Rating: 
Summary: Sale almost returned - glad I read reviews here first
Review: (...) I purchased my Panasonic SVAV100 D-Snap tapeless video recorder three days ago from a retail store - within the first six hours (six hours in a car without Internet access) I was ready to return it. I could not get the MPEG2 video to play outside the camera. The supplied software, as it has been aptly described by others in the above reviews, is one of the worst applications I have seen in recent years - as one reviewer put it "what were they thinking?" I was ready to return the camera - really - I was making plans to go back to the store - then finally got to the Internet and I read the oh-so-simple comments on the this review board about renaming the .MOD to .MPG and I completely changed my mind about the camera - the results are spectacular!
"What an engineering marvel" we all said upon seeing the results on the PC. With the camera producing native MPEG2 files it was doing what I expected it should do - files that can be edited with any desktop video editor. I still can not believe the - no other word for it - `blunder' on the part of Panasonic's marketing and software groups. This is the only tapeless video recorder under $800 (I paid $600 with a mfg. rebate coupon) that produces native DVD quality MPEG2 files - period. Why don't they just say that? Why don't they suggest renaming the .MOD to .MPG and call it a short cut for advanced users? It's just weird.... My impressions point-by-point:
First Light Setup - 10/10 - (out of the box and shooting video as fast as I could unwrap the plastic - very easy - PC software on the other hand ... read-on below...)
Ergonomics - 9/10 (minor same points made by others - no tripod screw, buttons - though not needed for most functions while capturing images - require a bit getting used to located under and behind the flip screen)
Camera menus usability - 10/10 (what you need for each mode - where you need it)
Convenience (read: size) - 10/10 (you will always take it with you - you will find yourself taking video and capturing moments like never before)
Image quality - 9/10 (Carl Zeis was a genius - no CZ lens here; white balance quite sensitive, but good - though there is a manual mode and this videographer needs to master it for low light, contrast-y, indoor shooting)
Image stability - 10/10 (as good as my image stabilized binoculars - even with the optical zoom extended)
Accessories - 9/10 (comes with all you'll need - but why is the charging system - brick and tray assembly - larger than the camera itself? Charging batteries separately in a small form-factor unit is a must - out-of-the-box, Panasonic requires batteries to be charged in the camera - apparently there is a third-party external charger available separately. I'll be buying one soon!)
Recording Capacity - 10/10 (this may surprise you - I use the NORM MPEG2 - that's 22 minutes - good but not quite DVD quality - on the supplied 512M chip and over 40 minutes on a 1G chip - how much video do you need to shoot anyway? For family and activities - I've not had a problem - plus I can dump the chip to hard drive in a few minutes. At $60/Gig - buy a couple chips. The 2G chips are soon to be sold and 4G chips are on their way - that will be three hours of video on one chip!)
PC Software - 0.0001/10 - (total utter failure on Panasonic's part. Fortunately it is not required at all - as I came to find out. Simply take the chip out, plug it into your SD chip reader - desktop or laptop unit - copy and rename the files - there is even a freeware utility available on the Internet)
Did I mention convenience `-) 10/10 !
When I first looked into this product I was in a quandary - I worried about cutting edge: "high wow factor - low performance" - "sounds too good to be true" - I took a chance anyway - I am happy I did. For more info - excellent source: Do a Web search on "SVAV100" and "Jack Brown" - you'll find an excellent "SVAV100 Forum" - Panasonic should give this group part of their marketing budget - they are far more competent.
Rating:
Summary: Great little camcorder
Review: After lusting about the SV-AV100 for about 6 months, I just couldn't see forking out the $999 price tag and high priced 1 Gig SD media. But recently prices have been slowly dropping. I ran across my SV-AV100 on sale a Curcuit City for $599 and 1Gig SD media at FRY's for $49. At first, I had problems with the camera not letting me use the Sandisk 1 gig SD. After doing a few searches in varios user groups, [...](Thanks a million to everyone involved with this website and firmware upgrade instructions!) so you don't have to be stuck buying Panasonic brand media cards as someone previously stated. I get 22 min of mpeg 2 (DVD quality) recording for every 1 gig SD card (which is perfect, because who wants to watch long boring movies anyways?, I have my big bulky Mini DV camcorder for that) I compile all the 20 min clips onto a disk using my standalone DVD recorder, so no software problems here. All the positive comments are on par with all the other reviews. Once you go to this convenient size camcorder you'll never want to use them 1 pound and over dinosaurs again!
Rating: 
Summary: Very cool, but problems
Review: As cool goes, this little camera is right up there at the top of the list. I took it to Hawaii, and sometimes forgot to video because it was so light in my pocket that I forgot I had it!
Operation of the camera is very easy. Navigation is good. Ergonomics are quite good...even the scrolling arrows are angled to fit the normal angle of your hand.
The lens quality seems good as well.
Now, the problems:
Many people have griped about the recording time on the SD card at 20 minutes or so. It never seemed to be much of an issue for me because I downloaded the SD card regularly.
But that was the biggest problem.
The included software seemed to install fine, but when I plugged the camera in, it would not launch. The computer recognized there was SOME device out there, but it could not communicate. Panasonic sent me (quite quickly) a replacement CD, but installing it on that computer and another one did not change the results: it would not download from the camera.
Panasonic suggested a bad camera and that I exchange it. I returned it, but exchanged it for a different camera.
That decision was not solely because of the defective camera. I found the video quality was not what I expected. In addition to overall quality, the camera had a great deal of difficulty in full sunlight. In mid afternoon shooting, the contrast seems to overwhelm it. Highlights are completely blocked, and strong shadows are opaque black. Maybe this is true of all video cameras, as I have little video experience, as opposed to a lot of still photo experience.
After using this camera, I believe that this is a precursor of where video is going. Within 5 years, I think the vast majority of camcorders will record to solid-state memory cards instead of tape.
But...this little camera may just be a bit too far ahead of its time.
Rating:
Summary: Problems, what problems?
Review: Even after reading about all the 'problems' with the SVAV100 I decided I still had to have one. I wanted a way to capture video of my daughter without looking like the proverbial "dorky-dad-with-a-video-camera." This camera lets me do that.
But, surprisingly, I've either not experienced these problems or found very simple workarounds for them. Here are some examples:
Software: there are numerous, high-quality editing programs that handle the task of editing MPEG2 video with aplomb. Most offer free demos so you can decide which works best for you at no cost.
.MOD file format: simply change the files extension to .MPG and nearly any video tool (Windows Media Player included) can read the MPEG2 files produced by the SVAV100
CODECS: I have WinXP running on a fairly new PC - I didn't need to install anything to get up and running.
SD Card: the camera records 10 minutes of MPEG2-fine on the included 512M card (I get just over 20 minutes from a new 1G card). Between the two cards, 30 minutes of storage covers all the video situations I've encountered.
Battery-life: I have found replacement batteries for less than $15 each. I carry a couple of fully-charged backups which provide all the battery life I could possibly need (certainly more than enough juice to fill both SD cards, and then some).
Anyhow, this has been my experience to date; YMMV. Overall, I am very pleased with the quality of the camera and it's output.
Finally, I'd like to give kudos to Jack Brown for establishing an extremely useful SVAV100 users' forum (see URL in his review here). It contains a wealth of information and is definitely worth checking out.
Rating: 
Summary: What were they thinking?
Review: Here's a nice piece of hardware that was sabotaged by Panasonic's software division. It's hard to believe that,in this era of video file type proliferation, Panasonic could have produced MPEG2 files that are incompatable with practically all video editing software on the market. Panasonic provides a conversion and editing program called "MediaStage". It's practically worthless. It's simultaneously elementary and obscure. If you are comfortable with MS Windows and then open MediaStage to run the program, you'll be stunned at how disconnected software developers can be with users. The only conversion available for MPEG2 files (in .MOD and .MOI format, no less) is to MPEG4 or to WMV. What a pity.
Maybe one of these days some software developer will produce some decent software that can edit these strange d-snap files.
I asked Panasonic, but they couldn't recommend any software to me. The joke's on me.
Rating:
Summary: COOL Right Out Of The Box!!!!!!
Review: I am redoing my review. I love this. I got my 20 minutes in Mpeg 2 mode and I know for sure because I timed it. That girl above has the right idea, already making movies to computer.
GO GIRL!!!! I paid a whopping $1000.00 for mine and I think the price on Amazon is very good for this unique cam with awesome picture quality. I was using the zoom too when I got my 20 minutes. Now 3 stars because mine has very bad volume and I can not believe no one else mentioned it so I may have a defect. My replacement time may be up and I sure hope not because I would want a replacement because it is so convienient. I do love the size so you can take it anywhere. Again the picture quality is almost overwhelmingly fantastic!I sure hope I can get a replacement because the volume turned all the way up and I have to literally put my ear to the speaker to hear regular talking volume. I am going to go to the above web site the guy put in so nice of him to see what tips ,tricks,. ect. It is as fun as it is small. Please contact me if you have an answer to my volume issue.I really love this so much and need to do what that reviewer is with her movies already. I just purchased a Lexar card reader and I think they have one on Amazon that will answer her download problem. One for SD card. Anyway I think this is the most unique thing I have ever purchased and I was sceptical until that big smile came on my face when I opened the box and I love the little charger /holder cradle too.Sincerely, Josie Ryder
Lovin every minute of it. Just got to figure out the volume problem and then for it's quality images and convienince I would add a couple of stars.Please contact me if any of you have this problem please. Thanks.Very COOL Though! JosieRyder@aol.com
Rating:
Summary: Perfect digicam
Review: I have been waiting for the perfect digicam to come out -- one with a small form factor, that records close to professional quality video, and uses a readily available, inexpensive storage medium. The AV100 is it. Within an hour of opening the package, I was uploading footage onto my desktop computer, via my PocketPC (I don't have a dedicated SD card reader). Within two hours, using ULead Studio 7, I had produced my first short film complete with titling, soundtrack and transitions.The camera is physically beautiful. It hides within the palm of your hand and is so unobtrusive, your subjects tend to act much more naturally. The LCD screen is adequate, and image stabilization works very well. The controls are so ergonomic that you can be very precise with your clip timing and zooming -- this goes a long way toward producing watchable videos. The main concerns I had were about battery life and storage capacity. For my use, the performance of the AV100 and included 512 Mb SD card are more than adequate. I can take about 10 minutes of video (enough for showing the highlights of any one-day event) and still have enough power to play back the entire collection of clips. For those worried about converting .mod files, all one has to do is rename the file to .mpg from windows explorer. No problems at all. As for Adobe Premier not supporting mpeg 2, this is an Adobe problem, as MPEG2 is a standard high-quality video format. Consumers should lobby Adobe for a plug-in. For most people, ULEAD Studio 7 should be a sufficient video editor. As for the volume issue that someone else had brought up, I haven't experienced any problems. Audio is perfectly clear. Brilliant, actually. Although I haven't personally tried out the Sanyo Fisher which someone above had compared, feature-for-feature, to the AV100, I have read a review that the lower-light conditions quality of the AV100 is much better than that of the Sanyo Fisher. It also stated that the color fidelity was rather poor on the Sanyo Fisher, making objects look yellowish-brownish in tint. Back to the Panasonic: this camera has so many qualities to recommend it, but if I had to choose one over the rest, it would have to be its solid state. With no moving parts, there is little to break. It's tiny. There are no tapes to buy. And you can upload footage by simple drag and drop. Because of this, it's so easy to produce edited and enhanced video. No more scene after scene of unedited, untitled video with no transitions. I also highly recommend downloading ulead studio. You'd be surprised at how quickly you can create actual beginning-middle-end movies with it.
Rating: 
Summary: AV-100 is AWSOME
Review: I just bought this camera. Let me tell you that it is better than I was expecting. The picture qualaty of the mpeg2 fine video setting is noticably better than my sony Hi-8 camcorder, although it is not as good as most mini dv camcorders. It's got tons of features. The audio is also great. I thought it wouldn't be, scince the mic is on the backside of the camera, but it turns out it picks up evrything just fine. (In the first day i shot some great vids of my dog). There are a few problems, but they are not too serious. One of coarse, is the SD card capacity. Now for me, this is not that big of a deal because I bought this camera so i could have it everywhere and get short videos. Another problem is the battery life. It lasts about 40 minutes(I am going to buy an extra to have with me at all times). Also, a problem is that it doesn't have a flash, although that is also not a big deal because if you want a high quality picture, get a DIGITAL CAMERA, not an mpeg2 video recorder. Even without the flash though, the pictures are not bad. Finally, it's the darn .mod files and the software. The software that pannasonic provides does absolutly nothing. The .mod files are very annoying because you have to rename them to .jpeg, which can cause some problems (in the quality). Overall, this camera is SPECTACULAR for what it is supposed to do. I love it. Also, i got it for 675.
Now i'm just waiting for the 5 gig sd card to come out. Thats 100 min of superfine vid!
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Up for the SV-AV100
Review: i shoot quite a bit of video, and i really like not having to use tape... you can get a cheap hard drive-based digital wallet with an sd slot to copy the av100 sd card contents into while you are shooting with a second sd card... no need to ever have more than two sd cards, and you can shoot all day without having to unload the digital wallet. do not use the software that came with the av100, instead, at the end of the shoot, just plug the digital wallet into your pc via the usb cable, where it appears as just another hard drive... copy the .mod files onto your local hard drive, and rename them as .mpg's... there is nothing to convert, and you can burn the .mpg's directly to dvd. the av100 is a bit difficult to handle because of the small size, and no tripod mount hole, but surprisingly, it has options for manual controls, and it even has digital image stabilization... along with the mpeg2 recording, you can't get all those features in any other camera on the market today. improvements i'd like to see would include a bigger ccd pickup, this isn't a camera you get for shooting stills or for shooting video in low light... it's built to serve as a video camera, get a cheap digital still camera if still shots is what you want... the current crop of these types of cameras proves that trying to combine both video and still functions into one camera will result in too many compromises of either one or both functions.
Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but no other product comes close!
Review: I was reading some of the other reviews in which they were concerned with the apparent imcompatibility of the Panasonic MPEG2 format. It's trivial to change the extension from .MOD to .MPG. I had no problem playing this files in Windows Media Player, Roxio DVD Max, etc. As for editing, I had no problem reading in these files and making movies using Pinnacle Studio 8.
The camera is SMALL and very easy to use. Although I later read the instructions, I was able to perform all the basic functions beforehand.
I anticipate that this camera will serve me well.
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