I’ve still got my old camcorders, but finance has allowed me to upgrade to full HD video recording now. I’ve recently purchased a Panasonic HDC-TM700 camcorder (from Simply Electronics – the cheapest place I found for this product on the www if you’re looking for something similar) and have been out and about having a play.

Expermenting with the Panasonic HDC TM700 from Paul Hadley on Vimeo.

Reading the 3 Panasonic manuals supplied via their website is a bit of a daunting task, and I’ve found myself looking at particular relevant information I need, rather than reading the 3 documents in their entirety (show me a bloke that doesn’t do this).
The pre-purchase research I completed showed that compatibility with my Macbook Pro, iMovie and Final Cut Pro would be an issue (I don’t like to use a PC for such things), and I reassured myself that importing the MTS files required for successful editing of HD files would indeed be possible when I need to make full use of the camcorder’s capabilities. The useful info I found is available at the Apple User’s Forum and it was the prior experiences of other users delivering a positive outcome (albeit with a work-around) that swung me towards the TM700 purchase, and my budget available of course.

Test capture- Panasonic HDC TM 700 from Paul Hadley on Vimeo.

So, off I went (after the horrid winter) into the daylight, filming a couple of short pieces with my good friends from S&D Falconry…
Recording at full HD was important for me, so I could see first hand what the camcorder was capable of delivering. Then, realising that compression would be an issue, I simply imported the files into iMovie for a quick couple of edits, just so I could see what is possible when working against tight deadlines with the need to produce and publish for the web quickly. Needless to say, I am quite impressed with the outcomes, and hopefully you are too.

Panasonic HDC-TM700 Test from Paul Hadley on Vimeo.

Next, I’ll do some more recording in HD, and this time, will use the work-around and import the files into Final Cut Pro for a more considerate edit, using some filters and maybe some advanced effects.

Opening up the iris- Panasonic HDC-TM700 from Paul Hadley on Vimeo.

Have a look at the final short pieces, and please, tell me your thoughts.