great video camera

I was torn between Sony and Panasonic (the Canons seemed to have many recurring complaints especially with the decks) and after reading several reviews became gradually partial to the Panasonic before ever having used one based on customer loyalty and consistently glowing testimonials.



Well I've never used the comparable Sony's JVC's or the Canon XL2 (some limited experience with the GL2) but as best I can tell without personal comparison this camera does in fact deserve all the great reviews.



The image quality is excellent and in many cases looks about as good as broadcast TV video (nonHD) and the camera allows a tremendous amount of image control--manual focus ring aperture (iris) gain adjustment shutter speed zebra control for overexposure white AND black balance adjusting daylight filters etc. The electronic viewfinder can even be focused via simple diopter. There are six preprogrammed but customizable settings for image control so the user can simply dial in whatever setting they need based on the shooting/lighting conditions. So for example you shoot occasionally under weak flourescents lights--you adjust the white balance and the gain and the detail level accordingly save it as a particular "scene file"; whenever you return to that same location or a similar shooting environment you can click over to the saved settings in an instant and start recording. The first four are factory set for video 60 frames; the last two are 24 fps for a more film-like quality which this camera handles beautifully.



What actually sold me on the camera in terms of hardware were the two XLR jacks--comparably priced models didn't seem to offer this. The XLR jacks allow the user to attach professional shotgun mics and bypass the mediocre factory one taking fuller advantage of 16bit 48khz stereo recording. I use a fairly inexpensive AZDEN mic and the improvement in sound quality is tremendous. If you were willing to invest in finer mics the audio quality would be better still. Having two XLR inputs means that in addition to recording live audio (like a mic) you can also mix in input from another pre-recorded source--all in the camera!



The lens by Leica is also impressive--it is a bit wide and is not interchangeable (although I believe there is an adaptive telephoto for $$$). I prefer shooting wide but if you have need a wide selection of lenses or don't enjoy the look of wide angle look to Canon.



The drawbacks are minor--the camera is rather cumbersome--and would certainly be tiresome for handheld use as it isn't designed for shoulder-mounted use. I shoot almost exclusively indoors with a tripod and so neither of these issues are relevant for me. Also irrelevant for me are reviews I've read which have indicated lackluster battery performance--again shooting indoors I always have it plugged in and thus haven't noticed any battery problems. The little menu joystick control button used to toggle the menu screens as well as the VCR playback options can be frustrating when you're tired but that is an extremely trivial concern really.



This camera is expensive even in the $1500+ prosumer class it tends more to professional range but I feel it is a great value considering what a fine piece of equipment it is and the wealth of features it offers. It is much much more than enough camera for the consumer and probably a little more than I need actually--I've used mine for a few months and I'm still learning how to wring better and better shooting from it. Once you've used it for a while it becomes clear why this particular model maintains a devoted following. If I have to replace this camera--provided I can afford to--the next camera would definitely be a Panasonic and probably be its big HD brother the HVX.More detail ...

Mixed bag: know what you're using it for

First the two versions of this camera are identical other than the fact that one has built in memory the other does not. BUT consider how much you're paying for that memory? Could you just buy a larger card with the price difference? Probably. Considering that for the sake of convenience you will probably be recording to cards most of the time (so you can just plug them into the computer) I would probably go for the internal memory-less version.



I ran several tests on the camera for a few days to try out its features. I am not a name-brand fanboy nor am I a dedicated videophile. I'm just going to give you an unbiased impression based upon what my eyes saw:



PROS:



1.)Pretty good daylight recording. Considering what I paid for it I was surprised by the quality. It's not a Canon S10 by any means but I was pleased.

2.)It is unbelievably small and light. Shockingly so. If you are looking for the smallest possible 1080p capable camera to take on a daylight hike I'm thinking this is near the top of the list.

3.)Has a few of the bells and whistles of a larger camera including the ability to swap out memory cards a decent touch-screen menu interface where you can play with the settings (as opposed to some of these cheap-o cameras) a genuine optical zoom and an HDMI output right on the camera. Unlike most I had no problem with the touchscreen.

4.)Quick power-on/off feature works really well battery life was not a problem.





CONS:



1.)You'll notice I mentioned how surprised I was by the camera's performance in daylight? I was equally surprised by the nighttime/indoor performance. As in it was atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. We're talking awful pixelation terrible graininess significant artifacting and block-iness and a general inability to see anything. The onboard light provided little help. I'm not talking about near pitch black rooms I'm talking about normally lit indoor areas. The camera is basically useless for indoor or nighttime recording unless you're using multiple floodlights. I would walk through the house and even our well lit dining room had significant problems.



I chalk this up to the tiny sensor (less than 2 megapixels) and tiny lens. Sure it keeps the weight/size factor miniscule but it really hurts performance. I am not understating this problem at all. I tried to use the manual shuttings (such as they are) to correct the problem but playing with frame rates settings and modes made little to no difference.



2.)No built-in lens protector. Having a dangling lenscap to annoy you defeats some of the purpose of having such a compact easy to whip out camera.



3.)Screen tearing/rolling shudder is a problem on quick pans even more so than other CMOS cameras I've tried. I'm not sure what the issue is but be forewarned.



4.)The cameras awful low light capabilities make most of the individualized settings useless.



5.)If you want to make that final jump from 1080i to 1080p you're limited to the "digital cinema" mode that disables the vast majority of the manual settings. A small nitpick but somewhat annoying.





SUMMARY



Know precisely what you're going to be using this camera for before you buy it. The video quality in daylight for the price is pretty decent the form factor/size is phenomenal and the indoor/low light video quality and options are horrendous. Basically if you're only going to be using it outdoors and size is of paramount important it's worthy of consideration.More detail ...

HDC-SD60K

I just tested this camcorder for a full day and was pleasantly surprised. I bought a Canon HFS100 last year and liked the video quality but was disappointed with its stabilization wind noise and limited optical zoom. Even though the HDC-SD60K was half the price of the Canon I really could not tell the difference in video quality between the two cameras on my HD TV. In some respects such as color accuracy I think the Panasonic was better. I really liked the 25X optical zoom and the excellent stabilization even at full zoom. The wind noise cancel feature seemed to work well too. For the price I am amazed by the video quality.More detail ...

Great Camcorder still needs some improvement

I got this camcorder for about two weeks already. It's very easy to start operating it even without reading the manual. The touch screen feature is great! You can basically play on the touch screen and see the difference of the picture quality right on the screen. Here's some of the Pro & Con that I think after playing with this camcorder.



Pro:

-Easy to use

-Great video quality (I hook on my Sony 48 inches 1080p LCD screen the picture looks great!)

-Picture quality is great too if you got enough light when using indoor (outdoor no problem)

-Indoor video recording is pretty good using backlight function if indoor light is not enough.

-Outdoor video quality is excellent

-Digital zooming is great (I can basically zoom in and get so detail that I can see the pore of the person's face right across of the street with 3 traffic lane in between it.)

-LCD touch screen is great (you can flip the screen too! You can also use fingernail to touch the screen if your fingertip is too big the screen don't have any problem recognizing your command.)



Con:

-Not enough battery life (got around 90minutes of recording good thing is that you can see how much time you got left on the LCD screen for recording so you'll know when you need to charge the battery or switch to power cord or new battery.)

-You cannot charge the battery while using power cord!

-The power cord plug on the camcorder is hidden underneath where you put the battery at so you cannot use both battery and power cord at the same time (very bad when you try to record using power cord once you accidentally pull the power cord plug all of the recording stops and it takes long time for camcorder to get back to recording and it also causes temporary hard drive malfunction while the camcorder trying to recover what you just record.)

-You cannot turn on the light that came with the camcorder to do the recording (it's use mostly as flash function when taking picture)



So far that's what I thought playing for two weeks (without reading the manual.)

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Tops for the prosumer

We used this camera to shoot our short film and it proved to be awesome. The P2 cards were a little tricky to work with but certainly less difficult and more portable than film; without the added expense of telecine.



For the cost we could not have gotten this level of quality otherwise. I believe its got the depth of 16mm plus it shoots in 24p. When we saw our final projection we were just amazed.



Great cam for the money.More detail ...

WOW :-)

I received my 150 a little over a week ago. Bought it because I wanted to move up to HD and get out of the tape business. It did not come with an SDHC card. Bought an 8 GB to carry me over until my 16 GB cards arrive via Amazon. I am still on the learning curve on it. Especially liked the large comfortable color view eye piece. I was also amazed by the clarity of the video play back on my 48" LCD screen. Used the three cable output first that came with the camera( Video Lt. Rt. Audio )



Very clear video much clearer than my trusty old Canon GL-2 It does not come with an HDMI cable. Bought one locally and tried it. Plugged one end into the HDMI out port on the camera and the other end into the HDMI port of my TV. I was blown away by how clear it was !! The video was clearer than some of the stations I view in HD.



On playback you are given a thumbnail of the first frame of each scene you shot when you turned the camera on. On playback you can skip around the scenes you want to view or delete if needed. The focus assist is another nice feature. When you use it it momentarily zooms in on the middle of your next shot so that you can fine focus if needed.



It has many other features that I have not tried yet. On editing bought the Pinnacle 12 Ultimate because it is set up to handle the AVHCD format and a PC with the AMD quad Phenom processor with 3 GB of RAM. Waiting for a more powerful graphics card to arrive before trying to edit in this new format. The battery that came with it is small. Would recommend buying the larger battery as soon as you can to balance it out. Right now it feels a little out of balance because of the smaller battery. Also liked the solid magnesium body. No plastic anywhere ! Overall I am impressed with this camera.



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Best camera for the price!!

It was a long wait but finally got it last week and then took it for a trip right away its performance it's outstanding I got this camera for a TV show we are producing after seeing a few options we decided to get this one because of several reasons:



- Size the camera is very compact for a camera that provides broadcast quality image the size is amazingly small.

- Construction this camera has most of its body made out with metal panels that makes it very solid and also makes it reliable also the set up of the buttons are easy to access.

- Price there are other models in the market that could deliver a similar quality or probably a little better but the cost is at least $1k more if you think like I do "creativity is the main ingredient for a good production" spending the extra cash doesn't really make a difference as long as you are aware of the camera's capabilities and limitations but there is always ways to improve performance in some conditions that could affect the correct functionality of your equipment.

- Tapeless technology we bought another AVCHD camera a little less than a year ago we use it mostly for action shots and underwater recording the transition was effortless the advantages and capturing time are reduced to minimal and the quality is amazing with this model we found that its quality is even better than older models and editing is a lot quicker also recording cost are cut to almost nothing with new SDHC cards that can be used over and over without loosing quality... Just this fact makes it a must buy!!!



After using it for this little time I have managed to work around its many controls and get exactly what I want from it the response to low light is not the best but it's decent you can always add a good light for little money and resolve that problem also the sound quality is excellent I didn't get the optional xlr adapter piece for it but I am using a 8mm wireless mic system that combined with this little fellow deliver great results!!



In short words: "the new Panasonic AG-HCM40 is not the best camera money can buy but to my opinion it's the best camera money can buy for this price!!"More detail ...

The picture quality of a '90s cell phone

I bought the Panasonic SDR-H80 digital video camera from Best Buy yesterday (May 23 2009). It cost $399 + extra for a backup battery and a warranty.



The Good Stuff:



The optical image stabilization feature is quite adept at stabilizing a shaky image.



The 70x zoom is kinda cool though you really need a tripod for anything over about 30x.



The camera looks attractive is light weight and has a relatively easy to use interface. The buttons are mostly positioned well except the zoom lever which I couldn't easily reach without jostling the camera.



The Bad Stuff:



The image quality of this camera is utter trash. Pure garbage. My picture phone literally takes better quality video at a higher resolution. I was absolutely stunned at how bad the image quality is. It looks like some kind of highly compressed late 90's webcam or something.



And it gets even worse in low light. And here by "low light" I mean anything less than direct sunlight. My first attempts with this camera last night turned out so bad that I couldn't see anything.



I did have the camera set to the highest quality and I followed the instructions for the different lighting types (fluorescent mercury etc) with no luck.



The camera claims to have an intelligent auto (iA) feature but I didn't notice it doing much but fiddling with the white balance at odd intervals.



There is also a special low-light feature called "magic ..." something or other. I forget. But it reduced the frame rate to 1 or 2 fps which makes it completely unacceptable as a video recording device.



I am surprised at how good the reviews are for this piece of equipment. Really people set your bar just a little bit higher.



I returned this product this morning to Best Buy. I brought my laptop and while I was there I tried out other cameras of this model to make sure that mine was not simply defective. They were all trash.



I ate the $60 Best Buy restocking fee but that's okay because I'd rather be out $60 than $400 for a camera that won't do anything but sit in my closet.More detail ...

Powerhouse Camcorder for Power Users

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3P5NINJ0LEBSL The Panasonic HDC-TM700 is a rare camcorder in that it breaks new ground. The key upside of this camcorder is its 28 Mbps 60P mode -- the camera is capable of recording at 1920x1080 resolution in 60 PROGRESSIVE frames per second. This captures TWICE the image information of the interlaced method resulting in smoother motion. The TM700 also capture more vertical resolution than other consumer camcorders when used in 60P mode.



There are many features of this camera that blur the line between "consumer" and "prosumer."



Whether you dub the 35mm lens "wide" or not it's a hell of a lot more wide than any other consumer cam lens I've tried. My $6500 Sony EX1 has a 31.4mm equivalent lens so the TM700 is in the same ballpark. For me this make a big difference in the practical use of the camera. No longer do I need to carry and constantly attach/detach a wide angle adapter. This also makes me more likely to use the 18X zoom (since there's no wide angle adapter on the cam).



One nice TM700 feature I haven't seen discussed elsewhere is peaking. Quite simply "peaking" means that the camera outlines objects in focus with a color so as to help the camera operator achieve correct focus. The camera does include a peaking function when switched to manual focus. Panasonic calls it "manual focus assist." This really helps achieve critical focus with the 260k pixel LCD screen. The peaking color is blue; I prefer yellow but will gladly settle for blue.



Another upside to the TM700 vis-a-vis other consumer cams is the manual control ring. Panasonic has done a nice job implementing this feature and it's easy to quickly adjust zoom focus shutter speed & iris using the ring. This is a slam dunk win for the TM700 because the competition doesn't even offer a control ring (the control wheel is a far less satisfying alternative).



Some have expressed concern over the cooling fan. The fan does generate some noise when it activates although it's not always on. The fan has really not been an issue for me so far. I usually use an external mic when I'm serious about capturing quality audio.



I'm a picky camera buyer who usually finds flaws with consumer equipment. But I haven't found many with the TM700. It has a number of nice features like facial recognition (automatically exposing for certain faces) outstanding low-light performance with minimal noise and strong color reproduction an almost "instant on" technology (you can power on the camera simply by opening the LCD screen or extending the viewfinder) stellar image stabilization plenty of menu customization options all the benefits of tapeless workflow...and I could go on.



If you are shopping for a "flagship" consumer camcorder when considering the TM700 you must ask yourself whether you really care about 60P. After all it's the 60P mode (and resulting high image quality) that sets this camera apart from its Sony & Canon competitors. I believe that the TM700 in 60P mode produces arguably the best image quality you can find in a consumer camcorder. But you need a fast PC with the right software to edit this material. If you intend to edit your footage do some homework on this point before making a purchase decision.



If you want 60P...and you can handle 60P... then you will love this camcorder.



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