HMC150 questions answered...

[Blit]

Please forgive my very dry sense of humor.

I certainly don't want to confuse those trying to help me!

I was actually referring to the large glass on the front of the camera, I believe, properly called the lens - in jest.

But seriously - what do I do for the best information on how to master this camera. I am a programmer getting deeper into working with video as part of my work. I am hoping for Barry to have a book just for HMC150. Otherwise what would the group suggest.

My knowledge is very spotty. Quite deep and detailed, even unique, in my very narrow field, but otherwise showing gaps both large and small.

I have a lot to learn.

Best Regards
Blit

 

[Evro]

Just a question for those that actually have the camera...

Let's say that you're shooting a critical event and you're finding that the card is just about full; can you hit the stop record button and immediately take the card out, or is there some delay before you can remove it and insert another?

This could be a major deal breaker for event work if you gotta wait 10 or 15 seconds between card removal/insertion operations!

I also note that there are lots of Transcend branded 16GB class 6 SDHC cards on e-bay selling for about $60 (around $40USD) do you reckon they would be good to go in this camera?

 

[Mike Harvey]

Just a question for those that actually have the camera...

Let's say that you're shooting a critical event and you're finding that the card is just about full; can you hit the stop record button and immediately take the card out, or is there some delay before you can remove it and insert another?

This could be a major deal breaker for event work if you gotta wait 10 or 15 seconds between card removal/insertion operations!...

[Note, I don't own one... yet] Honestly, buy a 32gig card or two. That's 3 hours straight per card. I wouldn't even want to know what kind of event you're shooting where you don't get a chance in three hours to swap cards.

 

[Blit]

Page 31 of the manual:

" When recording is paused after a short period,
a small amount of time may be required after
pressing the START/STOP button to stop
recording before writing to the SD Memory
Card is terminated.
This means that operations cannot be
accepted if the START/STOP button is
pressed immediately."

Also from page 30:

"DO not perform any of the following operations
while the SD Memory Card access lamp is
flashing.
Performing these operations may damage the
SD Memory Card or its contents, or cause the
camera to fail to operate correctly.
- Opening the card door and removing the SD
Memory Card
- Switching off the power
- Connecting or disconnecting the USB
connection cable
- Shaking or striking the camera"


A quick test of starting to record for less than a minute and then timing
how long after pressing START/STOP for the access light to stop flashing
was 2 seconds. Sorry I am leaving the question of does longer record
times require longer write times. Or does the write always follow about
2 seconds behind.

Hope this little bit helps.

Blit

 

[gmoe]

Hey Evro,

Having done a lot of event shooting. I would say, you can always find a little break for swapping out the card especially during a conference, concert, theater show..

Also, I believe with the 32g cards you'll be able to shoot three hours straight in PH mode and four hours in HA mode which is plenty and should give you plenty of room to find the right moment to switch cards.

I'll be getting my HMC150 tomorrow so I can test the time it takes to switch out cards.

I'll also be doing a number of tests with a Letus Ultimate, OCT 18 lenses and Nikon zooms and will be doing some of the tests with theatrical lights to simulate event type shooting for live theater. I'm a Technical Director for a small theater in Philly so I have access to the space and will post my findings later on this week or weekend.


I believe there are others who are using Transcend so you may ask them what the results are like. I'm going to use ADATA Class 6 16GB SDHC cards and I'll post the results on that card as well.

Gmoe

 

[Evro]

A quick test of starting to record for less than a minute and then timing how long after pressing START/STOP for the access light to stop flashing was 2 seconds. Sorry I am leaving the question of does longer record
times require longer write times. Or does the write always follow about
2 seconds behind.

Hope this little bit helps.

Blit

Thanks Blit, 2 seconds isn't really a big deal

 

[Mike Harvey]

I'll also be doing a number of tests with a Letus Ultimate, OCT 18 lenses and Nikon zooms and will be doing some of the tests with theatrical lights to simulate event type shooting for live theater. I'm a Technical Director for a small theater in Philly so I have access to the space and will post my findings later on this week or weekend...

Sweet, that would be awesome.

 

[Evro]

I believe there are others who are using Transcend so you may ask them what the results are like. I'm going to use ADATA Class 6 16GB SDHC cards and I'll post the results on that card as well.

Gmoe

Hey thanks Gmoe,

I saw those ADATA cards on e-bay too they were almost 1/2 the price of the Transcend cards, anyway, I ordered some Transcend 8 & 16 GB cards to have on-hand before I can order the camera (we're still waiting for the PAL version to be made available in Australia - I wish I could get one from B&H

:thumbup: A huge thanks to Darren S. & Barry G. for their footage upload for without their efforts it would be quite a risk buying a camera without knowing if your NLE can work with it.

I'm using Vegas Pro 8c and find that all I need to do to edit & view the AVCHD footage is to dump the raw MTS files from the STREAM directory onto the timeline, all the other files & folders seem to be superfluous.

I have the RNG35v3 DOF adaptor, am I correct to assume that the filter thread size on this camera is 72mm?

 

[Rob Myers]

(we're still waiting for the PAL version to be made available in Australia - I wish I could get one from B&H

Hi Evro,

We started shipping the 152 to Delaers last week. It's arrived in Australia. Let me know if you have any problem finding one.

 

[Barry_Green]

Put the camera in "pre-rec" mode and it should cover the time swap between the cards anyway.

And yes you get 3 hours of recording on a 32GB card, but if you need to go to the lesser-quality modes for more recording time, they're there. You can get 12 hours of continuous recording in the 6mbps mode.

 

[jeff9329]

Just a question for those that actually have the camera...

Let's say that you're shooting a critical event and you're finding that the card is just about full; can you hit the stop record button and immediately take the card out, or is there some delay before you can remove it and insert another?

This could be a major deal breaker for event work if you gotta wait 10 or 15 seconds between card removal/insertion operations!

I also note that there are lots of Transcend branded 16GB class 6 SDHC cards on e-bay selling for about $60 (around $40USD) do you reckon they would be good to go in this camera?

It is pretty quick and easy to swap cards. A few seconds. If you install a new card for the first time it seems to take longer, I believe it is formating the card.

I bought a few (cheapest deals available) Ritek and Transcend Class 6 cards from Newegg. So far, the camera does not appear to be picky. I got one 4GB Ritek card for test shots and general captures but I would recommend 8GB as your smallest card.

 

[shrigg]

Put the camera in "pre-rec" mode and it should cover the time swap between the cards anyway.

Holy crap, so it is literally continuous recording! If only pre-record would work during battery changes too..... rogar-Love(DBG):

 

[Mike Harvey]

Put the camera in "pre-rec" mode and it should cover the time swap between the cards anyway...

So I take it then that the camera is recording the pre-rec to some sort of internal memory cache and not the card? Pretty snazzy thinking on the part of the Panasonic engineers

 

[BobDiaz]

My best guess is that pre-record is just going to a RAM buffer. Even with the maximum data rate, 3 seconds would only take about 9 MB of RAM; which is easily done with today's RAM memories.

Bob Diaz

 

[Bucknfl]

Any reccomendations on card readers?

 

[Barry_Green]

I got a SanDisk MicroMate card reader free with buying a SanDisk SDHC card, and it works fine. My old Sony VAIO expresscard->SD card adapter doesn't work with the large-capacity SDHC cards. So make sure whatever you get is SDHC-compatible.

 

[manglerBMX]

and regarding the griffin 5:1 express card reader, this is taken from their website, which states that the product is now discontinued.

"Our card reader was produced before this Secure Digital High Capacity technology was released. Some of the cards we've tested have worked, but higher capacity cards are still being developed, so we cannot claim compatibility with all of them just yet."

any users of this product care to chime in on their dealings? known cards that work? don't work? the reader wasn't very expensive so if i have to buy another brand oh well, but i'd like to know. thanks.

EDIT:
i've found a Delkin 6 in 1 express card reader that says it supports SDHC, $40
http://www.delkin.com/products/adapters/expresscard34/6in1.html

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000M5U8KU?smid=A17MC6HOH9AVE6&tag=shopzilla_rev_381-20&linkCode=asn

 

[David Jimerson]

Hi all,

I went at 4 ways, Vegas 8.0c and 8.1, native on different machines, Premiere CS3 DVCPro transcoded using the Panasonic utility, Vegas 8.0c transcoded to HDV via TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0.

For some folks, converting the footage to easy-to-edit HDV might be a way to go. HDV from TMPGEnc Xpress 4.0 is as good as it gets. Cheap encoding at quality output.

At "Best (Full)," Vegas 8.0c is giving me 21-24 fps playback of 1080/24p HMC150 footage. At "Good (Full)" there's no discernible quality difference and I'm getting sustained 23.976.

Now, I have an Intel Q9450 quad-core with 4 GB DDR3 RAM, so I don't expect EVERYONE to get this performance, but it looks like Vegas is a solid choice with this footage. (No metadata support, of course.)

 

[Evro]

Hi Evro,
We started shipping the 152 to Dealers last week. It's arrived in Australia. Let me know if you have any problem finding one.

Wow Panasonic Australia account execs are on DVX User!! I thought only Sony listened to it's customers

Hey thanks Rob, nice to have you on-board! I've now contacted, John Barry, Lemac & DVT asking for their best price. I can see that VideoGuys in Melbourne are already selling it for $5,495AUD.
I'm so glad Panasonic came back with this AVCCAM technology because as a die-hard DVX user - yes I bought the T-shirt :beer: - I felt so abandoned by the whole P2 thing. This new HMC might be the ticket for Panasonic to claim back it's share of the wedding & event people it lost after the introduction of the HVX.

Update ----- I just got a call from John Barry & the rep said that the camera will not be available until the 17th of October (man that's over 2 weeks away) - maybe they're waiting for them to hatch or something

 

[ullanta]

Put the camera in "pre-rec" mode and it should cover the time swap between the cards anyway.

Is this tongue-in-cheek, or is it really possible? I thought we're talking about 2 seconds for the card to do whatever cleanup was necessary to be removed safely - I imagine there's some recognition time once a new card is inserted... and that leaves a fraction of a second at best to open the door, eject one card, insert another, and hit record... is it really humanly possible? Has anyone actually achieved this?

This also makes the following assumption... is it true that if you hit record, then stop, then after 1 second hit record again (all with pre-rec enabled) - do you get two seconds of video that are the same at the end of the old clip and at the beginning of the new clip?

All very curious...