Buying a HMC151

S

Stefanham

New member
Hello,

I am considering buying a HMC151 and was wondering if anyone could give me feedback on their thoughts of the camera.

I know, I am posting this in a HMC151 forum where people probably are pretty pro-HMC, but maybe there are those of you with experience from other cameras as well and can give me a nuanced feedback.


One thing I noticed when sqeezing the camera at a camera store was that it felt pretty plastic and not so solid and durable. What are your thoughts about this? I am a bit spoiled with the still photo SLRs who all come in sturdy metal coatings.

Are you happy with the camera performance overall, special good features, is Premiere CS4 recommended for PC users...?

Other input?

Thanks a million in advance! :dankk2:
 
It has a magnesium shell, if that helps.

The real issue is editing. Very few apps will edit AVCHD footage natively, and those that do require some serious hardware.

Most people convert to a difference codec and edit more easily.

We like the image and feel it compares favorably with our HPX170.
 
Here's the hidden part of the camera you don't see:

DSCF0115-1.jpg


Hidden under the plastic on the HMC-150, HPX-170, HVX-200, and HVX-200a is the magnesium shell that protects the inside components of the camera. I played with this metal shell at DV Expo; it's reasonably tough.


Bob Diaz
 
Hey thanks for the replies.

That's a pretty impressive shell! Looks like terminator without the human skin :) Ok, so that put me to a bit of an ease.


I am going to use the camera for a large variety of projects - everything form vacation footage, footage from my trips, to the occational job related assignment (work for a web agency).

While buying the camera, I am also buying a new computer with an Intel Quad Core Q9550 2,83 GHz processor and a Gigabyte 9600GT 512 MB graphics card. I also plan to use Premiere CS4 for editing. Are these technical specs sufficient?

Does file sizes increase when converting from AVCHD codec to other codecs?


PS. very happy I found this forum, getting relevant and excellent answers immediately. You rock!
 
Stefanham said:
Does file sizes increase when converting from AVCHD codec to other codecs?


PS. very happy I found this forum, getting relevant and excellent answers immediately. You rock!
Click to expand...

There is an increase in file size when I transcode from AVCHD to DVCPRO-HD although I cannot tell you much of an increase there is gigabyte for gigabyte and to my eyes there is a little loss in image quality but that loss is not enough to mean much. The transcoded images still look very good to me...
I transcode for no other reason than the computing power needed to edit native AVCHD. So by me transcoding I get to stay with CS3 and my current laptops which works for me for now.

I do some web design as well and the footage I've taken from AVCHD to DVCPRO-HD to Flash video looks REALLY GOOD.

I think you'll like this camera overall and this is a pretty cool forum with some good people here.:thumbup:
 
I have been transcoding to motion-jpeg mov files (HQ). There is no quality loss that I can see and the files are marginally bigger.

Its easier to edit the mov files than avchd. I transcode using TMPGenc.
 
Ok, that is good to know. I'll try the AVCHD in CS4 first, and then compare with other formats.


So, does anyone have any criticism against the HMC-151? Is it aaall good, or what are the biggest set backs? Any other camera in close competition?


Again, thanks a ton!
 
Editing and output are the biggest issues.

I don't know of any other AVCHD cam that shoots using 3-CCD 1/3 inch chips at 24 mbps.
 
Things I don't like:


  • No way to quick-view the last recorded clip directly from recording mode (I hope this is correct, at least I didn't find a way to do so :))
  • Recording of long clips pretty much means you need to keep the entire clip even if there is a lot of unusable things in it. There is no clean way to cut/split/crop existing MTS clips. In theory you can simply cut away parts of the file, but depending on the I-frames this might not work very well.
  • Small 4x3 LCD display. In comparison to other camcorders of that price segment the LCD is really bad. And why is it 4x3? The camera only records 16x9.
  • Archiving of footage is an issue for me. Currently I backup the entire content of the SDHC card. But this is much work and doesn't work really well. I'd love to have some kind of database program/tool which allows me to keep a library of footage or something. Kinda like iMovie/iPhoto with preview/thumbnails of the video. Oh btw. I'm on the Mac, I don't know if that tool for Windows is exactly that.

Otherwise, nice camcorder :)
 
One thing that I would love to see is a second SD card port.
I've never recorded any more than 15 minutes max per clip but with two SD cards I could back-up to one card or in single camera shoots I could segregate clips into a virtual A camera / B camera shoot for easier editing.

Also I wish the "door" that encloses the SD card was... I guess I'd say "sturdier".

Outside of that, it fits my needs better than any camera I currently own for the price.

...weather sealing would be nice....:thumbup:
 
Thanks a lot for the input. Seems like a pretty good choice for a camera. I will be back when I have one too!

One thing that I didn't like was the fact that the display isn't a touch screen. Many small camcorders have that so it doesn't feel like a super expensive technology. Now you have to navigate around with a joystick and small buttons. But this is of course a minor detail...


/S
 
That's so true.. and a fingerprint ruins displays.. I'm glad it's not a touchscreen. The one I used on a SONY was a POS...


The camera has a few detractors.. but the benefits and the quality far outweigh the cons in my eyes.. and in terms of what I"m getting.. I think I'm getting about what I got when I bought my HVX.. in relative terms, but at less than 40 percent of that initial start-up cost...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top