New Panasonic 700 Series Camcorders Launched

ChadStarbucks

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Panasonic today introduced three new Full HD 3MOS Camcorders to replace the HS300 / TM300 and called them HS700 (240GB HDD), TM700 (32GB Flash) and SD700 (SD Card only)
Key Spec's
- Full HD recording 1920 x 1080p (50p)
- 35mm wide-angle lens,
- 3MOS system,
- New POWER O.I.S
- Face Recognition + iA
- Manual Ring / EVF
- Mic / Headphone Input
- 3" Touchscreen

Availability from mid March
 
Perhaps now the 300 will come down in price?
 
£1200 for HS700, £999 for TM700 from Amazon UK. Available 1st March.
I think the SD700 (£899) would be the one to go for since they are charging £100 for 32GB of memory, when you can get good quality 16GB SD cards for less than £20 each.
I hate to think what the file sizes will be if it is true 50p!

Here's the Panasonic page:
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_...34Rax4PaN10n6jAmljGr5XDqQLvpAe?trackInfo=true
It peaks at 28Mbps on its top (non-AVCHD compliant) setting! If that was used then it would probably be the first consumer cam to need a class 6 SDHC card.
 
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Hi

I think the SD700 (£899) would be the one to go for since they are charging £100 for 32GB of memory, when you can get good quality 16GB SD cards for less than £20 each.
I hate to think what the file sizes will be if it is true 50p!

The 50p recording is VBR @ 28Mbps, however it still appears that the usual 50i/25p is at 17Mbps rather than supporting 24Mbps like Canon and others.

The sensor size is the same at 1/4.1, however the specs on Panasonic's website don't add up so this may be incorrect, as if you compare the HDC-TM700 with the HDC-TM300 still images have more pixels on the TM300. Both models advertise more pixels in their still images than they have pixels for :nono:

The lens is wider angle on the 700 yet doesn't zoom as much, so apart from the 50p recording it's swings and roundabouts.

Specs here

Regards

Phil
 
Problem with 24mbps is it cannot be archived to DVD or Blu Ray in High Definition

The 700 Series has x12 Optical Zoom which is the same as the previous 300 series I beleive
 
It's good to see the manufacturers at last acknowledging that the wide angle end is more important to most users. The new Sony 550VE is a little wider than the Panny's 35mm at 28mm equivalent. The TM300's widest is 44mm, only a smidge wider than a standard 35mm SLR lens!
 
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Hi



The 50p recording is VBR @ 28Mbps, however it still appears that the usual 50i/25p is at 17Mbps rather than supporting 24Mbps like Canon and others.
That camcorder review site, who are usually Canon fanbois, reckoned the Canon 24Mbps mode added very little in sharpness. I suspect that we're hitting the limits of consumer camcorder optics so that, other than bigger files, you don't gain anything from a higher rate.
 
I just did a comparason between the 300 and the new 700 models, and it states that the 3mos sensors are the same size between the old and new models, and also it states that both the 300 and the 700 models have
3.05mp x 3, yet the 300 model has a total motion image of 2.07mp x3 but the newer 700 has 2.53mp x3, so how can the new model have more motion pixels when they state that the new 700 series uses the same sensors and same amount of megapixels on their sensors as the 300 series??

also how can they claim 14mp stills while the 300 claims 10mp still, but both use the same sensors as far as i can tell.


I wonder if the 700 will suffer from the green skew problem as the 300

apart from the 50p mode, there is not a great deal of dfference between the 300 and 700

a bigger lcd, from 2.7" to 3" but the same pixel count so a corser screen!

I was hoping that the later models would have used bigger sensors for less noise.
 
I just did a comparason between the 300 and the new 700 models, and it states that the 3mos sensors are the same size between the old and new models, and also it states that both the 300 and the 700 models have
3.05mp x 3, yet the 300 model has a total motion image of 2.07mp x3 but the newer 700 has 2.53mp x3, so how can the new model have more motion pixels when they state that the new 700 series uses the same sensors and same amount of megapixels on their sensors as the 300 series??

also how can they claim 14mp stills while the 300 claims 10mp still, but both use the same sensors as far as i can tell.
More interpolation between the 3 sensors? Or just errors on the site!
 
incidentally, I presume that since the 50/60p mode is max 28Mbps, to get the same compression in interlaced mode would need 14Mbps, so the 17Mbps 50/60i mode would actually produce the video with the best horizontal definition..
All academic to me since I don't find any need to go higher than 13Mbps to produce great images. And save disk space:D As I understand it, bit rates on H264 HD TV now max out at around 13Mbps except, for some totally unfathomable reason, a few Sky sports channels...
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/satellite_hdtv_bit_rates.php
 
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Hi

and also it states that both the 300 and the 700 models have
3.05mp x 3, yet the 300 model has a total motion image of 2.07mp x3 but the newer 700 has 2.53mp x3, so how...

It is all rather odd. Normal HD resolution is 2,073,600 pixels, I'm guessing the higher resolution quoted on the 700 is something to do with what the digital zoom captures, so it will capture a higher number of pixels then zoom in a little bit digitally?

Either way it has hard to see where they get 14M pixels for still images or 10M on the 300/200's. I thought manufacturers were not allowed to market on the interpolated resolutions, but maybe that applies to digital cameras only and camcorders slip outside of that convention.

Regards

Phil
 
I have just made two comparison still photos, one with my existing Sony DSC-W7 digital stills camera and the same still picture with my new (disserpointing) TM300

My sony is 7mp and the TM300 is claimed to be 10mp, both pics were taken at maximum resolution, and my Sony camera produced a 3mb picture, where as the TM300 produced a 4.8mb pic which totally lacked resoluton.

The picture was of food items in cans, with the barcodes facing the cameras, and the Sony was pin sharp at the barcode lines, but the Panasonic murged the thin barcode lines into a blur! this is NO WAY 10mp!

Also the colour cast on the Panasonic is far too green this is also the problem while filming, so how can they claim 3 sensors give better colours? my old Sony stills camera gives perfect colours and perfect white balance even in dim lit rooms even when using the video mode, and it cost a fraction of the price!

i wonder if the 700 series will suffer the same problems as the 300 but i must say i'm very disserpointed in the TM300 even though they rated it at the top on camcorderinfo.

I hope i didn't go too far off topic on this thread, but i just needed to air my views.
 
I have just made two comparison still photos, one with my existing Sony DSC-W7 digital stills camera and the same still picture with my new (disserpointing) TM300

My sony is 7mp and the TM300 is claimed to be 10mp, both pics were taken at maximum resolution, and my Sony camera produced a 3mb picture, where as the TM300 produced a 4.8mb pic which totally lacked resoluton.

The picture was of food items in cans, with the barcodes facing the cameras, and the Sony was pin sharp at the barcode lines, but the Panasonic murged the thin barcode lines into a blur! this is NO WAY 10mp!

Also the colour cast on the Panasonic is far too green this is also the problem while filming, so how can they claim 3 sensors give better colours? my old Sony stills camera gives perfect colours and perfect white balance even in dim lit rooms even when using the video mode, and it cost a fraction of the price!

i wonder if the 700 series will suffer the same problems as the 300 but i must say i'm very disserpointed in the TM300 even though they rated it at the top on camcorderinfo.

I hope i didn't go too far off topic on this thread, but i just needed to air my views.
It's a camcorder: still capabilities are there purely because they don't cost anything except a button to add.
 
It's a camcorder: still capabilities are there purely because they don't cost anything except a button to add.

this may be so but why claim 10mp if it's not? and it still dosen't explain the green cast, produced on video by the claimed "better colours" a 3mos system gives compared to a 1mos
 
i believe in a previous thread / post on a similar subject that someone mentioned this issue can solved by manually adjusting the white balance on the camcorder
 
i believe in a previous thread / post on a similar subject that someone mentioned this issue can solved by manually adjusting the white balance on the camcorder
Yes, it can. It's interesting that while my original SD1 has what I would call OK colour balance out of the box under most circumstances, my Canon HG10 is much cooler than the SD1. I usually adjust its colour balance manually too, just like my TM300.
 
I have owned several camcorders all of which were Sony, but because the latest Sony models were more "gimiky" rather than serious like this Pany with plenty of manual features and claimed better colours because it has 3mos, i decided to go for the Pany tm300, but its the worst one ive ever owned for getting colours wrong, theres only so much you can do with WB as it dose not get the green tinge out of the picture. it only reduces red or blue

In Ai mode the white balance is totally wrong too, even in bright day light and blow outs are more than any of my old Sony's.

how did this get top reviews, were they colour blind?

you all seem to sound happy with your perchase, could i have received a faulty one?
 
I have the TM350 and love it, bought a couple of weeks ago... just to find the new models are out! :facepalm:

Would have bought the flippin TM700 otherwise, grrrr! Waiting for the trustedreviews.com review
 
I have owned several camcorders all of which were Sony, but because the latest Sony models were more "gimiky" rather than serious like this Pany with plenty of manual features and claimed better colours because it has 3mos, i decided to go for the Pany tm300, but its the worst one ive ever owned for getting colours wrong, theres only so much you can do with WB as it dose not get the green tinge out of the picture. it only reduces red or blue

In Ai mode the white balance is totally wrong too, even in bright day light and blow outs are more than any of my old Sony's.

how did this get top reviews, were they colour blind?

you all seem to sound happy with your perchase, could i have received a faulty one?
It's possible, certainly I have no issues on mine, and others, as you point out, do seem happy. Panasonic did get criticised by purists in reviews of their models earlier than the 300 for having over saturated kodachrome like colours: they do seem to have desaturated the newer ones to prevent this criticism but I have not noticed green shadows.
I assume you must be seeing this under all conditions, bright sunlight as well as low lighting or indoors.
 
Hi

Also to add no issues with green skies or green colour casts. There was a review on Amazon where someone had a green colour cast issue and they had the camcorder replaced as faulty and the replacement was okay.

I also agree that the colours are much more natural on the TM300, I briefly had an SD9 and sent it back due to poor low light performance and overly saturated colours, for example a brown fence came out red.

Regards

Phil
 
It's possible, certainly I have no issues on mine, and others, as you point out, do seem happy. Panasonic did get criticised by purists in reviews of their models earlier than the 300 for having over saturated kodachrome like colours: they do seem to have desaturated the newer ones to prevent this criticism but I have not noticed green shadows.
I assume you must be seeing this under all conditions, bright sunlight as well as low lighting or indoors.


Yes i am seeing this green hue on all lighting conditions.
Today it was a lovely bright sunny day, and i decided to put the 300 to the test, and secured it to my car dash board set it to iA mode and went for a drive.

When i returned home i played the video on my Sony Bravia 40" tv and once again noticed that the whole video looks greenish, the grey roads are a dark green colour even though the WB looked quite normal if a bit on the cold side
Also bright areas a blown out quite a lot more than any other cam ive ever owned.

I took still photos from this video using the still grab feature on the camera, and i would really like to send you or anyone else my pics to compare with yours if your willing to send me video grabs from your camera in the same circumstances for comparison, like this i will know if mine is a faulty one.
please private message me to send pics if you or anyone else is willing.
 
Hi

It would be worth testing using manual mode with manual white balance. The best way is in the same lighting conditions to zoom into a white sheet of paper so it fills the frame (doesn't matter if out of focus) then use the white balance. Sorry you may know this but thought it worth mentioning.

I think from several posts seen about the auto white balance is getting it wrong sometimes when there is a lot of blue in the picture, but it sounds like you have a bigger issue with green being dominate in all shots. Certainly worth ruling out auto white balance making a mistake.

Even try this in indoor conditions and then video the white sheet of paper and maybe something blue. Then transfer to the computer and see if you have the green colour cast. If the white sheet is still white and blue is still blue then it points to an auto white balance issue rather than a bigger problem with the camcorder. If you still get the green cast it is definitely faulty as manual white balance should mean white is white and greys are grey.

An easy way to test for the colour cast is to take a screen grab from the video playing on your computer and paste it into an imaging application (I use Paint.net) then use the colour picker to sample the white sheet in the image or anything that is grey so should have even amounts of the primaries. I've just done this on some footage picking areas of grey and there is no green bias, this was an outside seen and indoors on auto white balance. Unfortunately I've yet to get any footage with blue sky!

Hope that helps.

Regards

Phil
 
You could just put a short clip showing the issue on Youtube. It takes 1920 AVCHD now.
Please also see PM.
 
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thanks Alpine and Philip
yes good idea putting a clip onto youtube, i have yet to transfer the footage to my pc, so far i have only filmed and played back from the camera, but i will try uploading a clip.
Also Philip, i have transferd still grabs from the video of the green cast roads to my computer and looked at them on windows default viewer, and when i click the "fix" button i get several options, one is "ajust colour" when i click on that, i get 3 more options, colour temp, Tint and satuation, if i increse the satuation the road just goes greener, but i will try tomorrow to adjust the WB with white paper and check the greys again, but i think it will be green cast again. i'll let you know.

don't get me wrong from all my moaning above, but i do really like this camcorder for it's features, if only it performed better colour wise, after all it should by rights be better for colour than a 1mos shouldn't it?

but it's making me less enthusiastic to go out and produce some stunning films because the colour is so disserpointing
 

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