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Panasonic HDC-TM700
Review: Panasonic HDC-TM700 (AVCHD)
With its 32GB internal memory and SD card slot, Panasonic’s latest flagship HD camcorder is firmly pitched at the serious enthusiast looking for everything the “600″ offers and that bit more. Let’s take a closer look at this impressive new twin-media model.
The recently-reviewed HDC-SD600 impressed us as a 3MOS camcorder aimed at the quality-conscious home user, but although it’s a fabulous camcorder for shooting and replaying HD movie clips in progressive 50p HD as well as in the default 50i interlaced mode, it has its limitations where connectivity is concerned.
The SD600 also lacks an electronic viewfinder which will dissuade a fair few buyers from parting with their hard-earned cash. However, the HDC-TM700 provides a level of functionality that will certainly prove attractive to those very same users.
Flying the flag: Panasonic HDC-TM700 3MOS AVCHD
Given that the “700″ series models (the others being the SDHC/XC card-only HDC-SD700 and the hard-disc-drive equipped HDC-HS700) effectively provide additional functionality to their “600″ series equivalents, we won’t re-iterate the camcorder’s main features like its specifications, lens power, menu controls, and so on. For all that stuff please have a look at the SD600 review.
Where the TM700 differs is in its ability to record and replay movies and stills using either its built-in solid-state memory or SDHC/SDXC memory cards. It’s the inclusion of somewhat more advanced features that the serious, semi-professional, users will welcome – such as an external microphone input, a stereo headphone output and an electronic colour viewfinder. A handy accessory-shoe adaptor is supplied in the box, and this can be used to mount an external microphone or video light, too.
A quick overview
For those of you not wishing to flip over to the SD600 review, here’s a summary of the HDC-TM700′s specs and features.
It offers recording in 1920×1080 and both 50i (interlaced) and 50p (progressive scan) modes (substitute “60″ for “50″ for the US, Canada, Japan, etc). The camera’s default mode is 1080/50i with a button being provided in order to intentionally activate the 50p mode.
It has three 1/4.1″ CMOS image sensors (“3MOS”), each producing a total of 3050 pixels, which translates to an effective resolution of 2530×3 when shooting HD video in 16:9 widescreen as well as digital stills. There’s a 4:3 image mode, too, which produces 2320 pixels.
Its 35mm to 420mm (16:9) Leica lens offers 12x optical zoom or 30x-700x digital zoom. An in-between “i.Zoom” (intelligent zoom) offers 18x ratio. This is a sort of hybrid optical/digital zoom.
Filter diameter on the lens is 46mm and Panasonic actually throws in a screw-in lens hood to make use of it.
In addition to the generous 3″ wide colour LCD monitor screen – complete with Touchscreen operability for selecting menu items and controlling manual functions – it also has a 0.27″ wide Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) which pulls out but can’t be tilted from its horizontal position.
Controls are fully Auto, though the ability to take over manual control of White Balance, Exposure, Contrast, Sound Input level, etc., is there when using the touch screen controls.
Panasonic HDC-TM700 slots and connectors
Connections exist in the form of a mini-HDMI socket (1080p/1080i/576i) in addition to an AV multi connector, a dedicated headphone output jack socket, an external microphone input jack socket (both 3.5mm) and USB2.0 socket (for which a cable is supplied). You’ll also find a useful accessory shoe adaptor in the box. This sits onto a vertically-mounted slot near the front right of the body behind a slide-away door, and can support either an external microphone or a video light, etc.
A built-in Flashlight can be used for stills in the range of 1.0m to 2.5m.
Choice of Recording and Playback media
The “TM” in the product name refers to its “twin media” recording and playback option. The TM700 has 32GB of internal flash memory for writing to, and reading from, HD video clips and digital photos. It also sports a slot for SDHC and SDXC memory cards. But that’s not all. Video clips and pictures can be transferred from one medium to another, either individually (by selecting them in the menu system) or in groups (by creating a “playlist” in the menu system). You can also copy the whole lot across in either direction if you choose – providing that there’s enough space on the target storage medium of course!
One other very useful, neck-saving, feature is what’s called Relay Record. Basically, what it does is that if you’re recording to – say – the internal Flash memory and you run out of space (recording a concert, sports event or whatever) then the camera will switch to the SDHC/SDXC card and continue recording seamlessly. You have to pre-select this option in the menu system, though, and you have to remember to put a card in the slot. Of course.
Lots of other features are included – stuff like iA (intelligent Auto) which guarantees precise colour, colour and exposure control even when the scene changes or when people’s faces move. You can touch the screen to tell the camcorder to lock in to a person’s flesh tone, exposure or whatever, too – this is useful when deciding which part of the scene you wish to maintain focus on, even when it moves!
In playback, you can delete scenes, combine them and trim them all in camera. A digital cinema mode gives you control over hi-speed shutter in the range of 1/48th second to 1/8000th second for pin-sharp frames and slow-motion effects. You have Pre-Rec, Face-Detection, Smile Shot and tagging features – all of which have been described in our other Panasonic AVCHD reviews. As with other equivalent models in this range, the TM700′s OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) is exceptionally good.
Performance
Everything we’ve said about the HDC-SD600 applies to the HDC-TM700 in terms of its picture quality when considering the various recording and playback mode options, so there’s no need to replicate them here. We very much liked the SD600 and – guess what – we very much like the TM700 too.
Panasonic HDC-TM700 mic and phones connections
The issue concerning the built-in 5-channel Surround microphone, which is built in to the upper frontal body and utilises 5 microphone pickup elements, applies to this camcorder as it does with the “600″ series. The problem exists where the fan noise is higher than normal due to the increased heat generated by the three hard-working CMOS imaging chips. Unfortunately, the fan vent inside the LCD expels its air out to the left of the camcorder which is then picked up by the left, rear mic pickup. The resulting “whirr” can be heard on recordings when shooting in very quiet situations.
However, I’ve had a detailed and frank discussion with the senior product engineer from Japan and he’s assured me that they’re improving this right now. He also showed me a new, smaller, but more powerful fan design which will be employed in future models. Watch this space.
A note about 1080/50p (60p)
The TM700′s 1080/50p mode uses a high write/read data rate of 28Mbps, which is fine if you’re just playing back via Viera Link or similar to a HDTV display using an HDMI connection, but will probably cause problems when copying into a computer for editing on a Windows-based PC (Windows 7, ideally).
The supplied Panasonic HD Writer AE2.1 software acts as a very good bridge for the import and simple editing and configuring of compiled sequences at full HD resolution (and from which Blu-ray or conventional DVDs can be made as well as desktop-playable files or even YouTube videos). It’s also possible to write finished sequences back to a SDHC or SDXC memory card. However, we experienced problems when choosing to write back to a card in the camera using HD Writer. This is a problem we’ve reported back to Panasonic and they’re currently investigating this.
You’ll need a pretty powerful PC to handle your full-HD clips – whether or not you’re working on 50i or 50p – so be aware of this. HD Writer AE2.1 does a good job, even on a standard dual-core Windows XP machine, however.
Panasonic HDC-TM700
A word of warning for Apple Mac users and 1080/50p (60p)
If, like us, you feel inclined to shoot 50p/60p material for importing into your Apple Mac running OS10.5 or higher, then forget it. Macs can’t yet handle 50p/60p processing at this data rate, although that situation is sure to change soon. It’s not Panasonic’s fault – it’s Apple’s. Again – think before shooting!
Conclusion
Despite the slight problems regarding the handling of 50p/60p files at later stages, the TM700 itself is a fabulous camcorder that produces stunningly good images and sound (in optimum situations) for the price. The added connectivity options – such as the ability to connect external mic and headphones – is a major plus point which will attract the more serious users, of that there is no doubt.
Summary: Panasonic HDC-TM700
- AVCHD Full-HD 1920 x 1080 recording
- 1080/50p (60p) progressive frame recording
- 32GB Flash Memory and SDHC/SDXC Card recording/playback
- Mic input, headphone output, accessory shoe adaptor
- Relay record mode
- 35mm Wide-angle lens and Advanced OIS
- iA (Intelligent Auto) with face recognition
- Intuitive operation with touch-screen interface
Perhaps this is getting to be a habit, but we’ve said often before that the camcorder we’re reviewing is the best in its class. Guess what? The HDC-TM700 is the best in its class – and the best HD camcorder Panasonic has yet produced.
Reviewed by Colin Barrett, SimplyDV. Text copyright Colin Barrett/SimplyDV Ltd 2010. Main product image courtesy Panasonic UK, all other images Copyright the Author.
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I spent most of late 2010 looking to replace my aging DVcamera, with my list of must haves, I narrowed the list available down to just two, one Sony the other the Panasonic HDC-TM700. The Panasonic won. Now having used this camera in a number of situations, it has proved its worth. I’ve taken it to Egypt (amoungst the recent troubles) and to Northern Norway in the snow and ice. No issue in either place, the only ‘issue’ I have is that, as per usual, I put a UVa filter on the front of the lens, more to protect the lens from fingers than to reduce UVa. This presented an issue when I shot some stills in a low light area, the flash took over and, well the flas is part of the lens (sitting just above the front element), none of the stills came out as the flas hit the back of the UVa filter and total white out!! Apart from this the low light video came out really well. So overall, I would recommend this camera, the fan, well yes, it can be heard (more so in Egypt than Norway), the ‘mod’ to a smaller fan will be in the HDC-xx900 range it seems from speaking with Panasonic. Also to note that, I asked Panasonic if the heat from the fan would cause an issue of overheating to the LCD screen, as I only use the view finder – too many years with SLRs I fear, anyway – Panasonic say no it won’t. So – watch this space to find out of they are correct.