I previously mentioned the super, pre-holiday deal on the Panasonic high-definition camcorder, but a deal is only good if the product works well. So this afternoon, I got some playtime with the HDC-SD10 and recorded a short video of my office area. My workspace is quite the mess and I wasnt even planning to share the video, but I was so impressed with the 1920 x 1080 output, that I decided to upload it. I still have to get a handle on the various buttons and features, but overall, this is a solid camcorder for the $299 I paid.

I originally thought Id have to upgrade my iMovie 08 to the current edition, but it turns out that the older application imports the AVCHD file format. Perhaps iMovie 09 offers support for direct recording from camera to Mac, but thats not a feature I really need, so Ill stick with the software I have.

Obviously, the video that youre able to view is compressed and resized down from 1920 x 1080, so youre not getting a true view of what I can see. But the quality from where I sit is quite good, especially for the price. And with the small size and weight of the HDC-SD10, I suspect this little device just made the cut for Januarys Consumer Electronics Show. (less info)