I just read a blog post that Panasonic's HMC-150 does its best shooting while in 720p - "PH" mode. Has anyone else heard of this? I believe there is some accuracy to this as I have noticed a difference in the footage that at shot at 720p vs. some I shot at 1080p. I double checked, that I was recording at the highest "PH" mode for both.

Yes, Barry did mention that the sweet spot of the HMC150 is 720p24. If you do a search you will find it. I've asked the same question a few months before.

All shooting modes and frame rates in HP record at 21Mpbs (24 max). So this means that 1080p30 and 720p24 use the same bitrate. So at 720 24, you get less compression, hence better quality.

Keep in mind that if shooting green or blue screen you should use 1080P. There is more compression but there is also more color space to sample from.

Actually, the color space ratio is the same. You're not really getting more for keying. A tad more resolution will certainly help, but at the cost of more compression... I'm not sure it's worth it. But, for keying with an HMC150, I'd probably get a AJA Ki Pro or a nanoFlash to record in 4:2:2.

Sorry, should have clarified.. if you are outputting 720 then shooting 1080P will give you better color.

EIDT: ACtually after rereading the thread it looks like 1080P is best for greenscreen regardless of output. Read the thread.

One day when we are all shooting 1080P on a full raster chips and 4.2.2 color... (probably on AVC-I 10 bit), these questions/issues should be moot. :D

True! But the day for AVCIntra native 1080p is not coming soon enough for a handheld (HPX/HMC) sized camcorder. I wish it did.

I talked to Barry recently on another forum and he has changed his opinion on the HMC150 "sweet spot". He now prefers 1080P on the HMC150.

Denny, can you articulate Barry's reasonings for 1080 over 720 on this cam?