Pany TM300 or GH1 or GF1 for video

[yinkhoon]

Hi, seeking some advice from any more knowledgeable brothers here before i invest into videocam equipment.

I have been a hobbyist photographer for many years, currently using the Olympus E520 with 14-42 kit lens, 14-54 f2.8-3.5 II, 25f2.8, and 40-150 f3.5-4.5.

I have a 7-mth old baby daughter so currently looking into taking good videographs of her as well as photographs. This will be my first foray into the video recording world.

So I was looking into videocams, and short-listed the Sony CX520E and Pany TM300. I thought flash media will be good as it's getting cheaper now and makes the video-cam much smaller and portable. The Sony feels better built and seems very easy to use and the nightshot mode looks cool, but I am more leaning towards the TM300 as the manual zoom ring seems more intuitive to use (coming from SLR background), and there are more manual controls including aperture and shutter. I think not much diff between the 1/2.3 single sensor size of the Sony vs the 3 X 1/4 sensor size of the Pany in performance?

I am not considering the recent DSLRs which offer video-recording because most do not offer continuous auto-focus, unlike dedicated videocams. But the Panasonic GH1 and new GF1 will have continous auto-focus function (if i am not wrong). They will have much bigger sensor size than the TM300 or CX520E and should have much better low light performance and video image quality, as well as allowing nicer bokeh effects? Also, with a 4/3 to m4/3 converter, I will be able to use my existing Olympus lens for videography as well. Between the GH1 and the GF1, the smaller size of the GF1 appeals to me more but it only records in mono sound.

I am not sure which route I should go down, as both will cost me around $2K regardless. The dedicated camcorder TM300 seems a safer route, also offering extra video functions such as time lapse recording. But it has a much smaller sensor size and may not allow as much artistic control of depth of field?

I will greatly appreciate it if any other insight can be provided to help me arrive at a decision!

Yin Khoon

 

[Bamboopictures]

Congrats on your bundle of joy! For documenting a child's growth, nothing is more important than good archiving. So I'll go with a format that is easy to shoot on, view on, duplicate and keep multiples of. Editing and quality is not too much of a concern. The format that satisfy most of these criteria is DVD! This is perhaps the most ideal format if you are constantly shooting outings, everyday slice of life moments. Think of time you save by NOT ingesting, transcoding,transfering, rendering, burning DVDs. Think of how cheap and easy it is to make multiple copies of your precious memories. Think about how portable and universal the medium is and how easy if is to share DVDs with grandparents, aunty and uncles.
I'll definitely look at Panasonic's 3CCD range of DVD camcorders for the best that the format has to offer.

 

[henry soh]

Hi, TM300 has 3 sensors, each for RGB and therefore offers better image quality compared with GH1 or GF1. However, Nikon 700X not avalable yet till Jan2010 offers 24MP and 24 natural film mode. But GH1 with 14-140mm offers quality image, still and video or wait for canon 7D with still and video offering better videos.

 

[Bamboopictures]

It is surprising to hear that a consumer camcorder can outperform a DSLR in terms of video quality. (Color sampling space, dynamic range, noise, sharpness) The GH1 sensors is at least 10 times bigger than the TM300. I'm not knocking the TM300. I think if you need to record events, speeches, performances, the TM300 or any other camcorder is a much better choice than a DSLR simply because DSLRs often have a 4GB or 12minute limit per clip that make them unsuitable for long recording. Also the autofocus on a GH1 cannot compare to the TM300.

But if you are shooting short takes with good art direction, I think most digital cinematographers will pick the GH-1 over the TM300.

 

[yinkhoon]

Bamboopictures and Henry, thank you for your thoughts.

I just had a new thought! I think I will buy the Panasonic TZ7 instead, which is a digicam which does 720P Movie Recording in choice of AVCHD Lite or MPEG4 format, allows zooming and autofocus functions while recording, and allows recording of sound in stereo with Dolby Stereo Digital Creator. It also has wind-cut filter function, optical stabilisation, iA modes, face recognition etc so it seems not too bad as a video-cam. The wide-angle lens starting from 25mm (without need for wide-angle converter as a camcorder would) is also attractive. It is also supremely portable and eases the burden of carrying a DSLR with lens and another videocam.

Best of all, it is much cheaper at around $600 while still offering a sensor size which is bigger than most found in consumer camcorders includer the TM300 (albeit there are 3 of them inside TM300), so appears really quite good value for money.

Albeit there are disadvantages (no manual control of aperture or shutter speed, no 1080P recording), but I guess I can live with them while I wait for DSLR video-recording capabilities to mature (esp for 4/3 format so my DSLR and video equipment can converge) a bit more.

Thanks, all again!

 

[Bamboopictures]

Good choice! I have TZ6 and am loving the 25mm wide. Don't expect too much from the TZ7's autofocus. Test on Vimeo shows very slow response. Go wide and the deep DOF should keep everything more or less in focus.

 

[henry soh]

Hi, TZ7 can record live band oudoor and play back to wall TV with stereo sound, eg live band near durian which is loud enough for recording stereo sound and AVCHD playback to panasonic TV with good quality.