Panasonic SDR-S7 Camcorder

It's a good little camera. My main reasons for purchasing this camera was to own a portable, tiny camera that I can use to record unimportant, silly, amusing, and generally wasteful things. I had to decide between the Panasonic and the Sanyo Xacti. The Xacti was a little bulkier and couldn't stand upright on it's own, and had a removable lens cover that I could see easily losing. I think the Xacti had slightly better image quality, but at this size, and for what I plan to use it for, image quality is hardly a deciding factor for me. You may want to consider the Xacti if you need a small camera and the best possible image quality, but it's a small difference. If you need better image quality than what these cameras offer, you should consider a larger camera, possibly HD. These are not close to HD. There's not a lot to this camera, and I'm happy for that. I didn't need a huge, overpowered HD camera to film my cats playing on the carpet. This is the on-the-go YouTuber's video cam... Read more

I was searching a camcorder easy to use and travel. This is great. I dont need to have a case, just in the pocket of the shirt, it is easy to travel, moreover ease to use.

I bought this camera at BestBuy when I found out what YouTube was all about. Economical, compact, and had the software for editing and uploading. So far, I've done 5 videos, they're all on the website, and I'm happy with the results. I probably would have liked a move around mic, but I've no complaint with the sound as it is. Surprisingly tiny for the things it does. Battery business is just fine for my varieties of nonsense. It should be remembered that this came out for the YouTube generation, and it fits this niche very well.

After seeing mixed reviews on this product (Panasonic SDR-S7 Flash Memory Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom), we decided to try it anyway. Only took a minute or so of video before the camera got so hot you couldn't hold it in your hand. We let it cool off and tried again. Same thing. We took the memory card out and plugged it into the computer to view the result. The images were broken up and jerky. We sent this camera back for a refund -- it was utterly useless. We really expected better from Panasonic.

I got the cheaper (silver) model here on Amazon about a week ago, and am mostly pleased. In my opinion, the real competition for this camcorder are not the Canon FS100 or similar flash-based mainstream camcorders, but rather the "Flipcams," Aiptek handhelds, etc. Compared to any of those that I've tried, the quality is much better, and the size is still miniscule. That said, the quality is slightly worse than the 3+ year old MiniDV camera it's replacing... but at 1/4 the size, and entirely flash based, it's MUCH more convenient, very much a "go anywhere" pocket camera. Key reasons to get this: - size and portability, a "go anywhere" portable camcorder - convenience and low cost of flash memory Key reasons not to get this: - want a more general-purpose camcorder - want a useful still picture resolution (VGA-resoltion stills are useless.) Other Pluses: - good zoom range Mixed bag: - decent video quality - good range of controls, but not the easiest to handle thr... Read more