I have one and love it, yeh your right you cant use a 3rd party battery witch is a down side but other then that i have to say its very good, i use a apple mac and am happy editing the videos i take on imovie, its easy fast and has no problem with the avchd format.

AVCHD - despite being a relatively good codec - is still a pain in the butt to edit in anything other than Premier CS4 and equivalents (such as the below mentioned VEGAS). We still need a decent way to re-encode the footage from this otherwise rather nice camera - the included "HD Writer" software is a great way to downgrade it to DVD format, but jeez, we don't buy HD cams to make SD DVDs, do we?

Panasonic's (admittedly free) AVCHD converter does turn footage into their P2 DVCAMPRO format, but I'd argue that's just format buck passing. I am yet to figure out how this is helpful. Poor game, Panasonic. And while we're on the subject, why make a pseudo-prosumer handicam (I mean, it has a gain function) without an external mic jack? I mean, we're talking here about a 3.5mm jack plug, might cost all of fifty cents. Doesn't seem so hard.

Though, I have to note that third-party batteries are now available on the market, and are relatively decently priced. So that's good news.

Overall, I give the camera 8/10. If you can get one for under $500 (which is getting kind of easy), I'd have to say it's worth it. Otherwise, do a search for Canon's HV30 and don't look back...

I like this a lot, but I do think Panasonic have made it too difficult to get the best from it. I bought the Sony Vegas Premium to make HD video from it ~ too many of the others were just poor quality, like that from a $25 dollar lucky bag. More had really bad artefacts and made any movement useless as the image broke up.

Sony Vegas Premium sorted this out though and made really beautiful images, it is a step too far in reality ~ I have not tried the included software but the MTS files are like camera raw files and can be refined to give really good quality with the right software.

I really want some control over the focus, the center spot is over eager to get to the background and a touch screen would be nice.

The surround sound is just awesome, it has me blown away, and now that I can process my files to great IQ I like this cam. A long life and spurious battery should be available BY LAW ~ IMO. AND as an eco friendlier recourse, why can’t I share my batteries with other devices ~ greed is the only answer ~ Panasonic should set an example, they have a greener profile than most other manufacturers and this practice of deliberately making batteries, plugs and lead unique has to stop.

The use of SDHC cards is a step in this direction, most welcome, getting one’s file on the PC can take hours and hours with other procedures ~ just minutes from the SDHC card ~ Great.

The GOOD in this product makes up for the poorer areas, so I’d recommend it ~ but you’ll need to realistically spend on a semi-pro video editing package with AVCHD support to extract the best, an extra battery and *recommended, a 32MB SDHC card to support a four hour stint between charges.