Panasonic HDC-TM300 Twin Media HD Camcorder (Black)
by Panasonic
Our Price: $1,499.99
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Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: PanasonicRelease Date: 2009-04-15
Model: HDC-TM300-K
Color: Black
Product features:
- Capture Full HD video; 1920 x 1080 resolution
- Records to 32 GB built-in memory or SD/SDHC memory card
- 12x Leica Dicomar lens with Optical Image Stabilization
- Capture stills up to 10.6 megapixels
- 2.7-inch widescreen touch-panel LCD
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Panasonic HDC-TM300 Twin Media HD Camcorder (Black)
Customer Review: Very good manual controls
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my first AVCHD camera, coming from Sony SD DV tapes, so it's hard not to be enthused about eliminating tapes and getting video that looks decent on a 100" projector.
Besides the basic requirements (AVCHD & no hard drive), I was looking for a camera that performed well in automatic mode but provided thorough manual controls. My most important application is recording action on a football field under night lights. Being able to set white balance from a white card, and making compromises between shutter speed and "iris" (aperture and gain combined), were vital to making video that minimizes blurring the fast moving subjects. These manual controls are pretty easy to use, even the very first time without practicing. I found that the LCD provided good visual feedback, accurately showing overexposed white objects when zoomed out that were good when zoomed in. A live display of a luminance graph was also a help to confirm what I saw when making the shutter & iris adjustments. The manual focus ring (that can also perform other adjustments) was also a help to confirm focus, though even under the football lights the auto focus worked well. Another feature that was a big help for this application was the outstanding image stablization. I was quite surprised that I was able to follow the fast moves of subjects when fully zoomed in and produce watchable video.
The passive accessories "shoe" requires a physical adapter that mounts on the side of the camera. That adapter will be easy to misplace, but it's probably worth the hassle to allow a smooth top to the camera where your fingers wrap around. I used the adapter to mount an external microphone. There is a manual gain adjustment with graphical level display available even for the external microphone -- I found this helpful to adjust levels for dynamic music recording to avoid the compression that comes with AGC. Lastly, I was able to use a third-party wide angle lens (0.66x) on the standard 43mm threads to get about 2/3 of the football field in view.
In daylight (fully auto) the camera produces vivid saturated colors; I'm more than satisfied with the picture quality. Projected on a 100" screen, all possible flaws are highly magnified, yet I could not discern any macroblocking during fast pans, just some image softness (using the default 2nd-to-highest recording quality setting). For typical slow movements, the projected image was very good -- not quite HDTV video sharpness, but very good -- sharpness somewhere between filmed HD and broadcast video camera HD. I'll bet that on a more conventional display (like a 50" LCD), the quality would be outstanding, but I haven't tried that yet.
Some people have commented negatively about indoor low light quality, but I haven't found it an issue. [added] At *extreme* low light levels, yes it gets grainy ... but there has to be some tradeoff for low light, and I'd rather get grainy with pushed exposure rather than dark video. Shooting in a typical home with poorly-lit areas was not be a problem. I was also pleased with shots under theatre lighting, and even got watchable video during scene changes where only a dark blue light illuminating the stage. [/added]
I had no problem downloading the AVCHD files from the camera via USB and editing them in Adobe Premiere Elements 7.0 -- but I have a fast machine (Core i7 overclocked to 3.6GHz). It's wonderful not having to wait for an hour to download an hour video like with DV tape. [added] I have also used Sony Vegas Movie Studio Premiere for editing this camcorder's video. Despite being Sony-centric, and forum claims that Sony's AVCHD format is different from Panasonic's, I had no problems doing extensive editing in Vegas Studio. The reason I'm transitioning to Vegas is that it fully supports 5.1 audio, whereas support in Premiere is half-baked. [/added]
Some reviews have knocked the LCD touch screen as being hard to control, but I had no problems at all with it ... maybe because my previous camera "trained" me to use the corner of my fingertips instead of pushing straight on. My biggest complaint with this camera, that has been mentioned by others, is the stupid charger arrangement. You MUST take out the battery to use wired power ... but you can't charge the battery and use wired power at the same time! Obviously it would be common work flow when preparing to download to take out the battery, put it in the charger, and use wired power for camera video management. Here's the really stupid part: the battery will not charge on the charger if the power cable is physically connected to the charger EVEN IF the cable ISN'T CONNECTED to the camera. I'm sure many people will not get their battery charged because they forget to disconnect the cable FROM THE CHARGER.
[added] One other issue: there is a thumb wheel on the side of the camera to switch amoungst { Play, Off, Video, Stills }. The wheel is too easy to turn past Video to Still, and I've missed an important scene because in my hurry to whip out the camera, I was trying to take video but the camera was in Still picture mode. I really don't understand why there has to be separate modes, since there are separate buttons for start/stop recording and taking a still picture. And they really should have a very obvious warning in the viewfinder if you're in Still mode and push the start record button. Not a deal breaker, but annoying. [/added]
Overall, I'm still happy with this purchase after using it for four months. It's one of the most expensive consumer cameras, so unless you're looking for those outstanding manual controls, you may find a better value elsewhere. OTOH, if you like or need to fuss with camera settings, I don't think you can go wrong with this camera.
Description of Panasonic HDC-TM300 Twin Media HD Camcorder (Black)
HDC-TM300-K black Twin Media Hi Definition camcorderCamcorders
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