Hi
I now have the SD900
Fan noise, it is there. The fan is around the size of a five pence piece, and any fan that size is going to have to make some whizzy noise I suppose. The fan is off when the camera is cold from switch on, but in a matter of minutes it starts to ramp up. It makes an audible sound which I can hear when it's around half to a metre away from me given no other sound to mask it, and so the microphones do pick it up. I can't compare to the 700 series to say if it is an improvement or not.
Playing back a first test in a quiet room with a computer running (this wasn't me specifically testing for the fan noise at the time), the computer fans were captured along with the unmistakeable whizzy fan which keeps changing it's pitch, probably as it keeps reacting to temperature changes.
Given some other sounds or general ambient noise in the mix I think in most circumstances it will not be noticeable.
I've already made a shroud from some computer sound proofing foam that gets rid of the fan noise altogether for when I might need it but still allows the fan to draw air in
I'm not sure why Panasonic didn't mount it further inside with a tube to draw the air in, as it is at the moment, the fan is flush up against the grill, probably a space issue.
It isn't a deal breaker for me as I also have a H1 Handy Recorder which is fantastic and can be placed nearer to where it's needed and I just stitch the sound in when editing, and already have a quick work around if required.
Not to keen on the new battery charging arrangements, some may find it an improvement, however it is clearly a cost cutting measure as they have bundled the cheapest OEM power supply which plugs into the camcorder and you have to charge the battery in situ now. I'm not too keen on using a £700 camcorder as a battery charger and leaving it out in order to charge the battery. It does mean you don't have to remove the battery to connect it to the mains, but the battery only charges when the camcorder is off still.
I think this is mainly to get some extra revenue from the semi-professionals using this type of camera now (because they are so good!) who will need a separate battery charger in order to use one battery while charging a spare. Surprise surprise Panasonic make mention of such an accessory in the manual, we wait to see the cost. Hopefully they will do a bundle, a charger and spare battery for not much more than a battery on its own.
So the negatives out the way
It isn't a great deal different from the TM700 in terms of build and styling and button placement seems the same. There is less metal inlay on the 900 series (no doubt saving a few pence on the cost for Panasonic again).
The LCD screen is a big improvement, perfectly sharp and clear for its size (other camcorders tend to have more pixels but I can't see you'd really see the benefit, more of a marketing the numbers).
After having the TM300 the wider angle lens is great to have.
On the TM300 I found evidence of what has been dubbed "
bondi blue", which is the green bias on skies and other blues, and the almost green cast to whites in some circumstances (although show me an auto-white balance that gets it right all the time). A manual white balance cleared up the whites but skies could still shift into being bondi blue although I personally rarely saw or noticed it, however there were some worst case examples posted on the internet, sometimes the blue would shift obviously while recording. I've had limited testing with blue sky outside, but setting up the same test of blue items in the house which did confuse the TM300 especially on auto white balance under halogen lights, I've seen no evidence whatsoever of this green shift on the 900. This seems to mirror the results from other owners of the 900 series in Russia which seemed to see this problem more than anyone, probably due to their weather maybe, lots of bright blue sky and white snow.
I'm sure the bondi blue issue was just a bug in the firmware (it can't be a mechanical problem), a shame Panasonic haven't owned up to it and issued a fix on previous models.
It ships with version 3 of HD Writer AE, seems okay for what it is, some may find it useful although it did a horrible job of down converting HD to DVD SD on a test, although lots of software does a bad job of this.
Picture quality is excellent as expected on the 50p mode, I'm sure it's no improvement on the 700 series, probably exactly the same.
Panasonic have made claims of up to 45% less noise in low light, while I can't translate that in any meaningful way to what I see, there is a noticeable improvement over the TM300 in low light. Dropping down to 1/25 shutter speed and for indoor shots of people without too much wild movement, you can get away without needing much light and get something quite pleasing.
As for 3D, not interested, I see 3D and it's support on consumer camcorders as no more than a bit of gimmick really and 3D has been the "next big thing" since as long as I can remember! Perhaps it might find a niche in the porn genre and drive some sales, but I can't really see people messing about aligning lenses and trying to frame shots to get a dubious 3D effect.
Any other questions fire away.
Regards
Phil