I have owned the Panasonic HDC-TM700 for about a year, I have traveled with it around the world and grown to respect the camcorder with time. On the surface the TM700 looks like a point and shoot camcorder made for Mom or Dad to get some home movies or record that special vacation and yes it does that extremely well. Auto everything makes this a high quality easy to use and get great results camera, that you don't need to open the instruction book.
Talk about Jekyll & Hyde, flip open the instruction manual and invest a few hours, switch the camera to manual and be sure to shoot in 1080p and you have a mini broadcast camcorder, capable of giving the $5k to $6k cameras a healthy slap down.
The features that I have found to be invaluable as a stock videographer/canmeraman and some that have taken a little bit of figuring out over the year I have owned this camera. I will highlight each feature that you should be aware of. This camcorder is capable of being pocket-able and very discreet which is some situations can be very helpful for stock video.
Time Lapse, you have to switch out of 1080p into the interlaced HD setting of HA1920, you also have to cancel digital zoom and stay on optical zoom. This time lapse function alone is worth the price of the camcorder, you can choose pre set intervals of 1, 10 or 30 seconds, one minute and two minutes. Forget opening squences in Quicktime Pro, the TM700 does it for you in camera, just download the finished file to your computer. For stock video this has made me enough money to pay for the camera, also by using the TM700 for time lapse, I don't ruin a shutter of a DSLR camera, I don't have dust on the sensor because it is a fixed lens camcorder.
Clip availble at Pond5
Batteries and power options, the TM700 ships with a battery that is good for one and a half hours it's the VW-VBG 130, buy more when you get the camera, you can get an accessory kit from Panasonic, which is a small bag and spare battery, Best Buy sells them and basically you get the bag for free. I do use the bag for when I need to look like the "Tourist". The other battery you should get is the three hour version, VW-VBG260 and if you are brave there are plenty of third party versions which sell from $15 upwards, I'm experimenting with the $30 version that has the battery display chip in it. Remember with time lapse, if you shoot a stock video clip of 10 second intervals that's one hour of continuous shooting, then your done for the day shooting. The TM700 standard 130 battery takes two and a half hours to charge, so be sure to have plenty of batteries. Mains operation is possible with the TM700, however you do need to remove the battery to access the input socket, luckily Panasonic do give you an adapter power cord to use the battery charger to supply mains power to the TM700.
Pre-Record this is awesome, and a feature that you can't find on many cameras, pre-record once activated from the onscreen menu that appears along the bottom of the LCD display, press the F arrow in the lower left hand corner of the screen to open up the menu presets and scroll to the right until you see PRE-REC, activate and now you can get the last three seconds of footage before you pressed the record button. Waiting for the whale to breech, no problem the TM700 will give you that opportunity, just get used to using it and read page 60 of the operating instructions.
Remote Control This is included with the TM700 and is fully functional with most controls available and it works from behind the camera!! There is no need to get camera shake as you start to film, you can zoom from the remote also.
Red Record Light is a nuisance especially when you are filming through glass, under the settings menu turn it to off.
Thumbnail Some of the sites we sell video clips through offer a way of changing the thumbnail of the clip, some don't or they only allow to choose from the first 10 seconds, well you can make your own with the TM700 and upload this thumbnail directly to the site, see page 87.
Wide Angle for me the lens on the TM700 is not wide enough, so I got a wide angle lens, my is the Raynox 0.66X works great and gives that extra you need for some interiors or landscape scenes.
I'm converting my 1080/60P footage with Cineform Neoscene for editing with a windows based computer and find the footage very good with this .avi converter. I could writes lots more on this very capable and professional Panasonic HDC-TM700, the newer model currently on sale is the TM900 but for now these features are great for stock footage clips.
20 comments:
Thanks for the info! I am now shooting video with a Canon T2i but am looking for another affordable option. Oddly enough, it looks like the new version is cheaper than the one you have. Is the older one better? Some reviews say that is isn't good in low light...Did you find this to be the case?
The low light is not as good as I would like, for the price there are limitations but all the other features the camera has compensates for poor lowlight. I also shoot with a Canon 7D so I can use that for low light.
Overall for the price the TM700 / TM900 offer quality and features you can't get with other similar priced camcorders.
Thanks for your comment, let me know about the TM900 if you get one.
Norman,
Do you use manual focus or automatic focus?
I use a combination of manual or automatic, time lapse I use manual always, filming scenes that might have low contrast or large areas of featureless sky then manual focus. In good light and wider angle of zoom settings I will go with auto focus. The blue focus assist is very good and easy to use.
Hi Norman, I clicked on a link that directed me to your site.
I'm a little confused. Does 1080/60p mean that this camera shoots 60fps? I know it means 'progressive' vs. 'interlaced' but I'm a noob and I don't know what that means. I'll be converting a lot of my footage to slow motion so 1080p at 60fps is important to me. Thanks, JL
Yes you are right it is 60 fps.
Hello Norman,
I am wanting to use a TM700 as a fixed B-camera and combine with a Canon 7D as my roving camera. I plan on shooting very neutral or technicolor. Have you done this or have any advice for combining a TM700 with Canon 7D clips? I am not looking for sharp as a tack since I want a cinema feel and plan to color grade (another issue... how do I get the TM 700 to be more neutral like Technicolor or similar settings possible with the 7D)?
Your help is much appreciated!
The most important thing to do for matching two cameras is this, take both cameras off auto white balance and do a grey card custom white balance under the lighting conditions you will be shooting under. The Panasonic on auto white balance(awb)has a tendency to a green cast, the Canon 7D a slight magenta cast.
Before your shoot date I would set both cameras up side by side, the Panasonic can't adjust it's color style, the Canon 7D can, so with both cameras on, view the scene on the LCD of each camera and press the color style button on the 7D and scroll through the menu and see what matches the Panasonic.
Any slight color variance can be overcome in color grading, just make sure you are doing custom white balances with the same target i.e. grey card.
Thanks for your comments and please follow my blog and Twitter if it makes sense to you.
Thank you very much for the reply.
The Panasonic does actually have some adjustable settings, and since I am using Cinestyle (or Marvel, etc...) I do not really want to mess with the Canon's settings.
What setting do you recommend on the Panasonic to produce a more flat image like the ones being used on the Canon 7D? With a view towards using grading later of course (I use sever great presets in Adobe Premier).
V/R, Jason Borean
Jason the Panasonic has very limited scene settings that will effect colour, which mostly enhance colour. The easiest way is to assign your custom levels on your 7D to a user pref 1,2 or 3 so you don't lose the info, any adjustments you make while shooting are not saved once the camera is turned off.
Hi Norman.
I talked to you days ago and im a little bit confuse on the time lapse.
What i understand is that the TM900 let you program it in 1 sec, 10 sec, etc.
but how you do in the time lapse, for example the video of the construction that you have up here. It is supposed that the battery last 4 hours and a half. You left the video filming that time?
How long you make that film and which lapse time you used? 10sec, 30sec, etc.
Thanks for your reply.
David.
Hi David
The battery that comes with the camera has around one and a half hours of filming time, I close the LCD screen when doing time lapse to conserve power. I also start time lapse with a fully charged battery, I have also bought the high capacity 260 battery which gives just under four hours.
This time lapse was shot at 10 second intervals, so I produce clips at 30 frames per second and have the clip length at least ten seconds long, so the time to shoot this clip was one hour. I do shoot quite a few clips at one second intervals also. These cameras can run from mains power also by taking out the battery and connecting the mains lead through the charging unit.
Hi Norman
Which brand of SD Card you recommend for this video camera?
Thanks.
David.
I use Kingston, Duracell, Patriot all without problems, class 4 and up but mainly class 10
Hi Norman, thanks for helping me in my multiple question.
I have another one.
Can you take out the voice when you are filming in the camera, i cant see in the manual, or can i take it out when in make the film, but in the camera.
I edit some videos in the video camera with the divide menu. Am i ok or is there an easy way.
Thanks so much Norman for your help.
David.
Hi David
On A Canon 7D you can turn off the camera microphone from the menu, but on the Panasonic TM700 you can't, the easiest way to remove the sound track is an editing software program. You simply delete the sound track and then render the clip.
Thanks Norman for your reply.
I am using Sony Vegas 10, but when i render the image, it lost quality.
Which software you use to edit your footage?
Thanks.
David.
I transcode my footage with Neoscene first, that converts it to a .avi file, then I use Vegas to edit and render the final .mov file.
Hi Norman.
Its me again.
I have another question about the TM900.
My videos are getting a little bit darker and shutterstock is refusing.
I program the following:
HA 1080
1080/60
white balance 0
13.3M
it says iA on the main screen, i think it says that its automatic
opt zoom 12x
Do i making something wrong?
Please let me know.
Thanks.
David.
Hi David
You should only shoot HA 1080 when doing time lapse, HA 1080 is interlaced so if you are processing the clips as progressive, I think that is your problem. Select 1080p by pressing the button on the side of the camera. Also if you press the iA/manual button to go into manual mode the camera still sets the exposure. By pressing the F arrow on the LCD screen, press the shutter key to set the exposure to 1/60th, then press the iris key once and the camera will set the correct exposure. You do need good light for stock video clips. You can also go to 30x zoom and still get usable quality images. When you do time lapse you will need to go back to 12x zoom and cancel 1080p recording.
Press 1080 60p button = progressive
HA1920 = interlaced
Try filming outside not for stock, but just to get used to the features, sit and read the cameras book and play with the settings so you start to understand the different features.
Norman
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