I'm giving this thread a bump on the merit of the user contributions which are informational, friendly and helpful. Many thanks to Andy, Claire and others for posting so much valuable info. I'm going to add a few observations of my own and why I chose this cam to fill a void.

I have a Sony PMW350k 2/3" XDCAM HD with Nanoflash 50 mbps 422 which would have made the Canon XF100 an obvious fit for the work flow. Also have 5D Mk II and HV10, and used to have an xha1 and EX1, the latter I wish I kept.

I was looking for a way to trail bike into the back country deep, and the xdcam is just obviously too big for that. I could do it with a truck and hiking, but covering the ground I have in mind would take days or weeks. Keeping a low profile is also nice.

So why the TM900 over the xf100 or xa10? All three are fantastic and could make the case for any of them. The TM900 concerned me that it might be a one trick pony, with its 1080/60p mode overshadowing otherwise average performance, and no solid distribution format for its highest quality setting.

As noted by the other members, Vegas 10d 64 bit does an excellent job making quality 1080/60i renders for Blu-ray, and also does a great job rendering to 1080/60p mpeg2 for native frame rate playback on the PS3.

The xf100 is just a tad heavy and expensive for rough trail handling, the g10 is the cheaper choice if I have to replace something. The video quality of the xf100, xa10 and g10 and pro features are awesome but in the end, held back from the best in my opinion by the choice to use a single sensor and bayer filter.

My initial impression of the TM900 was disappointment, the lack of pro features, and the images at first did not wow me on manual settings. The automation settings on the other hand produce lovely images, so I've had to adapt my shooting style to what the camera does best.

The image stabilization is just brilliant. This is an area where it beats the pro cams. The auto focus is also very good.

Where it lacks is in the sometimes 2 dimensional processed look. At other times though, as through the automation settings you get images that really pop, delivering all the resolution of the xdcams, vivid and clean, noise and artifact free. The automation makes good decisions with shutter, iris, gain and focus.

What it's lacking, sensitivity, dynamic range and latitude shows up when locked in manual with high contrast scenes. The contrast compensation feature helps here, but forces you into at least a shutter priority automation mode. The good news is how well it meters exposure and tracks seamlessly as you move the camera. Manual adjustments for gamma, black gamma and knee would be useful for pro users. In spite of all that, indoor and low light is much better than what you expect. Color accuracy is spot on, matches well with xdcam R709 if contrast compensation is enabled. The main thing hurting it here is sensitivity, it's tough maintaining shadow detail in high contrast scenes.

The awb works well at some times, others it misses in tricky light. The manual white balance works perfectly if I aim it at my white tennis shoe.

The sharpening is a bit much, dial that back a number or two fixes that. I'm confident I can work around the usage mistakes, and the image stabilization is like having a magic tripod along. Done right, the images are beautiful and you would never guess they come from a camera so small and indiscreet, exactly what I need.

By contrast compensation do you mean the 'Intelligent Contrast" mode? I use it a lot to make sure I can 'get the shot' and then put on a s-curve in post to bring back some dynamic range, what do you do to make it match up better?

Yes, intelligent contrast mode...sorry.

It matches up okay as is, but to get closer, I used the Vegas Color Corrector Secondary, selected the Computer RGB to Studio RGB preset as a starting point which compresses both ends of the histogram (16 - 235), increased the gamma to flatten the slope of the blacks and give it more gradation to try and bring out any buried detail, lowered the offset to move the whole histogram to the left, and increased the gain to stretch and fill the histogram to the right. Saved it as a new preset.

Edit: It's not possible to put back what wasn't there, so detail lost in blown out whites, or crushed in black can't be recovered. It simply is never going to have it, and along with depth of field, dynamic range and sensitivity, those are the three elements of the big XDCAM that can't be replicated. You really do get what you pay for. The TM900 can make up for some of it by having exposure track the scene, something you'd never do with the XDCAM which would be locked in manual.

Thanks for the thorough writeup Tom! May have one of these guys in hand soon but if I understand you correctly you're saying that you get better images with iA vs manual mode?

Kevin

I'm sorry Kevin that's not what I'm saying. iA doesn't even permit manual white balance or focus. MNL is the mode I get the best result in, so I am probably adding confusion by talking about automation when what I am really saying, is whenever you let the camera choose the shutter, iris and maybe even focus itself inside the MNL mode. To me, that's still automation whenever shutter, iris or focus are not locked.

In other words, at this early stage, I am still practicing, but locking the iris at F4.0 to F4.8 did not result in the sharpest images for me as I would have expected that to be the lens sweet spot. So the question I have, is when I get these sharp images from when the camera itself is choosing shutter and iris, what settings are they?

And if the camera is adding neutral density in lieu of stopping down the iris as was mentioned earlier, can I replicate that when I stop down manually? Who knows?

But specifically to your question, at this early stage for me, the images seem sharpest when I choose MNL mode and let the camera choose the appropriate shutter and iris and focus, or maybe not focus.The thing to remember, these lenses are not parfocal, so the sharpest lens setting may not be the same iris at infinity as it is at close up. The ideal iris for every focal and zoom length could be mapped into the lens controller, but in full manual mode you can't be sure. That's why I'm not ruling out (in my limited experience with it), that auto focus or auto iris may be sharper in more situations than selecting them manually.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

Edit: "Programmed Automation" comes to mind, where a camera chooses both aperature and shutter. That is the default option in the TM900 MNL mode, which you can override by selecting SHTR for "shutter priority," or IRIS which locks down the IRIS and Shutter. There is no Aperture Priority mode. Choosing IRIS and turning off auto focus essentially locks the camera down into a true, full manual. That's the mode that for me, has not resulted in the sharpest or the best images in every case as I would have expected. Maybe I just need more time with it.

Wow! Thanks Tom for the response, that's very helpful. Excuse my ignorance as I don't have a TM900 quite yet, but what settings are you adjusting in MNL mode then? WB? What more does iA do vs just "Programmed Automation" in MNL? Thanks again.

Kevin

The MNL gives you access to the scene modes, i.e. sunset, beach, snow, fireworks, spot light, landscape, night etc. MNL also gives you access to shutter, iris, wb, focus. MNL also gives access to adjustments for saturation, sharpness, wb trim and exposure. None of those are adjustable in iA mode.

So there's a lot of selectable automation within the MNL mode, and TOTAL automation is the only choice in iA mode.

For some perspective, in xdcam there is usually no image stabilization with most lenses, the stability comes from putting the camera on your shoulder. Your desired depth of field can be adjusted with the iris ring, and selectable ND filters lets you choose a shutter speed with exposure independent of the iris, so you can have fluidity from a slow shutter, or action from a fast one. The sensitivity of large sensors maintains shadow detail always, which you can fine tune the exact amount with gamma controls. Pros eschew automation. They focus manually, set shutter and iris and ND manually, even though the cams have automation capability. But with little cams, tiny sensors and lenses, they aren't capable of shallow depth of field, objects in foreground and background are always on the same focal plane, giving an inherent 2d look. Acknowledging that limitation is to recognize that automation makes more sense for the little cams than the big ones since you can't control dof anyway.

And what I'm finding with the TM900, is that fully manual control of the kind I'm used to setting on the xdcam has no benefit beyond manual white balance and manual focus. Shutter and iris, might as well just let the camera make the best choice, it seems to anyway.

And if the camera is adding neutral density in lieu of stopping down the iris as was mentioned earlier, can I replicate that when I stop down manually? Who knows?

This 900 is such an interesting camera. I've come up with some surprising results.

When it's used as a stills camera the aperture readout of the iris (in manual) is actually correct. 'Open' is maximum aperture (which is focal length dependent) and as soon as you start to stop down the two aperture blades (opposing Vs) mechanically step towards each other. The aperture readout stops at f/16 but the blades continue to close down to f/22, then f/45 and so on, till the blades overlap and act as a shutter.

It can do this because in the still camera mode the camera doesn't use small apertures, it simply shortens the shutter speed. But you can switch it to manual of course, choose a very slow shutter speed and happily shoot 14mp stills at f/45. It'll quickly demonstrate the image damage diffraction can do.

When the 900 is used as a video camera something quite surprising happens, as the camera wants to shoot at 1/50th sec generally. Because of this it brings the internal ND filters into play and for most of the camcorder's life it's shooting at maximum aperture. This design parameter shows the confidence Panasonic have in their 12x zoom lens and chip block assembly, and the production tolerances must be superbly controlled to shoot all day at f/1.5 and 3.45mm. At first I poo-poo'd a focal length stated to 100th of a mm but now I'm less sceptical. I now believe the tight production tolerances mean that all their cameras come off the production line with this focal length.

So what happens when you shoot movies? Well the camera shoots at maximum aperture and if it gets brighter more and more ND is applied. Its the same in manual or auto - you think you're shooting at f/4.5 (say) but you're not - you're shooting at whatever the maximum aperture is for the focal length you've set. That's f/1.5 at wide stopping smoothly (ramping) down to f/2.8 at full tele.

So the lens 'stops down' (using ND) to f/5.6 and only if it gets brighter still do the aperture blades start to close. You can see that scenes shot at an indicated f/8 are actually shot at f/4, bringing with it the dof that comes with f/4.

Another interesting point. Lots of camcorders are sold with a 20x zoom (say) and these long zooms ramp noticeably. Panasonic's idea of having a 12x optical combined with a non-degrading electronic zoom (using the bigger than necessary chips) mean that it effectively has a 20x zoom that stops ramping after the 12x point is reached. Very clever. Of course the dof characteristics are the same at 69mm as they are at 41.4mm, which seems slightly odd.

tom.

That is very interesting Tom and if that's how it works, it seems probable that any stopping down of the aperture blades brings with it some diffraction effects. In other words, we know that F2.8 on a big camera is a much larger circle than F2.8 on a small camera, yet diffraction has to do with the wavelengths, which are constant. So diffraction creeps in at smaller F-stop numbers than for the bigger cams.

If we shoot in bright conditions with a shutter priority automation at 1/60th sec for smooth motion, what you're saying is that it can run out of ND and begin stopping down the aperture and introduce diffraction artifacts.

I guess the question then, is at what point this happens? And if as you say, the camera defaults to using the maximum aperture opening in auto, armed with this knowledge then it's probably choosing the same shutter speed I would if given the choice, the slowest shutter speed without diffraction. Translation: May as well just let the camera choose aperture and shutter.

You're right - this 900 uses smaller than ¼" chips, so diffraction losses are a real problem and you shouldn't really use apertures smaller than f/4 - and certainly not at the wide-angle end of the zoom. With this in mind Panasonic introduce NDs that absorb the first two stops, then the next two stops take you to an actual f/3 (effective f/6) at wide angle and f/5,6 (effective f/11) at full tele.

Very clever, but how does a manufacturer make a 13 element 12x zoom accurately enough (at that tiny price point) when it's going to spend much of its life shooting wide open? How do they counteract the unavoidable vignetting at maximum aperture? And what about the added flare levels?

Of course all movies should be shot at 1/50th (or 1/60th in NTSC land) and for proof of this you only have to watch some GoPro footage shot in sunshine. So I'd hope the 900 locks down the 1/50th even in iA, and juggles with NDs and iris blades to suit.

tom.

Hi Tom H.,

Correct me if I'm wrong but I recollect you being an expert on WA and zoom lens adaptors from past forum posts. Directly related to the TM900, the zoom range leaves a little to be desired in comparison to my XHA1. I know that the hybrid zoom is lossless up to 20x. Conventional wisdom is to never use digital zoom...ever, but with newer technology, how would using digital zoom fair out against shooting through a zoom lens adaptor with decent glass, say sub $200 range for TM900? I ask because from what I understand the compression takes place post digital zoom which in theory would give you less resolution loss than say shooting at full optical telephoto and then zooming in in post say in Vegas, Premiere, AE, etc. So would quality be comparable using conservative digital zoom vs throwing more glass in front the TM900?

Kevin

Well, I did some tests this morning and answered my own question. Albeit not with a TM900 but with an HV40 and a Raynox DCR-2020PRO 2.2x Telephoto Lens. Results are not surprising. Lists from best to worst:

1. HV40 with Telephoto (by far)
2. HV40 with Digital Zoom (much nicer than post zoom than expected)
3. HV40 Stock, Pan + Zoom Post in Vegas

So from my rudimentary tests, get a decent Telephoto if you can. If not, use the digital zoom if you have to get in tight vs just optical and zooming in later in post (if this is your intention). Using the digital zoom captures more detail as this is pre-compression. This is HDV though. Surely AVCHD may be much closer in quality with Digital Zoom and Post Zoom.

Kevin

Hi Kevin, yup - that's me, the wide-angle converter freak.
The 900 allows you to extend the 12x zoom up to a 20x zoom but only in the movie mode. When you shoot stills it's only a 12x zoom of course.

The beauty of the 20x is that beyond 12x the lens doesn't ramp, so it's still f/2.8 way out at 20x. Of course the dof doesn't change beyond the 12x zoom point, except for the fact that you're 'blowing up' the info on the chips so focus will appear more critical.

I've done no tests on this 12x vs 20x on the 900, but footage I've shot at the 20x position looks a whole lot better than any digital zoom should.

tom.

Thanks Tom! Any glaring issues at full Telephoto being so wide open? Softness, chromatic abrasions, etc?

Also, what's your opinion of the photos you're getting with the TM900?

Funnily enough Kevin, I've just finished a write-up on the stills capabilities of the SD900 vs the Canon 10D and 60D for a video mag.

Conclusions

Don't worry good people; we've all got cameras that give quite staggeringly good definition. If we look back just a few years to 2003 we can marvel at the way technology has improved our images while at the same time lightening the load on our pockets. Back then the 10D was causing gasps and the VX2000 was shooting standard definition 4:3 images. Filming test charts will tell us which cameras are marginally better than others, but photography is about stirring emotions, not spatial aliasing, chromatic aberration and JPEG artefacts.

The 10D is available second-hand for about £150 as a body only, and this makes it a remarkably good buy even today. It may have a small rear screen and no movie mode but it’s strong, really strong. So on a picture/pound ratio this camera’s the winner. It will introduce you to the basic delights of DSLR photography for half the price of a modern compact and I can see why the 2003 reviewers were blown away by its capabilities.

With all this in mind I can give the little Panasonic 900 Mini Marvel five stars. This really is David – if not exactly slaying Goliath – then making him step back in open-mouthed awe and admiration. Of course there’s no doubt that the 60D takes better pictures and movies, but look at the cost in terms of weight, size and lost zoom range. The ergonomics of the 900 far outstrip those of the DSLR when they’re both used for shooting movies so if you’re after one camera that does everything and you’re in holiday mood then the 900 is the camera for you. If you really want noticeably better stills and movies then you’ll have to bear the weight and the financial pain of owning the 60D, and all the while accept the fact that it will never ever have such a long, fast zoom.

Hi Tom,
>>Of course there’s no doubt that the 60D takes better pictures and movies<<

Is that really the case? I am looking for a conventional video camera to work alongside my Canon 5D2 and 60D and was considering the TM900. Did your review actually compare the video footage in addition to the stills capability?

Peter

When I say 'better' I really mean artier. The photographic side of you can shine using a DSLR for movies simply because the big chip and long focal lengths allow you dof control the 900 can only dream about. Of course the 900 is technically better - for filming test charts with diagonal lines it'll win every time, but filmmaking is about creative photography, and the DSLR offers you that in skip loads.

But no - my test was of the stills taking capabilities this time.

tom.

Hi Tom and thanks for the clarification. For the most part I was planning on using the two Canon's but will have various situations when I think the 900 would be a more appropriate tool for shots within a project.

On occasions I actually need massive depth of field for example, so the idea is to sometimes use all three cameras on the one shoot; mixing them up in post as appropriate. Obviously I am keen to have all cameras shoot footage as close as possible to one another in say colour balance and general quality etc for the final product.

Peter

My problem with the dslr is that I've seen moire absolutely wreck my video on the 5dmkII. I can't comment on the 60d, not used that. I think I was actually one of the first to complain about it, because if I had known I would not have bought it. It's lovely for stills of course.

Dslr results are going to be lens dependent as well, some work well like the 70-200IS L.

I'll say it again, the image stabilization on the Tm900 is just brilliant.

The new drop in anti moire filter for the 5D2 from Mosaic Engineering seems to have cured that problem. But as always, I think it's advisable to choose the best tools for the job in hand. And use them in situations that take advantage of their strengths, whilst also being aware of any shortcomings.

Peter

I have been trying out my TM900 with a Radox HD6600Pro..

I have found the wide angle lens makes the image get that soft look and the image loses that crisp focused look...

The Raynox adapters are mixed, in some cases really, really soft depending on the camcorder they are attached to. The Panasonic wide adapters that are designed for this camcorder work well and are fairly sharp.

Well I can tell you Tom - the moiré on the 60D has to be seen to be believed, in every single movie mode and frame rate on offer. I just cannot think how folk are using it to film weddings - I mean there will be times when the tiles on the church roof will be in shot and in focus won't there?

Maybe time to invest in an anti-moiré filter, because at the moment it's just a joke, on leaves, bricks, tiles, anything with fine detail.

tom.

Hi! I upgraded to the TM900 a couple of months ago for an African safari that I will be going on in Dec. I've read through this entire thread and I appreciate the amazing amount of information in here. This is the closest I've come to finding a class to teach me how to use all of the amazing capabilities of this camcorder. I have a million questions, but in the interest of not adding another 22 pages in a single post, I will restrain myself!

I will be shooting at 1080/60p. I've been working on how to shoot at first light in the morning and after dusk.
I've tried a few different options:

I set the shutter to 1/30, set the exposure to +5 and got reasonable results.

To the above, I turned intelligent exposure on. Not sure that I could tell the difference.

Then I tried the low-light scene. That also seemed reasonable.

The color night recording setting had good colors and lighting, but I don't think it focuses well enough if there is movement, even if I am using a tripod or other mount.

I am also assuming that under these lighting conditions, I should shoot without any filters and no additional lenses.

Thank you in advance for any advice on why I would choose one option over the other and under what circumstances.

Carol: you've chosen well. I upgraded to this little camera about 3 months ago - from a Sony NX5. I'm sort-of joking, but the side-screen on the 800 is bigger, brighter, more colourful and has decent sized menu icons. It's also far more touch sensitive and you can even creep-zoom on screen. In replaying the still pictures, simply touch any part of the frame and that immediately and automatically zooms in to make that touch point the centre of the displayed image, then you can use the zoom rocker to zoom in more.

But to your points. You set the shutter to 1/30, set the exposure to +5. Question: why? 1/30th loses the smoothness of 1/60th and +5 on exposure? What does that mean? +5 what? I'm pretty surprised you got 'reasonable results'.

iA overrides all other settings other than OIS (and the lens ring reverts to zoom control), so you're immediately recording multiple audio tracks and accepting all sorts of other compromises. The face detection is neat though.

The 900 uses smaller-than ¼" chips, so you're right to be wary of using extra filters and add-ons. But the 35mm wide-angle is only so-so these days, so I do use a wide-adapter a lot of the time and accept the consequenses.

tom.

1/25th shutter (PAL camera) helped me out filming at dawn at Lake Garda in Italy a couple of weeks ago such my TM900 didn't need add gain. I should add I only use manual exposure (or shutter priority on occasion). Motion at this slow shutter speed was no problem since I was up before anybody was about, no people, no ferry boats, as yet.

After dark, due to more activity in the scenes I used 1/50th shutter and accepted there would be gain applied, well as it turned out this wasn't bad and yes colour held up very well. The biggest problem I had with the TM900 in the evenings was how to white balance for multiple types of lighting with different colour temperatures, this is something of a problem, there was fluorescent (green), tunsten filament (red) and curses.. those dreadful "economy" bulbs, oh and an occasional powerful halogen.. all in the shots together! In the end I filmed all night shots using my own stored daylight setting and corrected in post, not always easy as people moved from beneath one colour lighting to another.

An advantage of sticking to my daylight WB setting was that sunset scenes from the boats looked perfect, ie: "warm" as I remember it. Something you don't want automatic WB to "correct for"...

Oh, and be aware manual focus is the only way to shoot in dim lighting, the TM900's auto focus in incredibly fast and accurate in daylight but not when the light level drops.

I must say the footage I came back with is by far the best quality I have ever taken on a holiday and also the easiest to have shot with this little gem of a camera. Previous trips included cameras much larger and heavier, cumbersome things, good riddence!

Tom & Claire - Thank you for your fast responses.

Tom - The reason that I set to 1/30 shutter and +5 exposure is that at 1/60 shutter and 0 Exposure I record a black screen. If I set to color night view it looks like the shutter speed drops below 1/30. At 1/30 shutter the camera could still focus and I was able to capture a clear picture. Is there a better approach under these conditions?

I do plan on getting and using a wide angle extender lens (I'm thinking of the Panasonic - VW-W4607), just not under these really low light conditions. If there is a zoom extender that doesn't cost a fortune that works well, I would like to get one, too. (Any recommendations?)

Claire - Fortunately, I won't need to worry about lights in the middle of the Serengeti! I have not started using the manual white balance or focus yet. I was hoping to rely on the auto focus since I am not sure that I will be any better than the camera when it comes to maintaining focus on moving animals. Am I correct to assume that if the autofocus is not working optimally, the MF Assist function will also not be working optimally? I will need to do some testing to determine the conditions where I can do a better job than autofocus can.

I am also planning to come home with the best footage I've ever taken on a trip!

Hi Carol,
What looks good on the side-screen may not be what's best on the big screen later, that's the problem you face with slowing the shutter speed and using '+5'. Generally iA will give you a good starting point, and from there you switch it to manual and chose which of the disciplines you want to leave in auto, tweak or lock down.

Forget zoom extenders, they don't exist. Ah, but the 900 has one built in, and it's the best of its kind. Go into the menu and set the zoom ratio to 20x. The 900 will then cleverly use the bigger than necessary chip pixel count to increase the zoom seamlessly from the 12x point up to an actual 20x point, without any of the degradation associated with such digital zooms in the past.

The zoom bar chart on screen tells you when you're in this digital domain but it's not really necessary. The good bit is that the aperture remains constant at f/2.8 and doesn't ramp after the 12x zoom point, but then so too does the dof remain constant, as the optical focal length remains at 41.4mm.

In the stills mode you're limited to a 12x zoom because the camera's using the entire pixel count of the chip. And as I say, zoom extenders don't exist. You can buy telephoto converters, but in actual fact these turn out to be zoom contractors because of the vignetting they bring to the party.

MF assist is really neat on the 900. It rings the entire frame to warn you, and 'peaks' the accurately focused items on screen. It's still a lot slower than the autofocus, but the beauty is it allows you to accurately lock the focus.

tom.

Tom- thank you again for your response - and for saving me money on the the zoom extender!

I am running my tests and then evaluating results on my 37" or 48" 1080p tv. This is one thing that concerns me on my trip. I will spend most of the time in camps without electricity and will need to depend on my experience and only the side screen to evaluate my results. I won't see the results on the big screen until I return home.

I've been looking to see if could play my video on one of the new pads, but haven't found anything yet. Also, I can't download to anything since in 1080/60p you can only download using a computer with the AE software installed.

I am going to spend some time shooting video of moving cars (to simulate moving animals). That will give me a good opportunity to compare using autofocus to manual focus with auto assist.

That's just what I did - I connected the 900 to my 46'' LCD TV and used that as a huge viewfinder. I pointed the camera out into the garden and - while watching the TV - played with all the controls and settings. You can then get an idea of how the little side-screen is presenting the results.

What was strange though was that 14mp stills replayed from the 900 into the TV took on an exaggerated 'over-sharpened' look and looked pretty naff. But once downloaded onto the pc I could see it was the TV that was doing this for some reason. Maybe it was the downconvert from 14mp file to the 2mp 1920 x 1080 TV screen.

No electricity? Taking solar chargers then?

tom.

No electricity - but you can use the cigarette lighters in the vehicles to recharge. I am bringing an adapter that expands to three outlets so no one can accuse me of being a charger hog! I also have a Solio solar charger that I may bring for backup for daytime when we are in camp. I need to test how effective it is in re-charging batteries. You can also have the camp stewards take it to their base where they have electricity during the day, but I would need a second charger and/or a lot of batteries for that. I have the battery that comes with the camera with two of the larger Panasonic batteries and the charger on the way. I need to test if that will be enough.

Based on my experience in Alaska taping bears and whales bubble feeding, I think I will be making extensive use of the pre-record function which I think will use up more battery power. (Hope to avoid my experience in Alaska where I had to just let the camera run and then had tons of editing to do when I got back home!)

Carol

Carol, I found the large Panasonic battery to last me all day and the next and I was filming most of the day, every single day so hopefully with two of them you should never run out of juice the same day. I never used the pre-record function though so don't know how this would affect things.

I am guessing you will be filming moving animals from a moving vehicle? If so will you be struggling with a tripod or travelling light and relying on the camera's own stabilisation? On my hols I needed to travel very light and also not take up any space in a crowd so I bought a Gitzo GZM2561T carbon fibre monopod with quick release for the trip.

This little beauty collapses to only 14" and weighs very nearly next to nothing. I used it on the rolling ferry boats that go up and down the 60 mile long lake and got really wonderful steady close ups of the shore line. The monopod and the nice stabilisation on the TM900 combined to make it look like I was filming from only a few hundred yards away instead of right out over the lake and the detail this camera records fully zoomed in good light is fantastic. Yes, I know the advice is normally to turn off image stabilisation when on a tripod but I found otherwise using a monopod, it turned out to be just brilliant, I could pop it in my little carry bag and put the TM900 in my pocket, hey what a difference to the days I was weighed down with loads of kit.

I've never been on an African safari, so I can only plan for what I think I will encounter.

I am bringing a good tripod with me. Other than a day or two when I might go on a walking safari, I don't expect that I will be going far from our vehicle or far from camp. The advantage of a tripod is that I can take videos that I am in and for long distance shots, I'll be able to hold more steady than a monopod. (Although you had a good idea about leaving the stabilization on with the monopod.) It also frees up both of my hands, which I might need.

Approximately 1/2 of the trip is on private reserves where our vehicles have open sides. I was considering getting a mount that gripped onto the bars of the vehicle, but was advised that if I got the tripod, I could set that up in the car, even if it meant putting one or two legs on the seat.

When we are in the National Parks, we are required to travel in closed vehicles. I think that we can stand up and look out the roof. I am considering getting a Gripper with a suction cup mount and using my tripod head on it for those days to mount my camcorder on the roof.

I don't think that I will do much if any filming while we are moving. My understanding is that it is a pretty good workout to stay in your seat. What I'm hoping for is for me to be still and the animals to be moving! I am going to be very disappointed if I don't come home with at least one Big Cat Diary style hunting scene!

I'm going to Sedona next month and will probably take the Pink Jeep Tour which will give me a good opportunity for experimenting. I'll see how combining a tripod or mount works with stabilization on in a jeep riding across rough terrain.

Your description of trying to stay in your seat as the Landrover bounces around are oh so true. And the dust! Make sure you can quickly pop the 900 into a zippered bag while the dust settles.

Hi Carol,

There is an irritating aspect to the use of prerecord that you may not be aware of when using 1080p60 and that is, it has to be set in the menu for every shot.

Have you considered using a field monitor to review your results? I have a Small HD DP6 that has an HD screen is a great improvement on the TM900 screen and I can also use it for stills from my Nikon. It is compact and does not use much power and of course they are also great aids when recording.

Anyone know if there are any non Panasonic batteries available for 900 series?
Is there a separate battery charger - again non Panasonic?
Norman

Hi Norman,

I recently acquired a field monitor that I powered by a couple Li ion batteries (each ~ 8.4 volts, ~ 6 amp hours). Either battery is capable of powering the monitor for several hours. I have arranged them so they can also be connected in series giving ~ 16 volts. Using about $5 worth of components including a voltage regulator I can provide my TM900 with the 9.3 volts it needs through a cable that plugs into the power socket. This supply acts like the supplied power supply - it will charge the battery if the camera is turned off and will run the camera if it is turned on. My two batteries cost less than a single replacement battery for the TM900. They have about 5 times the capacity and are guaranteed for 400 days. Time will tell how long they last.

Tom - I have a couple of layers of dust/rain protection, so I think I am as prepared as I can be in that area.

Alastair - It is not only that the pre-record needs to be turned on before every shot, it is that you need to remember when all of the settings get reset and it is inconsistent. But even with that, I expect there is a lot of value in the feature. I came back from Alaska with hours of footage with bears doing nothing punctuated by short bursts of them catching salmon or other moments of interest. (It was an older DV camcorder so you couldn't erase scenes from the tape.) My expectation is that with the pre-record function I can turn on record when the action starts without missing half of it. (Untested at this time.)

I love the idea of the small monitor. Now if it had an Android operating system, 3G capabilities, and could replace my Kindle and my iPod it would be a no-brainer! As it is, I have this tiny, lightweight camcorder and a 6lb tripod that only fits in my pack if I take the head off of it. I'm not sure if it is overkill for a hobbyist videographer.

On the other hand, I'm concerned about going and not being able to really check my video until the trip is over and I am home. How closely does a monitor like that replicate how the video will look on a big screen tv? (If the camcorder monitor is a 1 and a 1080p tv is a 10, where would the monitor fit in terms of knowing what your video looks like?)

I'm really envious of Carol's trip, and respect the thoughtful attention to detail she's put into the planning, therefore don't have much to add except 3 snippits of advice, 1.) Travel as light as you can, 2.) Practice extensively beforehand, 3.) White balance in the field, don't trust AWB or the WB presets, white tennis shoes can work for a WB card in a pinch.

Good shooting, and have a great time!

My major reasons for getting the field monitor were to permit a degree of remote operation and also to try operating two cameras from the same point. The review capabilities are a welcome bonus. I cannot rate the DP6 image against a 1080P TV as I do not have one. However I am aware that small images often look better than they really are.

I have found other uses for the monitor. I have built my DP6 into a rigid sunshade/mount and equipped it with larger than necessary batteries. If necessary I can draw power from these batteries to power my EX3 and/or to power/recharge my TM 900. That is the monitor set up can act as an emergency power supply. I use non-proprietary Li ion batteries that work on my SD702 also. I have also built-in an IR remote extender so that with the appropriate camera remote I can control my EX3 and/or TM while watching the monitor.

It is not a hiker’s dream kit but I live on a property that still has some wildlife. At the moment I have a heron catching frogs and tadpoles about 30’ from my door. As is the case for your bears there are long periods of the heron waiting patiently followed by a sudden strike. The prey is then rapidly taken from the water’s edge, separated from the bycatch and eaten, the bird then returns to the water to rinse its beak. I am good at recording the periods of inactivity but tend to muck up the rest in the excitement. This activity occurs relatively early in the day when lighting conditions are changing rapidly and that makes matching shots difficult. I am hoping two cameras with different viewpoints and zoom settings will help

Tom - I appreciate the advice. I am working on the first two items (with the exception of the tripod which I am still deciding whether or not to bring due to size), but have some questions about using the manual white balance on this camera.

Do I need to worry about the exposure when I am setting WB or is that what the camera is doing when it either accepts or doesn't accept the manual WB reading?

Does it need to be a white card to set WB or can you use a grey or black card, too? And if you can use any of the three, under what conditions would each one be optimum with the TM900?

Alastair - your property sounds lovely! I hope you get the perfect heron shots and then post them.

Carol,

I think a gray card should work, not a black but so can a business card, handkerchief. AWB can be okay in the city where the cam can manage to find some reference but in the bush, all those earth tones will confuse it, so you need something.

I thought about the tripod problem when I answered the last time. It's the most painful decision but here's what you have to keep in mind. I think it will need to be tall enough to see over tall grasses, but any shake at all with a cmos cam at high magnification and even a sturdy tripod on solid ground will cause ruinous wobble if there are even minute vibrations from wind. A lightweight convenient tripod won't be sturdy when fully extended, and a sturdy tripod breaks rule 1 about traveling light. No tripod means you might miss the shot if your arms are tired from just holding your arms up. That's why I'm persuaded that Claire is right (I think it was Claire) to suggest the monopod. It can serve dual duty as your walking stick, but since you steady it with your hands, it will work effectively with OIS, while tolerating wind.

Lastly, I had a thought about the electricity problem. I have this battery that goes with a zylight (on camera light) for my Sony shoulder cam. It's lithium polymer, and I checked the ratings for it, capacity wise it's about equivalent to 5 of the regular vbn130's. Pressing a button you can adjust the output voltage to match anything between 5 and 19, (about 9 is called for.) And I think it even came with an assortment of male and female plugs to fit most things. If you clipped something like that to your belt, you could at once be powering the cam and recharging the installed cam battery, with only 1 to have recharged over nite or in the car. Seems like it recharges quickly too. It's called a Tekkeon. It might make life less complicated from the standpoint of time shifting smaller batteries and chargers or solar.

Tom & Claire- I just got back to my computer after taping up the box for my tripod to be picked up for return when I saw your response. It was a painful decision, but it did break the travel light rule. I've been doing some reading on safari photography and it is probably not the best choice for Tanzania. So I have also come to see that Claire's recommendation is the right one.

I've also decided to forego the monitor (unless of course they come out with an HD monitor/Kindle and iPod replacement/3G Android device) so I've just downsized dramatically!

I think I will be ok with power. 1 large Panasonic battery lasted Claire all day and I will have two large and one small battery. With the cigarette lighter converter, I will be able to keep one plugged in whenever we are in the vehicles.

Do you think it is worth getting a small, battery run microphone? It would need to be lightweight. Or is there a way of improving the sound of the built in microphone. Even with the wind noise canceller on I can hear wind sometimes and sometimes I can hear my breathing.

Carol, since you are going to use the sound recorded by the camera I must tell you if were me there is no way I would rely on the built in microphone, unless it is flat calm you will certainly have unusable audio much of the time due to wind noises. I am attaching several photos I took of the equipment I took with me on my trip, it all dismantled down so that I could carry it in my small backpack and with the kind of rain jacket that folds into it's own pocket (tiny) reckoned I was ready for more or less anything Italy could throw at me in September.

Much of the time it was flat calm and so I did on these occasions get away with the camera's built in mic, I set them to record 2 track stereo, not surround sound and they did fine. The last time I was in Africa I don't recall any wind but I was only there a week and I'm sure it does get windy sometime, even though it's in the tropics where high pressure dominates.

Even in flat calm your sound will get wiped out when you are moving, say in the Jeep... when I was on the seating area on the roofs of the ferry boats, (which was as often as possible due to nice 85/90F temperatures each day) I used an Edirol CS50 mic with a Rode WS6 windgag. This is my most "windproof" setup, no unwanted sounds even with the warm air rushing past me, nice!). It's stereo so it recorded the live ambience, to me an essential ingredient to relive the experience with full effect, boat noises and peoeple enjoying themselves, sounds coming from all directions, and when the large paddle boats pass each other they sound their horns and it's so exciting in stereo! LOL! I can already imagine the live sounds you would here on your trip, it would be sad not to capture these properly so please think carefully before you go.

You will see from my photos I have this mic mounted on a Hague camera support bracket together with a Juiced Link box that converts the XLR plugs to the little jack plug needed for the TM900. There are of course mics that would not need this accessory, it's just that I use this mic with my EX1R and love it to death so I thought the addition of the JL box worth while.

Now note that this whole camera support bracket pops off and on the monopod at will, so when I need absolute steadiness (eg: you zoomed up on a lion !!!) I would be on the monopod but if I need to quickly be very mobile I might pop it off and with two hands, one on the camera and the other on the handle of the camera support I could film anything anywhere, and still have more stability than the camera on it's own. I am delighted with the arrangement it allows me FLEXIBILITY!

Last but not least I have the Rode VideoMic Pro with a Rycote windgag, this keeps the camera small and simple and the windgag is fairly effective but not perfect, I use this in light winds where I need to remain discrete, not stand out in a crowd but I don't like it for one reason which is that it is mono only and the sort of filming I do with the TM900 demands realistic proper stereo ambience, mono sound dull and flat when compared.

Hope these ramblings and pics help...

Hi Carol,

Someone, somewhere in this forum recommends placing a patch of sound blimp fur over the grill of the TM 900 microphones to reduce wind noise. He attaches it with double-sided adhesive tape. All very simple and easy to replicate.

I have not tried this in the field but I have set up my TM900 about 3 feet in front of a 15” fan set to its maximum speed while I had a wireless tuned to a lecture to provide a sound source. I used headphones for monitoring. A patch of artificial fur made a worthwhile difference in this case.

Those pictures are offensive to chinchillas everywhere.

Claire - I love your pictures! Now that I returned my tripod, I can't wait for my monopod to get here and see it all set up. I ordered the Manfrotto 561BHDV-1 Fluid Video Monopod with Head. I think it will work really well for shooting video from inside a vehicle, either while sitting down in an open sided vehicle or through the roof in a closed-sided vehicle. So I appreciate your and Tom's nudging in that direction.

Alastair - I will try your suggestion before I decide whether or not to get a microphone. I would definitely be looking at something smaller than in Claire's setup. The question is, will a smaller (stereo) microphone perform better than the built in mike?

How much storage do you think I need? I will be shooting at 1080/60p. Do you think a 35GB SD card for each full day on safari is sufficient? I read tests on some cards that different cards perform better when you delete out sections of video and then record more video on the card. Any experience with this? Claire - how much did you use on your trip?

And Tom - there are still 2 or 3 spots left on my trip! And you still have time to get your visa and your shots if you hurry!

Hi Carol,

I use a Nikon ME-1 mic for when I want decent sound. Checkout this post for a few clips and piccies: Panasonic SD900 + Nikon ME-1 = pretty good stereo sound (http://tinyurl.com/3m8ohjz)

I also have one of these permanently attached and it actually works quite well: Stick-On WindCutter (http://tinyurl.com/3zmwcyn)

Cheers,
Ian

The good thing about plugging in an external stereo mic is that you'll get stereo recordings whether you're in iA or manual recording mode. With no external mic on board you get (unnecessary, in my view) 5.1 audio recordings in the iA mode.

tom.

Ian - thank you for the link. I watched the 360 degree test of the running water on YouTube that was linked to in the thread and that sold me on the Nikon ME-1! I have some video I shot last week of my dogs splashing around in a small pond that we came upon while hiking and I can hear my breathing in it almost as much as I can hear the splashing! I also ordered the Micover Slipover Windscreen. I may not need it in Africa, but I am sure that I need when taping my dogs at the beach here in Pacifica.

Is there anything special I need to know about the sound settings while using the mic? For example, do I leave the wind noise canceler on? Also, any suggestions when using the built-in mic in manual mode?

I have a lightweight Sennheiser noise-cancelling headset that I will be bringing with me (I use it with my iPod on the plane so that I can sleep). Will it help to use it when the sound that I am capturing is important? And if so, do I use it with noise cancellation on or off?

I had ordered the stick-on wind cover you recommended last week and I'm still waiting for it to come in. I'm sure that will help when I want to go really light and not use an external mic.

I have questions related to another topic: I have a difficult time shooting my black lab. I know that I will have similar problems with dark-skinned people when I am in Africa. I thought I would use the AE/AF tracking function, but that is only available in auto mode. So what is the best way to improve my video in these situations?