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.

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.

Purchased the Panasonic SDR-H40 about a month ago and have been pretty pleased with it so far. Filming indoors is pretty grainy as I would suspect most cameras in this price range will be. Turning all lights on and up when filming indoors helps though. Sound is OK, but good for basic use.

I'm running it on a MSFT XP system and the software that comes with it - to pull the video files off the camera in a viewable format is clunky at best. I'd recommend upgrading to a more sophisticated or 3rd party video editing software vs. using the standard tool that comes with it. I'm running Adobe Premiere Elements now and it is a much better user experience -- from transferring files to editing the video.

On the positive side, the Zoom with optical image stabilizer is fantastic. The menu, interface, design, features/functionality are great -- easy to use yet flexible enough to meet most average users filming needs.

If you are looking for a basic HDD camera, I'd give this one serious consideration.

I'd been contemplating a camcorder for several months, and when the funds became available, after careful thought, I bought this one. Why:

1) The built-in 40 Gig hard drive is a huge blessing. More than adequate for my needs
2) Small size and ease of use and learning for a first timer like me
3) A lot of good features for the price
4) Better optical zoom than many in this price range (42X optical, 2000X digital)
5) More than acceptable sound quality

I was also aware of some of the limitations of such a unit. For lighting, I did purchase a small LCD movie light that definitely helps in dim situations, (I may een get an infra-red light for night shots). Other thing to keep in mind is that there is NO external audio input, just the built-in condenser mic which is actually pretty decent.

Ah, the infamous enclosed software question. Simple, I DON'T USE IT!

Instead, I just simply copy the video files onto my 500 Gig external HD when the unit is hooked up to my PC. Then, I edit them in different software altogether (in my case, uLead/Corel Video Studio 11, which works way better than the enclosed Panasonic software by far and offers much more functionality and features, not to mention ease of use).

No, it's not going to produce a cinematic epic (you'd need at least a $40,000 broadcast quality unit to do that with) but it'll not only capture your life's moments but it can be utilized to produce a pretty cool low-budget film if you're so inclined, heck I've produced some comedy videos with footage from this thing in part and was very pleased.

My only real MAJOR gripe is the battery, I just wish it could last more than one hour! Are there batteries compatible with this unit that will go 2, maybe 3 hours? At least they were kind enough to include a charger/power supply.

Looking for a good place to start camcordering, this is a good one!

so a month after buying this camcorder i had a chance to record my grandson's football( soccer) game in barrington il. seeing that it was my first time using it, it took me a few minutes to get used to steadying the camera. after that it was easy. the mic worked good with the audience noise( chanting) and the finger and thumb controls are comfortable enough for my big hand.
after i got home i had to install the software and transfer the movie to my computer. easy enough. the problem was that i shot in 16:9 and my movie came out on 4:3. now i had to resort to another programme to transfer it to 16:9. not good. you should be able to transfer from the camera to the pc in the same mode and screen type.
thats my only problem with this camcorder, the transfer.
the pictures(movie) were very good quality in my opinion.

one more thing. as of today, april 22, 2008. the batteries are very expensive and hard to get.

The Panasonic SDR-H40 is a nice little camera with decent image quality, but getting the video off from the camera to your computer is big pain!

I bought the HDD camera just so I could download video to my computer and share it easily. First, you cannot download the video unless the AC adapter is hooked to the camera. Which means, transferring video when you are on the road is out of the question. Second, the video files are viewable only from the Panasonic software. You cannot open the files directly in Media Player etc. Third, the panasonic software is terrible to use. After you aquire the video, you have cut it down and 'export' it to your hard disk. Now you think you can see the video file in Media player. BUT NO!! Most likely you are missing a MPEG-2 Codec. And I find that after the codec is instllaed the image quality is not so great.

So after all that you finally have a manageable file (and file size) that you want to be able to edit in lets say Windows Movie Maker. Nothing further from the truth. There is some encoding in the 'exported' files which will crash movie maker.

I am so frustrated by this camera and its software, I wish I had not bought it. Please consider this camera only if you plan to invest in some other video editing software!

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.

This is a great little camera for the price. I have no doubt about that. However, I've been having too many problems with the editing process. The software that comes with the cam doesn't make things easy. What's more, I can't seem to get the videos to display well in Windows Movie Maker or Media Player. The quality is grainy in these programs and the 16:9 size is squished to 4:3, rather than displaying the black bars on the top and bottom. I've changed the settings in Windows Media Player and it still doesn't work.

The quality of the video is great. The zoom is simply amazing and the OIS is downright impressive. I just wish they made putting these things on your computer a little easier. It should either come with better software or a recommendation for a program to buy that natively understands the hardware. I would buy after-market software if I knew it would work with this camera.

I absolutely love this camera. We had a mini-dv camcorder before
and it was very difficult to transfer video to my computer. This
camcorder is a snap - just connect and download.

Don't try to use the included editing software. Ulead VideoStudio 11
and Serif MoviePlus X3 work great. Easy to learn - inexpensive.

The battery recharges in about an hour and a half, and takes
about an hour of video on a charge. Easy.

The video stabilization is marvelous. No shake. Smooth zoom.

I was put-off by the several negative reviews, but purchased
anyway. Don't believe the nay-sayers. This is a great camera.

The 40 gig hard drive will take about 9 hours of video at the
best setting. That's enough to bore the pants off all of
your family and friends. Wide screen and crisp on our 37"
flat screen LCD-TV.

It's a winner in my book.

After doing my research online I had originally decided to go with the Canon FS100. However, after hands on testing with different camcorders at the local megastore, I decided on the Panasonic SDR-H40. The optical image stabilization was much better on the SDR than on the Canon and even the fancy HD Sonys I played with. I also liked how I could access the menu and select things all with one hand. The other camcorders require two hands to make changes, one to hold the camcorder and the other to press buttons on the side of the lcd. The SDR has a little joystick-like control that makes it easy to do everything with the same hand holding the camera.

Getting my Mac to import the camcorder's file required me to upgrade my version of iMovie to the very latest. I had iMovie 06, and Apple has added support for camcorders that record to hard drives in iMovie 08. Once I upgraded to iLife 08 (which includes iMovie 08), I started up iMovie, plugged in my camcorder into the Mac's USB, set it to Play, and selected PC Connect. iMovie recognized the camcorder and popped open a dialog to import the movies on the camcorder. I selected my movies and next I was using the slick iMovie interface to edit my video.