WTF Panasonic!?!?!?!?!?

D.R. Gates said:
NFC, I'm surprised that you have 267 (current) posts in this forum. This site tends to draw the more professional video types, not whiny amateurs wondering about lame features.

Gee, I wonder if the 40 will let you do sepia or black and white WHILE sooting. That would not only be awesome, but would make it MUCH better than the 150.

Sign me up!!
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Honestly I wish I could shoot in B&W with the 150.
 
nfc565 said:
Also, not all of us on here are professionals.....some of us are simple hobbyists looking for a fun camera, im not saying im either of these, im simply stating its stupid to put these features on a lower end camera and not have them on the higher end one.
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I'm not looking for a tourist camera that has more bells and whistles. I'm looking at a solid camera that will do what I need it to do and nothing else.

Did you know that most high-end DSLR's don't even have a built-in flash? Why do you think that is, when all the lower-end models do? It's because pros will either not be using flash on most of their pics, or they'll have an external flash that gives them more flexibility. So there's no use in putting in a feature that the target buyer isn't going to use.
 
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D.R. Gates said:
I'll give you that interval recording is an ok feature, but far from being integral to my needs or others.

You're also complaining about the 150's lack of a photo feature. I don't know anybody using the camera professionally who would care for such a thing.
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Journalist who work for big news cable company do !
 
I have never once wished I had a photo button on my camera while shooting....
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I agree with that, but in the other hand i find myself bringing an advance photo camera to get a few stills here and there (mostly when in working solo, for DVD cover purpose)
I don't think it needs one, but if it did i might use it once in a while...
 
Considering that Canon already has all the components for a low-end prosumer camcorder, I wonder when they will marry GL-2 form factor with the HF-S internals. The only thing Canon have not yet demonstrated is true 24p AVCHD.
 
Ben_B said:
Canon...canon...that name seems to ring a bell........they make photo copiers right?
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The XH-A1 is pretty much the only non-Panasonic camcorder that is always being compared to the HMC150 on this board. And it came out three years ago.

P.S. Panasonic? This names seems to ring a bell........they make AA batteries, right?
 
miss my old xha1 sometimes though but Im loving the hcm 150 unconditionally... sounding like a little school girl ....wheeeee !
 
TigerFX said:
Maybe R&D on the interval recording feature took a few months after the HMC-150 was already finished, and they're planning to hold it off until the HMC-150A (not yet announced).
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I'm wondering if interval mode is simply done through the photo mode or if it is actually slowly recording to AVCHD. This would be much easier to implement with stills; that could give better quality, but tougher to work with or view in post. If its done in the video stream... that would mean AVCHD has the potential for variable frame rates (I'm sure it COULD be done, just not sure if it WOULD ever be done).

Am I the only one who doesn't understand the concept of a photo feature in a video camera? What's wrong with pulling a frame grab from the video?
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In theory it makes plenty of sense since video is just a bunch of stills. The hardware is certainly capable and in this case, AVCHD has photo functionality built right into the format. I think there is little point in storing a stream of stills in the video format (like on DV tapes), but it could be a much less compressed and cleaner picture if stored in a jpeg. I would guess it didn't show up sooner since the code hasn't lived in this range of cameras before and supposedly the professional video line has little connection with other Panasonic product lines.

I don't see how the resolution would be any better, because the image is traveling through the same lens and imager either way. My last consumer video camera could record five seconds of a frame grab to the tape, which I never used - it's easy enough to do in post.
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In regards to the HMC150, there would be little (if any) picture quality improvement in 1080p from a still feature due to the low native rez of the chips. The HMC40 supposedly has 3MP chips... which means they can pixel shift those to get a higher resolution still in a different format. I have no clue where they come up with 10MP though... I will be shocked if most of those extra pixels don't come from interpolation or if the sharpness holds up at all to a decent consumer 10MP still cam.
 
I don't get what the fuss is.
One is 1/4" chip and the other is 1/3".
It's like comparing a G4 Mac with a dual core Intel Mac.
 
From a technical standpoint, I can't see why a interval (time lapse) recording feature can't be done on the HMC-150. After all if we have a sequence of images given by the CCDs, just grab only 1 out of 60 ---> 1 out of 6,000 and add that to the GOP.

My guess is that this should be just a firmware upgrade to the camera and a new HMC-150a does not need to released. Besides, in most cases, the camera has to be shipping for a few years before an "a" upgrade comes.


Bob Diaz
 
BobDiaz said:
From a technical standpoint, I can't see why a interval (time lapse) recording feature can't be done on the HMC-150. After all if we have a sequence of images given by the CCDs, just grab only 1 out of 60 ---> 1 out of 6,000 and add that to the GOP.

My guess is that this should be just a firmware upgrade to the camera and a new HMC-150a does not need to released. Besides, in most cases, the camera has to be shipping for a few years before an "a" upgrade comes.


Bob Diaz
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my thought/hopes exactly.
 
The Photo Feature I think would be nice too... I do a lot of weddings and generally carry a small point and shoot to take shots of things that I may want to print on the clients DVD label or case cover. It would be nice to not have to have that little camera in my pocket all night and to just be able to do it with the 150.

I went to a seminar put on by Panasonic a while back that was showcasing all their HD cameras and I "thought" that they mentioned that the 150 could take snapshots while recording video without interrupting the recording. After I got the camera I realized that was not the case. Maybe they were talking about another camera or a future release. But it would be a nice feature for me. It would be nice to be able to take a snap shot of the bride walking down the aisle and have it on a seperate card, and not have to pull a still from the video later on.

Our disk and label printing is done on a different computer and not by the editors, so it is nice just to had that person a card with all the pics on it right after the wed and they can save them to their computer to use when the editing is done. So in my particular case it would be a nice feature to have. Obviously I can live without it but would like it to be on the camera...


The Interval record I personally would probably never use (never have in the past) but I do not see why Panasonic would not include it. I can see others using it and it just does not seem like a huge deal to include on a camera that does not record to a tape. That is coming from a NON programmer though. Obviously they already have it on other cameras so why not add it to the 150.

Phil
 
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