... I've had the Panasonic HDC-TM300 for a little over a month now and have had several occasions to test it out in a multitude of situations and exposure levels. Overall, I think the video quality is excellent. Indoor footage with incandescent lighting is a little noisy, but so is the same footage on every other camera in its class. I also considered the Canon HF S10 and eventually decided on the Panasonic for several reasons, which I will discuss later. The camera is very close to being perfect, but there are a few nitpicky issues that annoy me about it, which prevent me from giving it a 5. Overall, I am very happy with the purchase and don't regret buying the camera.
I paid $950.00 for it from Dell, which is a reasonable price. It retails for $1,299.00, which is a little ridiculous in my opinion, but if you can find it for under $1,000, it is reasonable.
The video might be the best overall against all competition in its price range. I did a good amount of research looking at sample videos at websites such as YouTube and Vimeo and found the video of the Panasonic to be as good, if not better than anything out there in the "Consumer" or "Prosumer" range.
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Main reasons I purchased the Panasonic HDC-TM300 over the Canon HF S10:
1) Price. I was able to get the Panasonic for about $150 bucks cheaper than the Canon through Dell.
2) The Panasonic has an optical pull-out viewfinder. The Canon has none.
3) The Panasonic has a full-size manual focus ring. The Canon only has a manual settings knob and no manual focus setting.
4) I personally liked the look and design of the Panasonic a little better.
Other than that, the cameras are VERY similar in all respects. I really liked the manual controls that the Panasonic offered, along with the excellent video quality and overall design. On any other given day, I might have decided to buy the Canon HF S10, but I'm happy with the Panasonic.
Pros:
- Overall look and feel of the camera is of a very high quality instrument. It has a very solid and expensive feel to it.
- Manual focus ring is very nice and quite useful.
- Pull out viewfinder is a nice addition in this price range.
- Very good video for its class, especially outdoors with plenty of natural light.
- Touch screen works very well. I read several professional reviews online that stated the touch screen was horrible on the edge of unusable, but I have had no such issues.
- Menu system is very easy to use and get used to.
- Excellent manual feature set for a camera in its class.
- Excellent battery life with stock battery.
- Comes packaged with a nice set of accessories, including a remote control.
- Smaller and lighter than I expected and has a nice feel in my hand.
Cons:
- Operation selector knob on the side of the unit is in a very bad position. The selector knob is designed to be used with your right thumb while holding the unit, but due to its position on the device, it is impossible for me to use it with that thumb, forcing me to use it with my left hand. VERY poor design.
- Other controls not laid out in the most ergonomic of positions. Panasonic should buy a Sony camcorder and check it out for some pointers.
- Average audio quality at best. I have had some very lackluster audio quality and mixed results when using the device. The video might look nice, but the audio will always remind you that the footage was taken from a camcorder.
- USB port cover is annoying to use, but that's par for the course for such devices.
- No Firewire.
- Accessory shoe port on the side of the device is a novel design and well thought out by Panasonic, but poorly engineered. Right when I unboxed the device, I attempted to slide in the accessory shoe adapter and check it out. Bad idea. The adapter became jammed into the camera, taking me about 45 minutes and a badly cut finger to remove. I came very close to just returning the unit. Either the port was too tight or the adapter was molded too big, but it went in and didn't want to come out. The release button worked, but it was just jammed in there. Since then, I have been able to get it in and out without loss of blood, but it is still very tight. Bad design.
- I've had issues with HDMI compatibility between the camera and my Philips HDTV. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I also experience audio problems with outputting to the TV via HDMI. I attempted to contact Panasonic tech support with no reply a week later....and that leads me to my last point.
- Panasonic tech support stinks. Their website is virtually useless and their e-mail support seems to be staffed by ghosts or something, because they don't respond. Also, the camera is so new, that you really can't find any info online about issues. I haven't tried to call Panasonic yet, but I'm not holding up any hope.
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