| Panasonic VDR-D100 DVD Camcorder with 30x Optical Zoom | 
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| Brand: Panasonic
Category: Photography
List Price: $449.99
Buy New: $229.00
You Save: $220.99 (49%)
Buy New from $229.00
Avg. Customer Rating:   (9 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1994
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Optical Zoom: 30
Display Size: 2.5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 2 x 3.5
MPN: VDR-D100
Model: VDR-D100
UPC: 037988980192
EAN: 0037988980192
ASIN: B000DZFUNO
Release Date: January 25, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-9 of 9 | | « PREV | | |
 Picture Is Fine Also Imports Into Vegas Movie Studio Platinum December 19, 2006
21 out of 23 found this review helpful
The picture is fine at this price.
I bought the Panasonic VDR-D100 for my daughter because she usually doesn't want to do anything with the computer like edit video. When we gave it to her the first thing she asked was, "can I edit the movies?"
I did a quick test to make sure the DVDs would finalize and work on another DVD player with success on 3 computers and 3 DVD players. I didn't find anything the disc wouldn't play on.
Then I started up Vegas Movie Studio Platinum which I use to edit my miniDV movies. I selected IMPORT from DVD and it went straight to the miniDVD and loaded in the files where I was able to edit and add titles, music, sound effects and a voice over if I wanted to.
Since I already bought DVD-R/W discs she will be able to reuse them if she ever edits the movies because you can unfinalize the discs and reformat them.
Amazon November 10, 2006
12 out of 24 found this review helpful
I like my new panasonic recorder (you might consider the next model up before you buy). What I would really like to review is the performance of Amazon. The first unit I bought performed marginally, so the first chance I got I exchanged it with Amazon. They took care of the problem, by replacing it with a new camera. They moved on the problem so fast that my jaw dropped. I could not believe how quickly and professionally Amazon took care of the situation! I am old enough to be a little reluctant to use the internet, but Amazon gives me the confidence to know if its not right, it will be, quickly! Thanks Amazon!
 Great Camera for the Price Range August 22, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
We purchased the Panasonic VDR-D100 as our first video camera after the birth of our daughter. We wanted the ability to record directly to DVD, playback on our DVD player and be able to edit on our computer. Just as the last reviewer stated; getting the DVD-RW discs to recognize on our computer was the main problem. We wanted to be able to do this so we could do the simple editing functions like dividing and combining on the camera, but then embellish a little with transition shots and cleaning up the video on our computer. We also wanted to upload the video through YouTube online to our blog.
After a little research and working with the CSRs at Panasonic, we were able to figure out we needed 1) a Driver 2) authoring software and 3) software to recognize and play the DVD-RW on our computer. For less than $20 (including shipping) Panasonic sent us DVD-Movie Album SE 4.2, which included the driver (reads the DVD-RW, but no editing is allowed) and DVDFunStudio 2.4 (authoring software, which allows editing).
After tinkering with it for about an hour I realized the manuals (in PDF on the program) are not very easy to understand for a novice like myself, so I opted to forego the authoring software for Microsoft MovieMaker. I needed the DVD-Movie Album SE 4.2 though regardless to be able to recognize the DVD on my computer. For less than $20--that wasn't bad at all.
My review was editing focused because that is the major downfall of the camera. I wanted to share how we got around that downfall and how pleased we are with the result. I created my first edited video of our daughter and was able to save it to my computer, upload it through YouTube to our blog, then save it to a regular DVD (to get it off our computer) and re-use the DVD-RW disc to save us a little cash.
I don't know enough about video cameras to tell anyone if it is good or not, really. It was inexpensive and it does well with my shaky abilities, so we are very pleased. It has a decent mic and is fair in low lighting situations.
From camera to DVD is great and serves its purpose for the price July 8, 2006
113 out of 113 found this review helpful
I did a lot of research before buying this camera. We could have bought a higher quality digital camcorder for less or higher quality MiniDV camcorder for the same price. What led to our final decision to purchase this camcorder was the fact we could record straight to a 8cm DVD-R, finalize the disc on the camcorder, and play it directly on our DVD player or DVD-ROM player on our computer. We didn't want to deal with sticking cables and wires into the TV, electrical outlet, and camera to playback footage. And we also didn't want to deal with the cost and trouble of transferring footage onto DVDs to keep in our video library for the future.
For those of you who like to edit, re-record, create effects, etc., you need to purchase special software separately, but with a DVD-RAM disc, you have the ease and convenience of doing it all from your DVD-ROM on your computer. You can also download it with the USB cable, but it is nice to be able to just pop it in the DVD drive and get started.
If you are only interested in playback, DVD-R discs are sufficient; however, you can't erase or record over footage on DVD-Rs, only DVD-RW and DVD-RAM discs.
The picture quality of the camera is adequate. It isn't grainy, but smooth and actually very nice in the right lighting, especially outside on a sunny day. It doesn't have a built-in light, so you have to be aware of the right surroundings and environment for recording. I would give the picture quality a 3.75 out of 5. If you want better quality, you will need to buy a more expensive DVD Camcorder. Considering how far we have come over the years with home video technology, it definitely beats those days images were out of focus and grainy. You can't compare it to TV and movie camera quality, but I think it is pretty darn good for home videos. The zoom is good, but of course it takes some time to focus if you zoom in or out too quickly. The stabilizer is pretty good, but I keep it off for the most part to get better picture quality. If you plan to move around a lot, use the function, but expect to lose a little quality in the process. What basically happens when using the stabilizer (with most cameras, I believe) is that the image movements are slightly delayed. The sound quality is adequate, but if you are recording when it is windy, you will pick up a lot of the wind sounds unless you block the microphone with your hand.
The only problem I have had so far is with the discs. We bought Panasonic DVD-RW discs and can't get them to play on our computer or in our DVD player. We ended up purchasing Sony DVD-R discs and they play with no problem. When I called Panasonic about their DVD-RW discs, they didn't have a good answer. The representative told me to make sure the DVD-RW discs are compatible with my players. I told her they may not be compatible with my DVD Player, but it should be with my new computer software. The representative just repeated herself and eventually said there isn't any difference between Sony and Panasonic discs (interesting). They make the claim that Panasonic discs work the best in the manual, but now I know better.
Overall, this camcorder is a great value (you can't beat the price for this DVD technology), average to good quality picture and functions, is excellent for the ease and convenience of DVD playback and storage, and is really easy to use.
**UPDATE: We were having trouble with playback of a few discs again, so we took some of these discs to a video recording shop to have them transferred to a regular DVD. The manager there explained that with this DVD Camcorder technology, people are getting errors on their discs when they move around too much when it is writing. For example, you film and then you either shut off the camera or switch it to playback mode, right? Well, apparently during that particular time if you jostle the unit too much, you may get a disc error that could be unrecoverable. He recommended keeping the unit very still when you switch to playback mode and wait for it finish writing to avoid this problem. Unfortunately, their company has had to transfer many camcorder DVDs to regular DVDs and this is not a problem unique to this Panasonic camcorder, though higher quality and higher priced ones may have less problems. Bottom line is that DVD camcorder technology in general is still developing and improving and there are still a few bugs in it.
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