Just Ordered a SD600K - Page 3

No problem pal, glad to help.

Hopefully we will be able to resolve the issue.

Cheers.

I just had a very frustrating chat with Panasonic. The company line is that the camera sold on Amazon is a "European" model, with no US support. The rep would not respond to my point that there are no NTSC countries in Europe, and the manual includes a US warranty. Who knows what the real story is with this camera. At this point, I may contact their legal department, or just wait and if my camera needs repair then fight this.

I suggest we all write reviews on Amazon and B&H expressing our dissatisfaction with the Panasonic position on this model.
Maybe, just maybe someone will pay attention.

What's the current selling price for a SD600 ? About $400 ? That's at least $300 less than a TM700. The chance of having it fail inside one year (the usual warranty coverage) is pretty low, unless you're very unlucky. And even if it did, paying for repairs might not even bring the total cost up to the TM700's price.

$399, why?

cam w/o warranty is worth less to me than the cam WITH the warranty.

Add about $60 for the 32GB SD card, think about DD 5.1 vs 2.0, focus ring, mic input..

All of sudden TM700 $750 looks not too bad.

Sorry about my last post...accidentally hit save button...

Anyway, you're probably right. The TM700 with 5.1 audio, focus ring, mic input, AND viewfinder (useful in full sunlight), warranty coverage, at $750 is worth it.
Months ago I paid about $900 for My TM700 !

Unless, of course, your mortgage is 708 dollars. And you barely make ends meet as it is. But then, who would be stupid enough to buy a luxury item like a camcorder under those conditions?

I just got a response to my email from Panasonic. They will honor the warranty if the camera was purchased new in the US! Looks like someone over there finally looked at the situation.

Let's hope that if, and when it breaks they'll remember that! In the meantime, better keep that bill of sales in a safe place and even make copies of it!

Excellent news! Thanks David! Can you post the email text here?

Happy upcoming New Year everyone!

The email is below.
Also, there is a comment to a post I made on Amazon that another person has confirmed with Panasonic that the SD600 sold on Amazon US is covered by the warranty. This mess has been resolved, finally. I hope everyone knows that most credit card companies double the manufacturer warranty at no cost. During the extended warranty period the credit card company will pay for the cost of repair.

Dear Valued Customer,
Thank you for your inquiry. The warranty on the unit covers one year on parts and 90 days on labor. Once this unit was purchased as a new item in the USA the warranty will be honored.We hope this information is helpful to you. Thank you for contacting Panasonic.


On December 29, 2010 at 1:04 PM, dmarcus6@gmail.com wrote:

Hello. I bought the HDC-SD600 camcorder from Amazon. Someone posted on a forum that they contacted Panasonic, and was informed that Panasonic will not honor the warranty on this camera. The operating instructions state that the camera is covered by a 1 year parts, 90 day labor warranty. Except for a very brief time when this camera was sold in the US by B&H, Amazon was the exclusive seller of this camera in the US. Please confirm that Panasonic will honor the terms of the warranty as stated in the operating instructions. Thank you, David

Looks like this thread it all about warranty How about the camcorder itself?
I have a little problem and I'd appreciate your help - I recorded in HA and burned to a DVD mpeg-2 format using the provided software. When watching the video, I noticed a pause/freeze when the video transitions from one scene to the next one. In other words, the footage is not one continues video. Does anybody know why this is happening?

[quote=111;19740146]Looks like this thread it all about warranty How about the camcorder itself?
QUOTE]

I find the LCD a litle too small, but that is a tradeoff I made to get a camera smaller than the TM700, and especially to save money compared to the TM700 or the alternatives from Sony or Canon. For the type of recording I do, the sound source is in front of the camera, so I really did not need the 5.1. As for lack of the manual adjustment ring, I am an "auto" guy. So, I find the camera great for my purposes. I can't help with your recoding problem, however.

My Panasonic does it also (Not sd600). I just assumed it was supposed to be that way, but I hated it also. Maybe a better editing software can solve the problem? If you find a solution let us know, because it was pretty unpleasant.

Just received mine. Thanks for Amazon 2 days Prime shipping. I have not played with it yet but it looks and feels good. A bit smaller than the TM700 I was playing with at Fry's which is even better. It even comes with the Panasonic warranty registration card with the Panasonic Consumer Electronic mail to address in Denver, CO. I am not so sure what Panasonic Rep was talking about the warranty not being covered? The model number on the operating instructions shows HDC-SD600P and NOT HDC-SD600K. On the camcorder itself also shows HDC-SD600P where the battery is going in. Happy New Year, everyone!

I received mine a week ago from Amazon. But there was no Panasonic warranty card in the box at all. There is a registration card and manual, plus one extra double page for the manual that covers 1080p/60 shooting. No warranty card included. The camera is labeled HDC-SD600 on the box, and HDC-SD600P-K on the barcode label.

In California we don't need a "warranty card" and we don't need to register a product to get warranty coverage. Could be the same in other states.

This is completely a guess and please take it as such.

I think perhaps the confusion started when Amazon wanted to be the exclusive US distributor of the SD600 and because of that, you're not able to buy it on Panasonic Direct US site so when a rep looks up the information and don't see it listed, that's where it can be problematic. Now that B&H had it for a while they sold out and wont be getting any more in I believe so it's just Amazon that has it.

I think people are getting a wonderful deal for only $400 and thinking that they should be celebrating for that new price, the warranty issue explodes immediately after the price drop. Still, it was brought up once before when it was $500 but not nearly this bad.

I mean come on, look at all the other current camcorders in the price range. They don't even come close to the SD600. People really shouldn't be worrying about it and as I said, Panasonic would be very stupid to not cover anything.

Could people just got their SD600 provide some feedback on the "turquoise-sky" problem?

Almost all SD600 / TM700 videos I saw online has a severe turquoise bias when it's supposed to be blue... it makes the color of the sky and any blue objects rather ridiculous really.

I have no idea how none of the professional testers didn't catch this problem... had to cancel the SD600 order. =(

I haven't noticed that problem at all. I'll shoot some clips of the sky and other blue stuff today and post frames later. One thing I've noticed is anytime you're shooting with a camera that doesnt record in raw mode - all consumer video cameras and any still camera that goes straight to jpeg - if you don't set the white balance properly in-camera the colors are still off even after you correct later.

There just isn't that much available address resolution to do big color corrections once the original rgb values off the sensor are compressed into whatever output format comes out of the camera.

Thanks Jacob!

I am shocked by this video below... very interested to see whether this problem is generic.

That's pretty dramatic, but both of those were shot with auto white balance so... I always manually set white balance when I'm shooting something important. Even if auto sets things perfectly at first auto can shift over time and that's a pain in the *** to try to fix in post.

Hmm... here's a frame of a video I shot earlier with white balance set manually off a white card:

http://i.imgur.com/6rxY0.jpg

It looks a little turquoise to me now that you mention it. I'll do a better A/B test later with my SLR to see how far off it really is.

No need to worry about the warranty my friend...

Turns out that was a miscommunication by one or two consumers. Of course then everyone knew and got worried about it after they posted their reviews online.

I saw several clarifications somewhere (may not be in this thread) that Panasonic will honor 1-year warranty if the SD600 is bought in US brand new.

I won't buy from B&H in this situation, but Amazon should be fine.

Yea, it comes with a manual that has the Model number listed, matches the camcorder, the USA warranty information and terms, and it explicitly lays out that it is only for USA...so....not really anyway to argue around it you know?

Just make sure you use a credit card with an extended warranty or get a squaretrade...90 day labor is garbage anyway...

I purchased the HDC-SD600 on Amazon for $299 just days ago. That price was valid for several days. I purchased the Transcend 32GB class 10 card on Amazon for is $49.81. They are still available.

DD 5.1 is cool, no doubt. But seriously, I don't expect to be shooting any famous actors in my next movie with such a portable consumer camera. 2.0 is fine for my home movies.

The quality of this camera is outstanding and for $349 I think it's a good price for the camera and 32GB card. I researched the TM700 and it's nice too. No question. I just didn't think 5.1, mic input and focus ring were worth the extra $400.

For $300, it's a remarkable camcorder if I do say so myself.
Here's a couple of big clips from my first outing that I put together using HD writer.
http://vimeo.com/19619615
Please keep in mind that I had trouble holding it a bit since I'm not even used to the small size yet.

Just got Panasonic HDC-SD600K

when the machine is off, with the lens covered on, when I move the camera like flick it over, I heard the "click" noise from the lens cover, like there is a lose part behide the cover. Did anyone experience this also? Is it a problem or not? Thanks for any help.

OK Paulo, so the BIG question is how do you find the video compares with the GH2? In your video there seems to be a fair amount of judder while panning. That's weird if you were using 1080p where there should really be zero judder while panning.

For $299+$50 for 32GB SDHC it is no brainer. Nothing on the market is even close. Also, you can always do DD 5.1 in post. I was mostly worried about warranty. Originally Panasonic denied warranty and then they said they would comply.