Those of us who have not been swayed by the HD invasion still believe that while HD is a great thing, comparability with the rest of the world is better. And while HD video makes new strides each year, just think of all the abandoned equipment versions that we’ve been through since HD DVD and the whole Blu Ray war scenario began.
For right now I’m happy to enjoy all the innovations in Panasonic camcorders that are present in the SD models that probably wouldn’t be available now if it weren’t for their development and fine tuning of their HD product. So while my new Panasonic camcorder is an SD model, I greatly appreciate all that HD research and development has spread all throughout the consumer video market.
In fact almost every innovation that’s being touted as part of the HD revolution has simultaneously been incorporated into the SD camcorders. When you try to do a close up interview with a new SD camcorder from Panasonic you’re going to get a well proportioned picture to background ratio that was unable to achieve before the 33mm wide angle settings became common place on the new SD Panasonic camcorders. Without the electronic wide angle ability you would get a screen full of face and little to no background unless you wanted to interview from afar, so thank the HD R & D for the new innovations in SD camcorders.