The Panasonic TM900 Users Thread

[Alastair Traill]

Roger, three pictures got lost from the post above, here they are: -


http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/images/a...attach/jpg.gif

[Alastair Traill]

Quote: - "The lever on the top has absolutely no control- It is either in, or out, right now. Not gradual, no easy in or out".

Hi Greg,

Have a look at the very first post in this very long thread. It is by Andy Wilkinson, note point number 5. It summarises my experience with the zoom lever exactly. Perhaps yours is faulty?

[Roger Shealy]

Love the motorized ring! Thanks for posting. Total cost for mods <$150 US?

[Mark OConnell]

Hi All

I just got a TM900, primarily to use as a stealth cam. When I go out with it nobody raises an eyebrow, which is absolutely great. My main camera is the EX1R, but it always attracts attention. Anyway, I'm just trying to learn my way around this little thing and would appreciate any tips that people who've been using it for a while might pass on. Some specific questions:

If you're joyriding in full auto is there any quick way to lock all the settings?

Are there situations in which the image stabilization might bite you in the ass? (aside from having it on a tripod or something like that...) I had some odd shots today with light sources, light bulbs, sticking in the image and smearing while everything else stayed normal. Trying to figure it out.

Thanks,

Mark

[Roger Shealy]

Mark,

I think you'll find that the iA/Manual button your best friend. If you go from iA to manual, the camera is still essentially in automatic until you change one of the settings. If you enter an "iris", then the camera still maintains automatic by changing the shutter - to the degree it can. If you enter a shutter speed in addition to iris, now you've locked down the camera to a true manual setting.If you get lost and hit iA and later go back to manual, the camera doesn't remember you last manual settings and you have to readjust. This is both good and bad. Good in that if the scene is different from your last manual setting, iA gets you close and you can vary from there. It's bad in that if you return to a similar scene, you can't just go back to your same manual settings.

Two things I commonly do:

1. Start in manual and lock shutter to 1/60 or 1/120 and let the camera manage the iris for me. If things get moving too fast to keep up, iA is my "hyperspace" to get me back on track, even if I just go to iA and immediately back to manual.

2. The camera tends to overexpose in bright sunlight so I If I'm shooting a mixture of inside and outside I will program the picture exposure down -2 in manual and when shooting inside I'll stay with iA inside and shift to Manual outside with the exposure down 2 stops. You can change the exposure by going to manual mode, going to "menu", finding "Picture adjust", and there you can set biases for sharpness, color, exposure, and WB. I believe many of the guys also reduce sharpness to -2 as well.

As far as the image stabilization, its wonderful but it can sometimes get a bit of a mind of its own after bumping around and the image will "float" and recenter a bit. I haven't found a way around it, but have found the IS generally amazing and allowing me to get handheld shots I haven't been able to achieve with other systems.

[Jerry Amende]

"As far as the image stabilization, its wonderful but it can sometimes get a bit of a mind of its own after bumping around and the image will "float" and recenter a bit. I haven't found a way around it, but have found the IS generally amazing and allowing me to get handheld shots I haven't been able to achieve with other systems."

I love the stabilization of my TM700, but you could always stabilize in post. Here's a demo of my TM700 with stabilization off, 18x zoom & using Mercalli V2 in Sony Vegas to stabilize the clip.

Mercalli V2 Stabilization on Vimeo

...Jerry

[Mark OConnell]

Thanks for the info Roger. Looks like I'm just gonna have to get really quick at manually locking the WB, shutter and iris. Sure be nice if there were a way to it in just one step. Maybe on next year's model... When everything is right I think the picture quality is remarkably good. But if an adjustment is off things fall apart pretty quickly.

Noticed that B&H put these on sale today for $599-. I should have waited a week to buy mine. Arghhh.

[Roger Shealy]

I think it is an amazing camera for the price, but doesn't have the manual controls you might enjoy with a 3 ring lens. I used to use a Canon XHA1, and in many ways the TM900 bests it, but not in the arena of controlling manual functions. There still is a place for a fine, manually controlled camera with proper controls. I think the TM900 excells for shots that the scenery is somewhat constant, or where AF/IS is needed. It breaks down a bit when you need excellent, intelligent manual control of the camera.

I recently shot a session with my son of a winery in N. Georgia showing their vineyards and processing techniques as a draft for a TV pilot before incurring significant expense on broadcast gear and talent. I used the TM900 on a shoulder mount. I feel the TM900 performed beautifully. We had a 7d and t2i to cover wide shots, their footage is not shown. AF, IS, and Automatic exposure were quite good. This is un-CC'd footage in the raw, so realize I'm showing what came directly out of camera and sound is quite rough:

20110917 N Ga wine with Jake Sample TM900 on Vimeo

[Roger Shealy]

Originally Posted by Mark OConnell

Noticed that B&H put these on sale today for $599-. I should have waited a week to buy mine. Arghhh.

Can't find that price! Went to B&H and it's $724. I'd be tempted to pick up a couple at $599.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/749839-REG/Panasonic_HDC_TM900K_HDC_TM900_High_Definition_3MOS.html

[Jerry Amende]

Try this link for the B&H sale price: Panasonic HDC-TM900 High Definition Camcorder B&H Photo Video

Also, when I play your winery video, I'm seeing a very poor quality replay (i.e. blocking artifacts). It looks like the TM900 did a very nice job, but Vimeo is causing problems.

...Jerry

[Roger Shealy]

I uploaded @ 15Mbps 1080, so that might be a struggle for Vimeo. I may need to downgrade to 720 @ 5Mbps, which is their normal standard. Until then, I'll turn off 1080P. If you go straight to Vimeo, it looks better.

[Jerry Amende]

@Roger, Have you tried HandBrake? I'm a huge supporter of the following procedure:

Vegas-to-Vimeo Tutorial - A Better Method on Vimeo

Of course you may not edit in Vegas, but the HandBrake parts of the tutorial should apply to most any video editing software. The tut is also focused on deinterlacing, but HandBrake also works very well for resizing & compressing progressive footage.

...Jerry

PS: I went to your Vimeo site and the footage plays w/o problems. That's strange? In any case, your point of the TM900 taking some beautiful footage is well taken!

[Alastair Traill]

Roger, your winery material played well and looked very good to me so I doubt if Vimeo is the problem.

Jerry, I was very impressed with the stabilisation you achieved with the Mercalli V2 and I was wondering how useful it is with a tracking shot that is not as smooth as it might be?

[Jerry Amende]

@Alastair, I haven't made a demo video for motion stabilization, but Mercalli V2 has a preset named "Glide Camera" which is used to simulate a GlideCam. I don't have a demo of this in my library, but a search turned up the following which was made by the well-respected video editing guru, John Rofrano.

proDAD Mercalli 2 Stabilization test on Vimeo

There's also the proDAD website with demo footage: proDAD Mercalli Version 2

I love making short demo videos, so maybe in a few days I'll produce a "Glide Camera" demo. I want to wait for the sun to shine on the East Coast of the US, which might be a few days [grin]

...Jerry

[Roger Shealy]

Originally Posted by Jerry Amende

@Roger, Have you tried HandBrake? I'm a huge supporter of the following procedure:

Jerry,

I've never used Handbrake but am a long time user of Vegas Pro, now using V11. I shoot only progressive footage now. Looking at the sample I provided, understanding it hasn't been graded yet, what advantages would you expect to see following this method? You won't hurt my feelings a bit, I'd love to get better at sharing online and have been reasonably happy with standard Vegas renders, except for the long conversion process.

I typically use Sony AVC 720P @ 5Mbps and have found that better than MainConcept AVC.