Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic HDC-TM300 High Definition Flash Memory Camcorder With 32GB Internal Memory & 3MOS Sensor - Black

Panasonic HDC-TM300 High Definition Flash Memory Camcorder with 32GB Internal Memory & 3MOS Sensor - Black

Requirments: Easy to use, solid state, high spec and HD. I was fed up with mini DV tapes from my last JVC model.

My choice: Top spec, I want/expect this to last 5+ years (My current JVC was bought after seeing it on Jurassic Park!!) Top/latest spec gives some future proofing.

Out of box: Slap the battery in the charger, 2 hours later your off (if you can't wait use the mains adapter). Turn the dial - open the viewer - press the button - instant superb quality HD video.

Details: Quality is superb in all light conditions. Even at a wedding party indoors good results in poor lighting. Face recognition and touch an object to focus/set aperture absolutely excellent.

Size and weight: fits in my suit pocket!!

Price: top line amateur product - price is what I would expect. However spare batteries are expensive as are large capacity SD cards.

Battery/memory life: Tons left after a full wedding day, fast re-charge so I don't think I'll bother with a spare battery (see price). Same goes for the memory although a card might add convenience.

Bad points: next to none - I have large hands, button positions are slightly awkward.

All in all Sublime!!

Impressive HD images with realistic colour saturation (some reviews describe the TM300 colours as cold, I think many camcorders are 'warmed up' to be a bit unrealistic so you watch what your minds eye thought it saw, not what you actually saw).

Manual controls a little overrated and not particularly user friendly. The manual focus ring is painfully under geared and takes quite a few turns to pull the focus any distance. Also the manual focusing enlargement is not very clear and would benefit from the 'red fringing' aid found on the Canon.

Macro focus not impressive at tele end of zoom.

Face detect works well enough, but as soon as the subject turns away or goes off-screen momentarily then the tracking is dropped. Hence, a bit of a gimmick. I ended up using normal auto-focus and keeping the subject central in the screen.

Time lapse mode is fun to use and works well.

Instructions are dreadful with seemingly more caveats and clauses about what can't be done than explanations of what can. A lot of the functions are incompatible with one another and cannot be used at the same time. Although the auto settings do work well with good results. Best to play with the settings to find out how to operate it.

Can't write to the internal memory, so when the footage is downloaded to a computer you can't upload it back onto the camera to view on your 1080 HD TV using the camcorder as a player. Once the footage is deleted off the camcorder you will only be able to view it on your HD TV by either connecting your computer to the TV or burning onto Blu Ray. Other manufacturers may also have the same limitation.

Sound is superb and wind noise well controlled. Sound zooms with camera and is very realistic.

A quality 'family' camcorder which captures excellent images for everyday scenes with excellent sound. Artistic potential a bit limited by lack of total control.

Rightly, it is cheaper than the Canon. Difficult choice to make.

P.S. My TM300 was intermittently faulty from new, with vertical lines degrading the picture along with an overall colour cast. When this wasn't happening I got some great footage. Amazon replaced the faulty camcorder promptly, without hassle, and with a good returns window for the faulty original item (which was needed as I had bought the original the day before I left for a long Holiday). All credit to Amazon.

I wanted a solid state HD camcorder with a viewfinder, as I find LCD monitors difficult to view in bright light. The Panasonic TM300 is one of few that has one. Disappointingly, it doesn't tilt and has a hard plastic eyecup but at least it's there.

The TM300 produces excellent HD video and decent still images that look great on my Sony Bravia TV but the AVCHD footage is difficult to edit, even on a quad core PC. I transcode to MPG2 for easier editing. Of course, this applies to all manufacturer's camcorders using AVCHD.

Panasonic have replaced the joystick by a touchscreen which works quite well but it's soon covered in fingerprints. There's also a row of membrane-type buttons along the bottom of the screen that duplicate the main controls. These are useful if the camera is on a tripod but they need to be pressed firmly to work.

The lens ring is OK for fine-tuning zoom or focus but needs too many turns for large adjustments.

The fully-auto mode (called `iA') gives generally excellent results. Normal auto gives access to `Pro' features such as zebras (over exposure indication), live histogram and luminescence readings. In manual mode, shutter, aperture and white balance can be set via the touchscreen or lens ring (if using the EVF). It takes a bit of practice to get right so I found exposure best left to the camera though manual white balance is easy to set.

The microphone is situated on top of the camera and sound quality is surprisingly good, even wind noise wasn't too bad.

Battery life is excellent, I easily got a days use from one charge. The built in memory holds 4 hours of video at highest quality, which I found ample.

Some of the features, like AF tracking, are just gimmicks but time-lapse is great fun!

Zoom range is 12x; roughly equivalent to 45 - 540mm (35mm equivalent). This is not exactly wide-angle and if you're wanting to film indoors you may want to consider a wide-angle adaptor.

I'm happy with my TM300. It's a great family camcorder that anyone from novice to more experienced can use.