PANASONIC HDC-TM300 TWIN MEDIA HD CAMCORDER

If this product is anything like its predecessor, it will make a great paperweight.

Our Panasonic HDC-SX5 which looks nearly identical makes great looking recordings, but you can’t put them on a CD, DVD or even a computer without connecting the Camcorder to it. So when your camcorder goes away, so does everything you’ve recorded. What good is that?

Our efforts to get software that would allow us to download the videos to any other media have not been successful, regardless of how much we were willing to pay, because Panasonic uses a proprietary format. The hours we have spent trying to resolve this with Panasonic have never resulted in contact with a human being.

The mini-DVD’s take so long to start up that whatever you’re trying to record is over, by the time recording starts. It may be further delayed by the obnoxious warning if you’re not using a Panasonic mini-DVD. Since the camera insists that approximately half of all mini-DVD’s are unusable (slightly more than that for Panasonic DVD’s), I wouldn’t even bother.

I don’t know how many hours of priceless memories we have lost forever because we tried to use a Panasonic HD camcorder. Hopefully this review will prevent you from making the same mistake.

Rating: 1 / 5

This camera is a nice “B” cam, I use it for behind the scene shots, car mounting and time lapse work. It does need a TON of light, but most small HD cams do. So with this said the outdoor shots are amazaing, indoors so so. Indoors it just wants all the light it can get, so this usually means gain city = grain city. I don’t like to go above 3 db of gain, if that’s not possible I turn the cam off. Not worth the card space. It takes some time adjusting to the manual controls via small buttons and touch screen, but VERY nice to have in depth manual control for a cam in this price point (iris, white balance, shutter, focus, and audio!). I’ve seen the footage displayed on a 50″ HD display and was very pleased. The detail is amazing, I usually roll in auto focus, manual iris/ white bal, the auto focus is very quick for the most part. Again light is your friend. Make sure you get a nice ( don’t cheap out, get the Century) wide angle and a polarizer. All in all it’s a nice HD CAM for what your are paying for. I like the small size, and battery life (got a 4 hr batt, lasts forever), and the AVCHD workflow is a breeze in FCP. Also just as a tip, be sure to turn off the OIS if doing any tripod work. Most people forget and this results in the gryos (OIS) fighting the smoothness of a tripod. Good luck and have fun with it!
Rating: 4 / 5

Once I decided I wanted both the flash memory and a view finder there was no other choice at this level of quality. By pre reading the manual before I received the camera it was no effort to get started making movies and creating DVD’s. The HDwriter, the software that Panasonic gives you has a lot to be desired and Tech support is little help when I wanted to save movies to a second hard drive but I figured out around about way to do it. My problems have only been associated with the software which will be remedied I hope with a third party editing package say from Corel.

Extra battery is a must and be sure to get a case. I chose a small case to stay portable. The camera is light and easy to operate. I’ve tested many of the features and I am amazed of how the camera thinks for you. The iA feature is fantastic. The 12X zooms in with ease and the resolution on my 1080 TV shows me what it can do. Oh you must get the mini HDMI patch cord and they aren’t cheap.
The most pleasant surprise is the great mike system that truly records directional sound in 5. 1 and boy does it pick up the sound. If not careful you can hear yourself breathing but with the zoom sound feature I’m sure that can be avoided.
So far so good for a beginner with only 2 weeks of shooting. Recommend using a tripod and extend your clips. Avoid rooky errors that way.

Have you ever seen a pro without a viewfinder? What’s with that? Most all of the new HDcamcorder do not have a view finder except this Panasonic. It’s a nice feature especially if you need reading glasses and can’t see the LCD screen very well. The view finder actually has an adjustable focus for your eye sight. Great camera worth every penney.

Rating: 4 / 5