The Panasonic TM900 Users Thread

[David Pritchard]

Teresa Wintermyr and Dan Sinbimuaythai Fight in Ranong on the Thai/Burma Border - YouTube
Heres a look inside of a country style Thai Boxing event that most people would never get to see... All shot using the tm900. Feedback would be appreciated!

[Guy Caplin]

Many thanks Guys for the lucid explanations of the subtleties of the auto functions.

[Adrian Lepki]

Originally Posted by David Pritchard

Teresa Wintermyr and Dan Sinbimuaythai Fight in Ranong on the Thai/Burma Border - YouTube

Heres a look inside of a country style Thai Boxing event that most people would never get to see... All shot using the tm900. Feedback would be appreciated!

Hi David,

I'd like to give you some feedback but first I need to know what was your intended goal and audience for this piece.

Adrian

[Luc Spencer]

Guys, anyone here know what Digital Cinema Colour is, exactly (under RECORD SETUP)? It says it records video with brilliant and wide range of colours, but that it requires a x.v.Colour-ready device.

[Mark Rosenzweig]

With that setting, the camera records in x.v. color; naturally to see the benefits you need a monitor/TV with x.v. color capability and set to x.v. color. (Wikipedia: "xvYCC or Extended-gamut YCC (also x.v.Color) is a color space that can be used in the video electronics of television sets to support a gamut 1.8 times as large as that of the sRGB color space.")

[Luc Spencer]

Thank you Mark. Honestly sounds like something to avoid.

[Andy Wilkinson]

Yes, definitely avoid that setting!

Been busy with work so have not had much chance to get up to date with this thread. When things settle down a bit I'll try and do another quick summary of what's been covered over the last few weeks since the last one. Blummin heck, nearly 90,000 views! If someone else would like to do this summary, please do.

[Alan Christensen]

Just filmed my first live stage performance (school performance of kids singing) with two tm-900's, and an HV-30. Until now I have always shot with 3 Sony PD-170's. I shot in 1080p on the TM-900's in spite of the fact that I was going to export eventually to NTSC DVD. I shot in 1080i on the HV-30. My other settings on the TM-900 were: Manual white balance, intelligent auto on, anti-shake off (I was using nice tripods), manual audio at -21dB using VideoMic Pro, AGC audio on the other cam, 14x zoom maximum, autofocus, face-framing all, everything else at defaults. Here is what I liked/disliked:
Good:
1) Intelligent auto worked great for exposing faces properly whether the kids were under the spotlights or in shadow. Kids with very dark complexions were exposed properly when side by side with kids with very light complexions. This was far superior to the PD-170 and to the HV-30.
2) Great sharpness/resolution. The TM-900 was far sharper than the HV-30 and even more so in comparison with the standard resolution PD-170.
3) Turning anti-shake on and off with the button rather than via an embedded menu item

Bad:
1) "Face framing all" was a mistake on my part. I wanted to know what the camera was focused on, and this was an easy way to do so. But when panning across with 30 faces in each frame the little boxes drive you crazy. I will turn this off or maybe try "face framing primary" on my next project.
2) Manual white balance of the two TM-900's didn't result in them being quite as identical as it does with my PD-170's. I think the next time I might pick a preset that is close to perfect on both cams and not bother with manual white balance. I was also afraid that the camera might forget the manual white balance setting when turning the camera on and off. It blinks at you when you are in manual WB when you turn the camera back on and you wonder...
3) Colors were over-saturated. The kids had very bright red shirts on and they were almost fluorescent in the raw video. I had to dial them back in post which slowed down my editing process.
4) Matching the HV-30 well was pretty much impossible, even though the HV-30 was manually white balanced as well. I tried using the HV-30 in cinema mode because it is a lot less contrasty in that setting. But the resulting video was impossible to get to look like the TM-900 video from both a color and sharpness perspective.
5) Zooming at the desired speed is possible but much more difficult than the PD-170. I had times when I tried to zoom slowly but didn't apply enough pressure so nothing happened. I had other times when I tried to zoom at a moderate speed and ended up zooming way too fast. I did not try to use the zoom ring at all because it has seemed very clumsy to me to do so when I've tried it.
6) Trying to remember what the camera remembers when you turn it on and off or when you go to intelligent auto and back. This is probably the most annoying issue with the camera when trying to use it for this purpose. I was deathly afraid that I might accidently hit the intelligent auto button after I got the camera all set up and then lose all my settings. Or that when I turned the camera off after getting it properly set up that it wouldn't return to the same state when I turned it back on. I'm not sure if there is any difference in behavior if you just shut the LCD screen vs turning it off in this regard. I'm also not sure how quickly it runs down the battery if you just shut the screen and otherwise leave it on. These things aren't documented anywhere and it would take a lot of experimentation to figure it out.
7) The audio through the VMP was not good. It clipped some when folks clapped. It was still "boomy" in parts in spite of the fact that I was running in the low-cut position on the mike. I'm now wondering if the mike is more optimized for interviews than with musical productions. Fortunately I had several PD-170's running during the show on fixed tripods and I was able to use their audio. I'm not sure what I'll try next time as I really want to get away from the PD's and tape in general.
8) The additional editing time associated with using the high resolution video. I'm using CS5.5 Premiere on a very fast editing system. In spite of the fact that the video played back smoothly even with effects and multiple timelines, you can't quickly scroll through the clips. The final render times with color correction were also several hours rather than 15 minutes. This isn't too big a problem unless you discover an issue and have to go back and do it again (which I did twice).
9) Using the camera on a big tripod is not as nice as using a bigger camera. It's hard to be as smooth as the camera doesn't weigh anything. I used the eyepiece as I've always filmed that way. It's hard to get close enough to the camera as it barely extends out past the tripod plate on a big tripod. You end up leaning forward more than you have to with a camera that extends back further from the center of the tripod. The big battery also gets in the way a bit, both in getting your eye up to the eyepiece and also if you have to change the diopter adjustment.

In general the overall production was a success. I have proven that I can do projects with the TM-900's. I will be able to provide Blu-ray versions on future projects to go along with regular DVD's. The cameras aren't as convenient to use for this sort of thing because they aren't optimized for shooting in manual modes. (My guess is that they have intentionally made this so to prevent the cameras from impacting their professional lines). But they can be used, and at the price are hard to beat. I got my 2nd one for $699 at B&H a while back and am considering a third. The biggest issue is audio. I need to figure out a better solution in this area.

[Bo Sundvall]

Alan

The problems with HV30 in cinema mode are:

- Lower resolution
- Different hue. Red gets wrong.

You can't change resolution in post. Hue is easier to change, try that when you color correct (CC) and try to match the two camcorders. I once used a XH-A1 and a HV20 in cinema mode and succeeded CC by changing hue.


Regards,

/Bo

[Mark Ahrens]

Did you have a left hand on the pan bar and right hand on the zoom controller?
I think i'd opt for the ring control to try to get smooth zooms . . . some sort of support would probably be needed to rest/steady the hand, though.

Lack of a LANC port on this thing is a real shame.

[Guy Caplin]

Shooting the audio for a stage show with a mic on the camera is always going to be problematic. I've always slung a couple of mics over the stage and run them back to the camera. The sound is very 'open' but the audience clapping level is in the same ball park as the performance level. A better solution would be to have 3 or 4 mics on short stands along the front of the stage going to a manually operated mixer whose output goes to the camcorder.

I must agree with Mark: the lack of LANC makes smooth zoom operation very tricky. Is is possible to devise a simple mechanical linkage to operate the top control or the front ring?

[Adrian Lepki]

Originally Posted by Guy Caplin

Shooting the audio for a stage show with a mic on the camera is always going to be problematic.

RODE is soon coming out with an interesting solution for independent/limited crew producers:

The World's First Digital Recorder Video Microphone - RDE VideoMic HD

I just hope the price won't be prohibitive.

[Barry Richard]

Originally Posted by Bo Sundvall

Alan

The problems with HV30 in cinema mode are:

- Lower resolution
- Different hue. Red gets wrong.

You can't change resolution in post. Hue is easier to change, try that when you color correct (CC) and try to match the two camcorders. I once used a XH-A1 and a HV20 in cinema mode and succeeded CC by changing hue.


Regards,

/Bo

Have you (or anyone else) had any success creating an XHA1 CP file to match the TM900 ??

[Adrian Lepki]

[Table dolly]

Here is my latest setup for tracking shots with TM900:

Hague table dolly on homemade rails. on Vimeo

Camera cage allows for better control when tracking with panning (or tilting) compared to the previous setup with a single tripod handle.

[Adrian Lepki]

[Lighting]

Hi, I've started a thread on lighting tips and techniques here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/document...ips-stuff.html

Please share your lighting for TM900 tips there. Thanks