The Panasonic HM-TA20 Underwater Pocket Camcorder
October 12, 2011
Filming underwater has always been a challenge, especially for amateurs. The Panasonic HM-TA20 camcorder offers a new device that is set to make things a lot easier, especially for those who love fun and simplicity. It is small enough to fit in your pocket and can shoot 1080p videos and 8mp still images. It can be taken to a maximum depth of 3m, fantastic for those shallow dives where you just want to see what is down there.
The Panasonic HM-TA20 can also serve as a digital voice recorder, as well as containing some other useful features. Users of this device should be satisfied with it, so much so that for fun days out, the only other essential piece of technology that they will need to have in their bag is a mobile phone, from a site like O2. Of course, the camcorder will be the only device that will accompany you under the water, enabling you to capture your experience.
With regards to its appearance, you can choose between either a bright orange or blue body, which highlights that this device is all about having fun. Each compartment of the camera has been protected with thick, watertight rubber seals and it is well-made and sturdy. The simplicity of this camcorder lies in its single large recording button, meaning that you will not have to fiddle around with lots of complicated settings when you are underwater.
The touch-screen is bright, even under the water and includes the virtual buttons of Play, Menu and Mode. As well as being waterproof, it is also shockproof and dust-proof. The specifications suffer in the face of its underwater ability, however this does not necessarily have to be a negative thing. While under the water, if you are an amateur you will not have much flexibility or time to change specifications and settings, so Panasonic has understandably gone for simplicity in this case, catering it to a certain market.
Panasonic Releases World’s First 3D Consumer Camcorder
August 16, 2010
Electronics giant Panasonic wasted no time in getting on the 3D bandwagon with the release of the HDC-SDT750. It is touted as the world’s first 3D consumer camcorder. However to fully enjoy the benefits if 3D you will need to have a compatible 3D HDTV, 3D glasses and HDMI ver 1.4 cables.
The Panasonic HDC-SDT750 is actually a 700 series model with a “3D conversion lens” attached to the front. Nevertheless, this up-scaled 3D camcorder comes with the highly sensitive 3MOS system and the renowned Leica Dicomar Lens that produces top quality videos even in low light conditions. With the large 3D lens attached you get true-to-life 3D video content. When the 3D lens is detached you get a fully functional 2D camcorder that captures full HD 1080/60p video.
Features wise the SDT750 is almost identical to the 700 series camcorders with a few improvements like the HYBRID O.I.S image stabilization and an improved noise-reduction algorithm for better quality clips in low light. The useful manual control ring is retained, so is the Intelligent Auto (iA) mode that makes the Panasonic camcorders extremely easy to master. The manual ring provides convenient, fingertip control of the focus, zoom, exposure, shutter speed and white balance settings.
The SDT750 will be released sometime in October 2010 at a list price of $1399.95. You can read the full Panasonic HDC-SDT750 review here as soon as it is released.
Source: Panasonic
New Panasonic 700 Series Camcorders
May 10, 2010
Panasonic introduced improvements and new features in their new top of the line 700 series camcorders. The new Panasonic HDC-TM700 and Panasonic HDC-HS700 come with the high performance Leica Dicomar Lens and expensive 3MOS sensor. Facial recognition is much improved. Intelligent Zoom which is an enhanced digital zoom that uses Intelligent Resolution Technology which Panasonic claims will improve the image quality even when digital zoom kicks in. Here’s how Matt Frazer, Panasonic’s technical rep explains it:
The HDC-TM700 lists at just below $1000 records on built-in 32GB internal memory. Video can also be stored on optional SD/SDHC/SDXC cards. It is very light and weighs in at just 380g with battery. Very portable indeed. The low-light performance of the camera is promising, at least when viewed through the 3.0 inch LCD display.
The HDC-HS700 (MSRP $1399) has a built in 240GB HDD, good enough to capture video at the highest resolution for 1.5 hours. The 5.1 channel surround sound built-in microphones is something new too.
Both these camcorders also feature the improved Power O.I.S. (Optical Image Stabilizer) which reduces the effects of shaky hands. It is very effective even at high zoom settings. The system uses gyro sensors to detect even tiny amounts of hand-shake, then shifts the lens and adjusts the optical axis to compensate.
These high end camcorders are certainly impressive and in terms of performance they come pretty close to prosumer models.