X3 on the view finder. At my recent trip to the air show I tried maxing the brightness on the LCD and I still couldn't see it in the bright Florida sun. It was almost ok in cloud cover, but anything else not usable. As I said earlier the only problem with these small cameras and the view finder is the contorted position you have to maintain with your arms. Speaking of the hard drive model I think some people are mis-diagnosing fan noise with the combo of fan spin and hard drive spin.

If I were purchasing a new camera right now to replace my Canon HF100 it would be either the Canon HG10 or the Panasonic TM900. Have a look at this comparison: http://camcorder-test.slashcam.com/campair-EN.shtml

To me it looks like the HG10 is better in low light while the TM900 has better color/resolution under normal lighting. And the TM900 is much cheaper and does full progressive at 60fps.

I would go with the TM900 unless you are going to be doing a lot of low light shooting.

- Mark

thank you and yes, I see the TM and HS do have a view finder though it appears as noted it is fixed position meaning no flexibility in angle of holding it. That is ashame. I like a good EVF. I am still using my Canon XL1 but need to move to HD. Also, I am assuming you can record with the LCD panel closed and use only the EVF, correct?

As for the hard drive, I worry about shock, though it has a card slot, I am thinking the TM a bit more robust. Just not sure why originally the HS was more expensive than the TM. Now the same or actually discounted the HS is cheaper. I may look at the others if in the same price range. Thanks.

Two more personal notes with the EVF on the Panny. It is in desparate need of an eye cup! While the EVF is slightly recessed in the housing in bright sunlight it's next to impossible to seal out the blinding light. Even with your eye and face pressed tightly against it. Several times at the air show I could not track my fast moving subjects due to the EVF being wash out by the sun. Second the diopter adjustment is on the movable EVF stalk. As the stalk moves in and out it changes the diopter setting. As such you end up having to reset the diopter many times in a single battery cycle. Small problem to be sure, but irritating none the less. It's especially irritating when you have only seconds to repond to a given situation and as you're looking through the EVF it appears that the focus isn't working. You don't take the shot because you're diagnosing what's wrong and it turns out the camera was fine, but the diopter setting has changed.

Chances are quite good that you will also want/need to shoot stills, so I recommend a DSLR that can shoot HD video. Specifically, I strongly suggest looking at the Sony Alpha DSLR cameras. I do not use them myself but recently recommended the A35 to a co-worker and spent a little time with it after he received it.

The still images were good, though a little noisier in low light than the Nikon D7000. The video was tremendous, not quite as sharp as the Panasonic GH2, but pretty close and I like the color rendering better. What really impressed me was the way the camera handles when shooting video.

Image stabilization is in the camera body, not the lens, so even an older Minolta prime lens will be stabilized. The autofocus works extremely well, very accurate and much slower in video mode than when shooting stills (that's a good thing).

Sample images and video: http://video.seektechinc.com/video_preview/sample/Sony%20A35%20Quick%20Test.html

Camera body is $550 at B&H and Tamron 18-200 is $250. Keep in mind that you can use this camera with older Minolta AF lenses (and non-AF MD mount lenses with an adapter) that can be purchased used for next to nothing.

Well, I had not considered the DSLR option for video. I actually several Minolta lens, though for the older X-700. I will have to see which mounting system they have. I am assuming the video is similar format at the video cameras. I have so much film equipment, lens, flash you name it. Would love to be able to recycle it to another use.

IMO DSLR video is not ready for prime time. I have a Nikon D90 and the video is average at best. Of course the D90 is first generation, but from what I've read from CES reviews they still have a way to go. I like the idea of HD video capability in my DSLR, but camcorders have become so small that I prefer to have specialized units for stills and video. I'm sure one day soon 2 units will become redundant as well as unnecessary, but I don't believe we're there yet. Certainly the stills taken from my new Panny 900 are not in the Nikon's ballpark much less league!

Older Minolta AF lenses use the same mount, the much older non-AF lenses use the MD mount and will not work without an adapter. It looked to me like the A35 had a proprietary hot shoe, so your older flash units likely won't work.

Someone suggested the Panasonic GH2 and I can confirm that it is a very good camera for video work. At work I use the GH2 for video and the Nikon D7000 for stills. I've used the GH2 for product shots and general shooting and it's OK, but not nearly as good as the Nikon. My personal camera is a GH1 that I use for personal history interviews and it works well for that at 720p.

Another member suggested that DSLRs are not ready for prime time, and in many cases I must agree. Most of the DSLR cameras render nice looking colors but have other image issues (jagged diagonal lines & moire) because they discard information to get a high resolution image down to 1080. The GH2 scales the image, so you don't see these defects like you do with other cameras. AF is also either problematic or non-existent on most other cameras.

I recommended the A35 because it does both stills and video quite well and is an absolute bargain. I provided some samples for you and you can find some direct side-by-side comparisons of the video quality of various DSLR cameras on Vimeo.

In addition to your camera you'll want a microphone. The Sennheiser MKE400 and the RODE VideoMic Pro are getting good reviews (~$200). Good audio is at least as important as good video, so save some room in your budget for this regardless of which camera you get.

I appreciate all the comments, advice and help. I went ahead with the TM900. I think for me it will do well and later I can add other cameras to support it. Wanting to restart my old video production business and will start with this one. Thanks again.

I appreciate all the comments, advice and help. I went ahead with the TM900. I think for me it will do well and later I can add other cameras to support it. Wanting to restart my old video production business and will start with this one. Been using VV since VV2.0 and now loading up latest VV11. I am an old FAST VM/Plus guy but time marches on and so does technology. Cameras just have to be updated. Thanks again.

Could I jump in here with a simple question regarding the tm900 camera?

The reviews all mention the fact that the 1080p recording format is in a Panasonic proprietary AVCHD. How does that affect the ability to work with the results in Pro 10e? It is proprietary in what way? I am using an SD workflow now and I am toying with the intention to move to HD - just for a hobby as I am just an amateur. Thanks.

Bob

"The reviews all mention the fact that the 1080p recording format is in a Panasonic proprietary AVCHD"Proprietary? It's part of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD#Specification_addendum_.28AVCHD_2.0.29Specification addendum (AVCHD 2.0)[/link] If you'd like to try some footage in Vegas 10.0e try the TM700 footage I linked to several posts up: parrots.zip I've not had problems editing this format in either Vegas 10 or 11.

...Jerry

Thanks, Jerry. I had previously played with your clip. It worked just fine, but as I mentioned the reviews had referred to its format as 'proprietary' and I wasn't sure if your clip had been changed/converted so that it would work smoothly with Vegas. Thanks again for the confirmation. But just to be clear - you filmed that in 1080p and just copied/pasted that from your recording media onto your hard drive?

Bob

"But just to be clear - you filmed that in 1080p and just copied/pasted that from your recording media onto your hard drive?"Yup, that clip was exactly as it came from the TM700. I merely copied it from the SD card to my harddrive (after that I zipped it because my hosting service has a problem with .mts extensions).

...Jerry

Over the course of the past month I've been working with a lot of TM900 .mts (AVCHD) files in Vegas 10e. Zero problems. I took the SD card from the camera and inserted it into a USB multi card reader. Works well and is fast. I don't know where the garbage on the internet comes from that says Panny's AVCHD is proprietary?

To answer the question about where the 'mis-information' about the format of the TM900/1080p is coming from, the following information is copied from the "camcorderinfo.com" site:

"The 60p mode is special, mainly because AVCHD compression can’t handle 1080/60p recording. To get around this, Panasonic uses its own MPEG-4 compression system for recording 1080/60p. It’s a good move in one sense, as it allows you to record Full HD using the coveted 60p frame rate, but the proprietary compression system limits the compatibility of the resultant video."

I apologize if I added to incorrect information. I believe I read this also on the Panasonic site.

Bob

Good find Bob, however I'm not sure what that means across the board? I wonder does that mean that Sony made concessions for Panasonic's special MPEG-4 in Vegas? Because Panny's .mts files import into Vegas without issue.

Has anyone figured out all the ins and outs of manual mode on the HDC-TM900 especially operated through the EVF? After reading the manual and experimenting, I understand the focus, but am still a bit puzzled by the exposure control. Seems like I have to step through the Shutter and Aperture/Gain settings to force them to lock in manual. Oddly, after having it in manual exposure, if I select Shutter the camcorder automatically adjusts the Aperture/Gain.