compatibility]: do not buy this camera or anything else from Panasonic.
 A great little HDD camcorder with one exception. April 11, 2008
Jeff Thompson (Minneapolis, MN United States)
42 out of 44 found this review helpful
The first video I took with my SDR-H40 camcorder was of a small conference inside a moderately illuminated, windowless hangar. Since I was new to the camcorder, it was set to auto-white balance. The video came out fine, and better than I expected. When it was accidentally unplugged I was glad to see that it automatically fixed the video file in just a few seconds. Outdoor video is excellent, as is it's optical stabilization. Panasonic uses a larger image chip than many manufacturers do in this price range.
My only disappointment was that it doesn't have a very wide angle lens. Personally, I'd be willing to trade the long 42x telephoto for a decent wide angle shot. Unfortunately, this problem is widespread among most camcorder manufacturers.
What I like is the simplicity of operation, it's excellent video, it's large hard drive capacity which gives many hours of use, it's ability to also record on SD & high capacity SD cards, it's small size (you could fit three of them inside my old 8mm camcorder,) optical stabilization, and value. The software gets the job done, though it isn't feature-rich. That's fine with me, and preferable to software with a steep learning curve and lots of features that I'll probably never use.
What a great "little" camera! March 26, 2008
E. McIntosh
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
I searched long and hard for reviews on the new SDR-H40 camcorder from Panasonic with very few results. I decided to go ahead and buy it from Amazon and just try it out. Amazon was the least expensive price by the way. This camera is exactly what I was looking for and fits my needs to film my two little boys perfectly. I was buying it to replace a 10 year old panasonic vhs-c camcorder that was well worn out. Right out of the box I could not believe how small this camera was. It literally fits in the palm of my hand. The 40 gig hard drive holds over 9 hours of video on the highest quality setting. More than enough for me I think. The sound was very crisp and clear. The video was average I thought but for the price I paid I have no complaints. I was actually between buying this camera and the Sony DCR-SR45. I opted for this Panasonic because of the price and my satisfaction in the old Panasonic vhs-c camera we owned previously. If you are looking for an entry level, low priced hard drive based camcorder, I strongly recommend the Panasonic SDR-H40. The only complaint I have so far is the included software which is no big deal.
 Extremely Satisfied April 8, 2008
Occasional Buyer (Lancaster, PA)
18 out of 20 found this review helpful
I absolutely love this camera. It is very easy to use, and has plenty of features for my purposes (family videos). I would recommend this to anyone. I thought it was a good buy. I am very happy with the hard drive; it sure beats dealing with tapes and DVDs. The only thing I think I need is a second battery, but the one that comes with it lasted long enough for several outings.
useless software April 16, 2008
Patrick Bardill
12 out of 16 found this review helpful
We got the camera and tested it out by playing it directly to TV and then in Windows Media Player. So far so good. Then we tried using the software to edit video. Software wouldn't start - a runtime error occurred every time (our computer more than meets the minimum requirements). Tried uninstalling and reinstalling software, still the same error. Tried to go to the Panasonic website to find support for the software, but there is NONE. And without the included software, I can't import the video into Windows Movie Maker or any other program. So we returned it, doesn't matter how good the camera is if you can't edit the video!
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