What would you consider to be missing?

G

garym

Member
I am wrestling with what camera to buy and I'm very interested in the HMC150. At this point my head is swimming in specifications with all the choices. I was looking at the Canon XHA1a and even the JVC GY-HM700U. But I keep coming back to the HMC150.

So I'd like to ask: what do you consider "missing" from this camera?

As in, what do you wish it had? Or what do you not like about it? Do you have any regrets buying it? Thanks in advance.
 
I wish it had a better LCD, the one that comes with it has a very picky angle of view. and the resolution is not good enough to focus, at least is not even close to what you get on the Sony side...

Other than that the camera is great. it's been a pleasure working with it!
 
Just went by B&H. Checked out all the camcorders they had there and I have to say the sony LCD's are just... spectacular. I wonder what is in those little things that make the image so sharp and clean.

Totally fine with my Panny though... I really don't have any complaints with it. I guess if I was more capable of color correction and manipulation, I might have gone with the canon because of it's overall higher image detail. The images that come out of the Panny, however, really don't require much post to look gorgeous.
 
I need a button which lets me review the last recorded clip entirely and not just a few seconds. Or rather review the clip as long as I hold the button or something. I hate it to switch to the playback mode.
 
zeroblank said:
Fire wire
Click to expand...

I'm curious why you miss firewire, USB 2 is just as fast as firewire 400 for file transfers. I'm a Mac guy and love firewire, but it's not something I've missed on my HMC150. I love the fact that my ingest VTR is a $20 USB card reader and my living room VTR is my Playstation 3. Can't do that with P2 or SxS cards.

Cheers

John C
 
There is a good reason for Firewire, such as if you have to live stream something. I actually recommended against this camera for a friend only because he needed to live stream out of a laptop to the internet via Firewire, and that's not possible with this camera.

However, it's simply not possible to included Firewire in an AVCHD/AVCCam camcorder. The specs for IEEE1394 simply don't allow live streaming of AVCHD, and USB is so universal that it's pointless to have both for file transfer.

Interval recording is also something I believe that is not possible with the AVCHD codec (though I could be wrong).

You know what I have found to be a pain? I actually would have liked and had a use for S-Video for the SD out on top of the composite and componant. But that is getting really nitpicky.

The other issue (that has been more or less resolved) is editing. If you have an older computer, it may not have enough horsepower to edit or play back natively, requiring you to transcode to an intermediary (though Pannasonic has a free AVCHD to DVCProHD transcoder on their website that does a decent job).

The only thing I really wish this had was a 35mm chip in it and interchangeable lenses... but that's getting into the realm of wishful thinking at this price point :violin:
 
I wish I could save focus/zoom/iris/shutter presets with the ability to smoothly transition between them by pressing a button.
 
Even if Interval Recording is not possible in AVCHD, there is another thing that can be done.

Simply add the JPEG format that could just click photos in specified time interval. That's it.

Adding JPEG also allows us to keep continuety pictures in camera thrughout the production schedule.
 
I wish the servo zoom was a little faster.
I also wish I had a second hmc150.
This camera rocks.
 
I wish the servo zoom and focus ring were faster, I really loathe how slow the manual focus is on this thing.

Everything else though I love. Imagery I'm getting out of this is fantastic and low light footage is great. Holds up VERY well to color grading even at 12db. I wouldn't hesitate buying another.
 
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