Rating: 
Summary: Great carry-everywhere camera, storage format is difficult
Review: I've had the AV100 for about two months, and I'm still infatuated. Which isn't to say that I don't have my criticisms.First, the good stuff: It really is small enough to fit in a pocket, which means that you will carry it everywhere, which in turn means that you'll get video of things you otherwise wouldn't catch. The SD storage media is obviously very compact, and if you have the adapter, you can stick it right into your computer for transfer and editing. The camera's optics and design are excellent, and amazing in a package this size. The downsides (none of which take away from a five star rating in my view): The file format is a little funky for computer editing: you will need to install codecs, rename files, and use less-than-top-of-the-line programs to edit your video. Adobe Premiere Pro can't handle MPeg2 video, for example, so you'll have to convert your video or use a different program. No tripod adapter. Okay, the camera's small, but why didn't panasonic put one of those little screw-in holes in the bottom so you could put it on a tripod if necessary? For owners (and prospective buyers), I've set up a user group bulletin board at http://www.jackbrown.us/camera It's got good tips and tricks for this camera.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice picture and great portability.
Review: I've had this for about a year now. Battery life last about an hour and generic replacement batteries from Ebay work fine. WARNING! USE ONLY PANASONIC MEMORY SD CARDS IF YOU WANT THE MPEG2 (DVD) QUALITY RECORDING!. The manual says a card of at least 10megs/sec recording time is needed for Mpeg2 recording. BS! I bought Sandisk Extreme3 SD cards (20megs/sec recording speed) and IT DOES NOT WORK! Panasonic 1gig sd card are about $179 at B&H Photo and at J&R Electronics. Panasonic came out with the 20megs/sec recording speed sd cards so the standard 1gig should drop in the future. I take this snowboarding and YES it withstands all day worth of tumbles thanks to no moving internal parts. I lost the battery cover at Mammoth Mtn and bought a replacement from Panasonic's 800 number for $7+$5ship+tax. I download the sd card from a card reader to my comp hard disk and record it straight to a dvd via Roxio DVD creator. No widescreen recording but the quality is almost dvd like on Mpeg 2 mode (704 x 480 lines of resolution on Fine Mode and 352 x 480 on Norm mode) assuming it has enough lighting. Records 10 mins on Fine mode and 20 mins on Norm mode with the included 512meg card and double those times with the 1gig card. AGAIN ONLY PANASONIC SD CARDS WILL WORK FOR THE MPEG2 RECORDING. Any sd card will work for the Mpeg4 recording mode and the picture mode which are pretty much useless due to the lack of quality. Yes you need several Panasonic SD cards if you want to record alot. Word is that Panasonic AKA Matush. will come out with the 4gig and 16 gig sd cards for their larger video camera with the widescreen recording. Imagine the price of these cards!
Pros: size, no moving internal parts, dvd quality recording, stereo sound recording, wind cut sound recording.
Cons:EXPENSIVE PANASONIC ONLY SD CARDS NEEDED, 20 min max MPEG2 recording with 1gig card, Battery life only 1hr.
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer beware
Review: If you purchase this product, I hope you are completely satisfied. It is my opinion that the reliability of Panasonic products has slipped in recent years, and this was confirmed to me when a product I purchased quickly failed. The reason I'm posting this is to warn you that the warranty that accompanies Panasonic products only has value if the company chooses to stand behind it. In my case, they weaseled out of it, leaving me with a total loss and no further recourse. Good luck with your decision.
Rating:
Summary: The best on the market
Review: Panasonic SVAV100 - amazing. Never have to use soft media again. DVD quality recording. Stills are good too. Buy it!!!
Rating: 
Summary: sv-av100
Review: The advantage is that it is small and light, even smaller and
lighter than my cannon power shot camera. The biggst problem is
battery life, it claimed that it would be capable shoot about
60 minutes continuously, but in my experience, the battery is
gone before I finish all 20 minutes SD capacity (in Mpeg2 normal
mode).
Rating: 
Summary: I wish I hadn't bought it...
Review: The camera works as advertised, but I couldn't find any software that could convert the .mod files to something useful. Even the software that comes with it fails to convert the files to a standard format. I have a new XP Pro desktop, and Windows Media Player, Roxio Video Wave Movie Creator, and Windows Movie Maker do not play the files, convert the files or burn the files. Neither does the software that comes with it. I contacted Panasonic, and they said, "We appreciate your frustration. However, Panasonic does not offer software that will allow you to convert the mod.
files. At this time we will relieve ourselves from any further e-mail correspondence regarding this matter." The software that comes with the Product is advertised to convert the files and it does have Panasonic's name on it. That aside, I did find Ulead VideoStudio 7, which can burn the files to DVD. The quality isn't horrible. It will only burn the highest quality video which looks 'ok' on my tv. This means that I can only get 10 minutes of video per 512 MB SD Card. The fact that the SD Cards used by the camera are not standard should be emphasized. You cannot just use any SD Card. Please, do yourself a favor and keep looking for a better choice. This camera is definitely not ready for market.
Rating:
Summary: Size & lite weight are its strong points.
Review: This is a great little camcorder for having with you at all times to take short videos. You will have to download often to your computer since the SD card cannot hold much. These .MOD files for MPEG2 take up a lot of room. Most people don't like to watch long videos anyway. You will have this camcorder with you when the bigger one will be at home or in the car. The supplied software is not worth a dime. It cannot keep up with your files if you need to move them. Get Moonlight El-ecard MPEG2 Player software from the Internet. You can also transfer the vidoes to VHS, 8mm or DV tape. Actually, they look better doing this (then watching on your TV) than by viewing them on your computer.
Rating:
Summary: Watch Out - Not close to prime time
Review: While the Pansonic D-SNAP has the potential for usable video quality, you need to realize that it is going to take atleast an additional $799 card to make it functional. To reach a useful quality, the D-SNAP uses a high speed Panasonic version of the SD card, which is now available as a special version 32x SD card by other sources. Today, people try to get the best price for a 30 - 60 minute DV tape at $5. With the D-SNAP, you'll be shopping for a $799 32x SD card, with 1 gig of storage, so you can move from 10 minutes of video to a whopping 20 minutes (which really is the bare minimum) at $799. Also, beware that the manual is clear that the high speed write times will wear down the card, and you need to run special procedures to help reduce the errors which will start occurring. The goal with compact devices is to make recording on the road possible. So if you can avoid 2 devices, one for STILLS and one for videos, this goal is possible. However, while most cameras today consider anything less than 2 megapixels (2 million pixels) for STILLS bare minimum, the D-SNAP can only do .3 megapixel (330 thousand pixels). You can't even print a high quality wallet size. The quality of the video is there with the D-SNAP. But the STILLs are completely unacceptable and you will be paying thousands of dollars to get 30 - 60 minutes of video. The Sanyo Fisher is equally as compact, very solid construction, provides 3 megapixels for STILLS, and provides the resolution (30 frames per second) and size (640*480) required for TV. It also comes with a 512kb card, BUT it achieves 20 minutes of DVD-like quality or 45 minutes of VHS-like quality (which is very good), out of the box. It uses more recent compression technology to write at multi-mb speeds on a normal SD card. You even get 30 frames per second to meet your 360*240 PC requirements, which provides more than an hour of video. The interface is much better thought out on the Sanyo (everything is there at your finger tips, whereas the Pansonic makes you want to rip off the LCD at times because the controls are at the side). The focus is 6x zoom optical on the Sanyo, instead of 10x like the Panasonic, which is still excellent. And the ISO levels and features are exceptional. Bottom line, you can live with any downside of the SANYO. You can't live with the downsides of the Panasonic.
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