HMC 150 Issues

mikeymic

mikeymic

Active member
Ok, i just bought this camera as many of you know. I'm sending it back today.

So, i bought this camera to shoot a couple concerts. Here are the problems i've run into so far:

Loud manual zoom

4GB File limit! about 25 minutes of high rez...if i'd known this i could have saved my footage, but lost about 60 minutes of footage without knowing it.

Somehow it didn't record the first 60 minutes of shots even tho i was hitting record and pause religiously the whole show. Now some of you are thinking "why didn't he check?" Because when you're shooting a live concert where the band does not pause like other bands do you don't have time to pause and check for valid files and even if i'd found that they weren't recording what could i have done?

yes, the camera makes beautiful pix, but i think not recording half of my footage on set 2 and the 4gb file limit renders this camera useless and worse a liability.

yup, i'm pissed. i feel that panasonic owes me a HUGE apology for releasing this piece o sh#@@#$t.
 
The 4gb limit is a FAT32 file system limitation, it has got nothing to do with the HMC. It simply splits the file when the limit is reached, you can merge the files afterwards on your computer again. About the loud manual zoom, this has been discussed ages ago. An external mic will easily solve the problem.

Maybe you should simply learn how to use a camera before getting out trying to shoot something?
 
Every issue that you've mentioned above, were already adressed here at the forum.
Do a search. you can bring your clips back together again.
About the not recording I cant help you there.
I feel sorry for you not succeeding with your first gig.
I remember you being so excited about this cam.
Brace yourselves for a Titlechange (inside joke ).
 
so when i posted the thread "has anyone shot a 3 hour shot with this?" and nobody bothered to say there was a 4gb file limit that's saying "we told you so?" nobody, not one person mentioned this.

secondly, it does not appear that there are more files to stitch together. does it dump them in some other folder? I looked. it would be hot to be able to recover those files.

i have been shooting professionally since 1990. i read the manual twice to see if there was a file limit size issue. i posted more than one thread on this topic. i asked my sales person. nobody told me of this issue. i would have shot this on one of my other cameras had i known.

you mean i'm going to be banned for brining up an issue? is that the title change? or do you think i'm going to change the thread title? what's your inside joke? that everyone has a love fest over a crappy camera and nobody's allowed to say the truth?
 
Everts said:
Every issue that you've mentioned above, were already adressed here at the forum.
Do a search. you can bring your clips back together again.
About the not recording I cant help you there.
I feel sorry for you not succeeding with your first gig.
I remember you being so excited about this cam.
Brace yourselves for a Titlechange (inside joke ).
Click to expand...

every issue?

not recording? i was not the only pair of eyes that witnessed this.

a loud zoom is **** even if you have the second mic which i used. a loud zoom is an issue. to think that it's not would be silly unless you do silent movies.
 
This camera was at the top of my list.

So you were only able to record 25min of hq on how big of an SD card?
Was the mic on the shoe mount?
Were those the only problems you encountered? (not saying those arent big problems)

I'm just wondering cause I was going to purchase this camera in a month or so...
 
mikeymic said:
every issue?

not recording? i was not the only pair of eyes that witnessed this.

a loud zoom is shi* even if you have the second mic which i used. a loud zoom is an issue. to think that it's not would be silly unless you do silent movies.
Click to expand...

I don't get your story, do you say that it stopped recording data after 25 minutes? did you record continuously or did you pause here and there?

About the zoom, I thought the zoom is not loud at all, maybe you have a defected unit.
 
mikeymic said:
every issue?

not recording? i was not the only pair of eyes that witnessed this.

a loud zoom is shi* even if you have the second mic which i used. a loud zoom is an issue. to think that it's not would be silly unless you do silent movies.
Click to expand...

Yes every issue and Im not working for Panasonic.
 
don't do it. unless you shoot short format or just don't need the footage you are shooting.

can you imagine wasting time shooting footage that isn't there? can you? panasonic owes me.
 
Just because the 4gig file limit wasn't addressed in your thread, doesn't mean it wasn't addressed. And so what? How does the fact that it has a 4gig file limit make it useless? I record a 90minute church service every week with this thing in PH mode and it's never an issues... it simply starts a new file when the size limit of the previous one is reached. it ends up seamless without missing a frame. You are not limited to 25 minutes straight unless you have a 4gig card.

As to your missing footage, I don't know what to tell you other than ask did you format the card in the camera? And are you sure you don't have a defective card?

You might have gotten a lemon camera... but please, until you know, please don't go posting how every single one sucks because you either got a lemon or didn't use it right. Load pronouncements of how lousy this camera is without bothering to ask such basic questions like "is this normal" or "did I do something wrong" only make you look like you don't know what you're doing or talking about.
 
so where's the thread about the camera not recording files that it says it's recording? got link? i'd like to see that. i did a search for long format recordings, but didn't find one.

now, maybe you can point me to one of those threads so i can figure out how to "stitch" them back together and where the missing files that it created are.

thanks.
 
as soon as my wife gets home with the laptop i'll throw those clips down and see if it is all there...if it is i will post an apology, but i doubt that the missing clips from day 2 exist.
 
You shot a live concert with no feed from the board? Was it a bootleg? I wouldn't dream of shooting a live show with an on-camera mic.

Was your timecode incrementing the entire show? Or did that stop as well.
 
I think there has been some confusion here.

The 4gb limit is more of a NLE problem than a camera problem. When the camera is filming and the file gets to 4GB it starts another file to allow recording to continue. When you bring the file into your NLE it should all get stitched together into one big file. This is how it works on FCE anyway.

As it happens, you get a glitch on FCE at the join that lasts a few seconds, I understand that this has already been solved in FCP. Either way, you do not loose the footage, at the worst it is a glitch that lasts a few seconds. The fact that apple were able to fix this for FCP suggests that it is a NLE problem, not a camera problem.

I don't know which software you are using of course, but I would suggest doing some research into the best workflow with your particular NLE and you may be able to recover all your footage. You are the first person I have heard of to actually loose any footage, so I suspect that it is something to do with your workflow or a limitation of your NLE.

As for the zoom, it is fairly noisy but I don't use the internal mics for anything critical so it's not really an issue for me personally.

Maybe we should put together a sticky for this board with all the known issues etc. listed so nobody gets a nasty surprise.

Personally I love this cam and fully intend to get a second one.
 
mikeymic said:
so where's the thread about the camera not recording files that it says it's recording? got link? i'd like to see that. i did a search for long format recordings, but didn't find one.

now, maybe you can point me to one of those threads so i can figure out how to "stitch" them back together and where the missing files that it created are.

thanks.
Click to expand...

I record 75-90 minutes straight. It ends up as 2-4 sequentially numbered files on a 16gig card. After transferring the entire PRIVATE folder to a hard drive, I open up CS4, open up the clips, and drop them sequentially into the timeline. That easy. And I didn't need to read a thread to figure that out.

Now, as I said, if you're losing footage... one of three things are happening. 1) (And the most likely one) you didn't format the card in the camera. 2) You have a defective card. 3) You unfortunately have a lemon camera.

The easiest way to figure out which it is is to take the footage off the card when you get the laptop, format the same card in the camera, then just let it record for 90 minutes. If it works, than it was most likely 1)... and thus your fault. If it doesn't, than it may have been 2)... which means you have might have a bum card. So try another card. If it still doesn't, than it might be 3)... in which case, yes, your individual HMC150 sucks. But your's only. The rest of ours are awesome and we love them. Send the lemon back for repairs or a new one.

And Perrone is right... I would never shoot a live concert with the on camera mic... on any camera. Get yourself a decent mic as backup, and plug into the sound board if possible.
 
4 gigs is a FAT32 file system limit.
It has nothing to do with the camera or the editor.

If you're using Windows check this thread out.
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=157393

It sounds as if you may have lost some footage however. You should see a number of files [mts files] all in the same folder.
I've recorded and hit standby/pause many times and for each time you do it you should generate a new mts file.

I feel sorry for you [I mean that] and I doubt you'll get banned for speaking the truth but it seems as if most of the issue you listed fall on you and not the camera.

I'm sorry man but that's how I see it.

I do hope it works out for you.
 
Last edited:
mikeymic said:
yup, i'm pissed. i feel that panasonic owes me a HUGE apology for releasing this piece o sh#@@#$t.
Click to expand...

Act like a professional then and come to the forums with questions and answers not whines and cries.

Sorry your recording didnt turn out like you planned.

Panasonic doesnt owe you anything.
 
Not certain what is being achieved here.

p2 cards also I believe are FAT32 and must be stitched. All SSD I believe act the same way with respect to video acquisition.

If the OP wants to send it back, so be it.

But I don't understand his post. Why post here unless to ask questions and troubleshoot.

This could be user error, or a bad cam.

But we like ours so much, we are considering a second.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top