HMC-40 test footage

WOW!!!

I'm impressed with the nighttime footage, the camera did a lot better than I thought it would.


Bob Diaz
 
perhaps wow, but its been crunched twice- once from the editors output and then vimeo compresses it. It's hard to make any judgement of any camera's output from web video. I messaged the author and asked them to please provide a raw avchd clip.
 
What exactly are you people impressed with? Ok, so it shows no visible noise, but so is my HDR-HC1 at 18dB, downsized to 720p. Night shots are made with MagicCam mode... sorry, with slow shutter. To me, looks as good (or as bad) as any other consumer cam. Here are some vids (not mine!) shot with an HDC-SD1, this is the first-gen Panasonic AVCHD camcorder, 13 Mbit/s:

http://www.vimeo.com/797188
http://www.vimeo.com/609746
http://www.vimeo.com/638514
http://www.vimeo.com/670719 (low, low light, slow shutter)
http://www.vimeo.com/691027
http://www.vimeo.com/1140007

This one is mine: http://www.vimeo.com/5450665

The same chip/lens is used in the HMC70.

I like the manual controls on the HMC40 though, but man, this camera is ugly. Panasonic put it into production with the same Home Depot-style handle bolted with two off-the-shelf screws. Why Panasonic could not make it as slick looking as the FX7? Will wait a bit more, maybe Canon will have a better say in this argument. It should replace the GL-2 with an HD cam, after all.
 
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the camera is not that ugly- the HMC70 however, now that's an ugly camera. But to each his own. Panasonics are beautiful inside :)

Cranky, if you are that concerned with asthetics- perhaps you should buy an FX7.

I must defend the handle though- we use AG-DV30s at work and its very sturdy and quite usefull. Assuming it's the same design. And they are not off the shelf screws, they are machined thumbscrews that are spring loaded for ease of use. If you loose one you wont find it at Home Depot.

We put our 30's through hell, including the tape drive and they still work as good as the day we bought them. Great camera. The 40 seems like the HD version of this camera. Only the footage will tell.....
 
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Edweirdo said:
Cranky, if you are that concerned with asthetics- perhaps you should buy an FX7.
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But you do agree, that the FX7 looks much better, don't you? It is a three year old design, Panasonic had plenty of time to copy the best from the others, but it chose to reuse its old stuff. I hope it was this reuse that allowed it to lower the price from $3.2K to $2.2K.

Edweirdo said:
I must defend the handle though- we use AG-DV30s at work and its very sturdy and quite usefull. Assuming it's the same design. And they are not off the shelf screws, they are machined thumbscrews that are spring loaded for ease of use. If you loose one you wont find it at Home Depot.
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Ok then, not off the shelf. Are you saying that these screws have no washers from the bottom to keep them from falling out? Still, look at the HM100, it also has a removable handle, and a thumbscrew, but what a difference in aesthetics! Actually, pretty much all JVC products look great, and those who work with them say that they are very ergonomic too.

Edweirdo said:
We put our 30's through hell, including the tape drive and they still work as good as the day we bought them. Great camera. The 40 seems like the HD version of this camera. Only the footage will tell.....
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I wish Panasonic used the same 3CCD setup as in the HDC-SD1/AG-HSC1U/AG-HMC70 instead of the high-res jellovision. Ah, well.
 
AG-HMC40angle_wMic_610x487.jpg


gy-hm100.jpg


Really? It's that nicer looking? Really? :huh: Well- Panasonics have always been a bit utilitarian in the looks dept...

And for the handle, yes there are small retaining washers that prevent them from coming out.
 
> Really? Its that nicer looking? Really?
Absolutely.

Mechanically, the JVC is a better design: loosen one screw, slide out the handle, use the shoe instead of the one on the handle. The Pana is more straighforward, less clever. Does it have a shoe on the body, like the JVC?
 
well, the 30 has a cold shoe where the handle locks on so I'm betting the 40 does. Wait a minute- it's 1 in the morning and I'm up yappin about camera bodies! Nitey night cranky :)
 
Cranky said:
> Really? Its that nicer looking? Really?
Absolutely.

Mechanically, the JVC is a better design: loosen one screw, slide out the handle, use the shoe instead of the one on the handle. The Pana is more straighforward, less clever. Does it have a shoe on the body, like the JVC?
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I'm gonna start callin you "cracky".. heh... Yer crackin' me up!
 
In studying the footage on both my iMAC's screen and my HDTV, it's not easy to be 100% sure because second generation compression artifacts can appear, but overall it looks good. Granted we only see the 720/25p footage, but 720p looks reasonably sharp and the colors look good.

Much of the nighttime footage used the slow shutter, but a few shots didn't do that. In those shots I noticed some odd compression noise, possible image noise. It would be nice to see the source file, as well as know the settings used.

The HMC-40 may do low level light shooting a bit better than I guessed. I still thing an HMC-150 will beat the HMC-40 for low light, but until we get a side by side test, that's only a guess.



Bob Diaz
 
^ Agreed. Still need to see 1080 files, but I would be shocked if day shots are not significantly sharper than the 150. Color isn't bad, but it doesn't quite have the same look of Panny CCDs... though that could be the scene file. Still, looks like a great camera that should really hold its own in its price range and for certain applications.

Some of those night shots seemed to have a really slow shutter... a missing feature on the 150. Maybe it got back the 1/6th shutter speed from the DVX? It is difficult to tell without the originals, but the night shots without the slow shutter are noticeably noisier. Slow shutter is the number one firmware feature I wish the 150 would get!
 
(1) I noticed the color didn't have the same Panasonic look, but given that the user could have set the adjustment different or changed it in post, I'm not sure what to think.

(2) In the 1080/30p mode, I'm willing to bet that the camera will be a bit sharper than the HMC-150.

DV Expo is 1 month away and I can't wait to get a look at the camera. Oh well, maybe someone will get the camera before DV Expo and post lots of source files for downloading...

It should be an interesting series of trade off choices between the HMC-40 and the HMC-150.


Bob Diaz
 
It would be nice if someone compared the 40, the 150 and the FX7, in particular sensitivity and resolution.
 
mcsmooth said:
^ Agreed. Still need to see 1080 files, but I would be shocked if day shots are not significantly sharper than the 150. Color isn't bad, but it doesn't quite have the same look of Panny CCDs... though that could be the scene file. Still, looks like a great camera that should really hold its own in its price range and for certain applications.

Some of those night shots seemed to have a really slow shutter... a missing feature on the 150. Maybe it got back the 1/6th shutter speed from the DVX? It is difficult to tell without the originals, but the night shots without the slow shutter are noticeably noisier. Slow shutter is the number one firmware feature I wish the 150 would get!
Click to expand...

It's not just the sensor that makes for a sharp image, the lens also needs to be good. I would guess that the 150 has a better lens.
 
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