Customer Reviews

Panasonic Pro AG-HMC150 3CCD AVCHD 24fps Camcorder

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Panasonic AG-HMC150

I shoot weddings and I have used The HMC150, the Canon AH1.

From the beginning let me first tell you where my opinion is coming from - price tag: $3500

First off, neither of these cameras are brilliant in low light. They have 1/3 imagers. I don't care if they are made of gold and there are ten of them.
1/3 imagers are too small to gather enough light, even if you attached the Hubbell telescope to them.

To put such tiny sensors in a $3500 is poor, cheap engineering especially when SLR have larger sensors, shoot HD and don't cost this much.

Who are these camera angled at?

Videographers and indie filmmakers.

As a videographer what are you most concerned with - Low light.
Why? Because you cannot control lights at weddings at parties, etc. So your camera has to be able to handle it.

As an Indie filmmaker what are you most concerned with - The ability to look like film. It does, with 24p and film gamma, it's about all you need. But you are paying a premium. But for me, equally important to film look as 24fps is lens choice. Here you get none. While 24fps is what is ingrained in the everyone's consciousness as what film should look like, they also don't realize that shallow depth of field and variety of lenses is too. With these camcorders you get no choice, a 13x zoom with extremely wide depth of field at most every focal distance, because it's a zoom and because the imagers are tiny.

Good news The AG-HMC150 can handle most lighting situations.
Bad news - AVCHD codec, is noisy in even bright sunlight afternoons. The image is made of blotch.

Measuring image integrity by zoom factor - at 100% AVCHD compression is clearly visible. 200% the image is a swarming, infected mess.
Although the Panny can holdup in low light. I shot in a dark club and there was still something to see.
It has a very weird auto iris mode, that brings in more light, even when you do exact settings in manual.
Don't know if there is a magic switch, didn't have it long enough to work everything out.

The Canon uses HDV and instead of compression codec noise, you get digital noise; unpleasant grain (not like film), and washed out video at 100%. At 200% it's like looking at a digital still from a 10 year old point and shoot. And trust me, once an image is washed out and grainy, there is very little you can do (Some gamma correction will bring the shadows back to life, but that noise is there to stay. And the drop down to SD doesn't do it any favors.

Bottom line the Canon sucks in low light, especially in anything other than auto mode. I shot in a low light room and the image was garbage. Despite some settings tweaking, which leads me to Canon's second biggest problem and a problem with these camcorders in general.

The LCD and the Viewfinder are too small to see how your image is holding up. Everything looked fabulous on the Canon's 2.7 LCD...and then when you get it back to edit. Noise city. So you can only use the LCD for just basic image checking.

The HMC150 has a 3.5 LCD, but the brilliant engineers made it a 4:3 ratio! You have black matting in the image! The camera can only shoot 16x9 and they put a 4x3 LCD on it...so in the end you only get about 2.7" of real estate and you see as much as on the Canon, unless you are in focus assist mode which zooms in and uses the whole LCD.

So you have to know your settings and be shutter/iris paranoid, hoping for the best image. What you see is not what you get, you have to know what you want, like with film and set the camera accordingly, knowing which settings will get you want in the END, not what you are looking at through the camera.

The HMC150 definitely benefits from the higher rez. The Canon is 1440x1080. You can see the difference.

The Canon is more professionally built. Both plastic, but the canon feels more professional, and weirdly the HMC feels like a Tonka Toy, hard textured plastic, but like a light and chunky toy. I can hear the optical stabilizer clunking around in it. The Canon aesthetically looks more professional.

Audio on the Canon is better, it has much better limiter, I don't even think the HMC's is useful, but if you plug one xlr mic into the Canon...the onboard becomes unusable. HMC lets you assign channels for the onboard. Bad news is the onboard mic on both sucks, the Canon sounds better because the HDV format has higher rez than the compressed AVCHD codec.

The HMC and it's tapeless/AVCHD codec does not save much time, the transcoding takes almost as long if not longer than real time (HDV tape) and sometimes there are errors, especially transferring from camera, the footage speeds up, the audio remains constant and you have shorter clips. Happened constantly. My guess, USB and it's non constant data rate. Another cheap short cut by Panasonic. The Canon has a firewire, which speed is constant, and they need it for the HDV tapes.

The HMC wins out with higher rez, native progressive imagers, resulting in two true progressive modes, 24fps, the other mode/rez are wrapped in pulldowns. The Canon's 24f, etc modes are fake and you can tell. Everything is interlaced on the Canon. I hate interlaced.

This review isn't structured very well, but I don't have the energy, since I'm so unenthusiastic about both, so they're not worth more time. But I thought I would let potential buyers know, the ones who think these two cameras are the Holy Grail. They aren't, and they aren't worth the high price tag, they are worth $2000 not a penny more. But the problem is, what else is there?

I returned the HMC, and I didn't the Canon wasn't mine, but would have returned it too.

I'm going to try the Canon SLR route. The closest thing you can get to film without shooting it.

Annoyingly these two manufacturers and Sony...are all sticking it to us. Instead of advancing things, they are taking baby steps, giving us one desired function at a time for a price.

If Canon can put a full frame sensor in their 5d II and can give it 1920x1080 30fps shooting, why can't they put that sensor in a camcorder, with a SLR interchangeable lens mount, with XLR inputs?

Because they want to sell camcorders AND slr cameras.

These camcorders are just big consumer cams. They don't have enough image improvement to warrant $2500+ more in cost. You are paying for features, limited manual adjustments, not image upgrade.

But of course I didn't have it for very long, two weeks.

I just couldn't get over the price versus video quality, and workflow.
They don't justify the price, especially when I think we are very close to getting some real breakthroughs in HD imaging.

I received my 150 a little over a week ago. Bought it because I wanted to move up to HD and get out of the tape business. It did not come with an SDHC card. Bought an 8 GB to carry me over until my 16 GB cards arrive via Amazon. I am still on the learning curve on it. Especially liked the large comfortable color view eye piece. I was also amazed by the clarity of the video play back on my 48" LCD screen. Used the three cable output first, that came with the camera( Video, Lt. Rt. Audio )

Very clear video, much clearer than my trusty old Canon GL-2 It does not come with an HDMI cable. Bought one locally and tried it. Plugged one end into the HDMI out port on the camera and the other end into the HDMI port of my TV. I was blown away by how clear it was !! The video was clearer than some of the stations I view in HD.

On playback, you are given a thumbnail of the first frame of each scene you shot when you turned the camera on. On playback, you can skip around the scenes you want to view , or delete if needed. The focus assist is another nice feature. When you use it, it momentarily zooms in on the middle of your next shot so that you can fine focus if needed.

It has many other features that I have not tried yet. On editing, bought the Pinnacle 12 Ultimate because it is set up to handle the AVHCD format and a PC with the AMD quad Phenom processor with 3 GB of RAM. Waiting for a more powerful graphics card to arrive before trying to edit in this new format. The battery that came with it is small. Would recommend buying the larger battery as soon as you can to balance it out. Right now, it feels a little out of balance because of the smaller battery. Also liked the solid magnesium body. No plastic anywhere ! Overall, I am impressed with this camera.

One thing you need to keep in mind is that editing AVCCam/AVCHD is a P.I.T.A. I'm using CS4 on a 2.4 quadcore with 8gig of RAM and Vista64 and it's sluggish with frequent lockups. I'm getting Cineform ProspectHD v4 when it comes out to compensate. Vegas 8.0c and Edius works well I'm told, and FCP need to convert it to ProRes (or whatever it's called). I think Avid needs to convert it to a native codec as well. Panasonic does offer a free converter to DVCProHD on there website

[Update 6/5/09... Premiere CS4 4.1 update is out, and editing is much easier. Also, Prospect v4 is out, and editing with the demo I've been trying has been a joy]

That said... the camera itself is awesome. Really. I'm coming from the DVX, and this is leaps and bounds above that (which is saying something). The images I'm getting are beautiful. I'm planning on going out now on my days off to shoot just for the fun of it.

I really can't add anything that hasn't been said already by others. But if you're looking at the HVX200a or HPX170 (they all share the same chips, and the HMC shares the same glass as the HPX), but don't want to deal with the costs of P2 or need all of the features of the HPX or HVX, I would HIGHLY recommend buying this instead.

Just be prepared for some editing headaches at first (the problem with bleeding edge technology is sometimes you need to get stitches).

I knew I would have to do it sooner or later. Even shooting Super 16mm is (a) too expensive and (b) too heavy. I have seen so many good documentary films that originated on HDV or AVCHD based camcorders that I thought I should really make an effort to go digital.
As it happened, I attended a Panasonic seminar that convincingly touted the value of a modern H.264 type codec for the "filmakers" vision. So the Sony and Canon alternatives were effectively eliminated as options by the smooth presentations given by Panasonic. This left the choice of cameras down to the HMC40 (cheaper and lighter) or the HMC150. Both can do the things I need to do (24P being a requirement)and both are designed to create a "film-like" look to the image.
My choice of the HMC150 was based on the feeling that 3 1/3" imagers are going to be less noisy than the 3 1/4" imagers installed in the newer HMC40 camera. I did not do any side-by-side comparison testing but I am guessing that I am correct in this assumption although the degree of difference may not be noticeable in the final image.
It has been about two months that I have been using this camera. What it can stuff into a tiny SD memory card is amazing to me. The images have been outstanding for a television camera and really not too bad for a cinema camera. I miss interchangeable lenses and controllable depth of field but I don't miss changing the magazine after a few takes and I dont miss heavy battery packs and Nagra sound recorders.
I did find that the manual iris control on the camera is impossible to use while shooting and that manual focus is also clumsly and can create sound noise while filming if you are using the on-board mic or even the mounted shotgun. The simple solution was a Vari-zoom remote and that fixed the two biggest operational problems I had.
The camera was packed with GVG's Edius Neo. That works a treat with AVCHD and as long as you have a decent modern laptop with sufficent speed and memory, it is fast enough to operate and to render out edit files to disk or SD card. I prefer to have the final finishing completed by a real editor (probably using FCP) but I can manage the rough edits with Edius without too many problems.
So, I am not sorry. This is the first digital cinema type camera that I have purchased and it will probably be the gateway drug to a Red One or something like that. I miss film but if you are not making a feature film with multiple rented 35mm cameras (paid for by someone else), why not use a camera like the HMC150? The cost of the hardware is more than offset when compared to running a S16mm camera to create 60 minutes of finished projectable film. SD cards are cheap. Digital projectors are getting better and DI from inexpensive digital cameras to 35mm film neg is possible if the content is good enough to justify the cost.

Much has been said, but I'll add a bit. We use this camera for live events and produced videos. Here's what we've learned in 6 months.

1) Buy the 150. We also have the 40 which does what the 150 does, but for pro use, the features are slow and cumbersome to access on the HMC40.

2) Great if you use Adobe Premier C6. Not so much if you use Final Cut Pro 7. We have both. Premier is native to AVCHD. With Final Cut, the transcoding is almost worse than tape ingestion. With Premier, you can preview the videos easily, edit them easily, and you aren't so dependent on rendering.

3) Watch the errors. We had one interview error after 45 minutes and lost it. It's the first in 7 months of usage, but we lost about $4000 worth of footage. Panasonic has a recovery tool, but it didn't work. We were using a Transcend card (cheaper) on that shoot, so we won't do that again. We'll go back to Sandisk.

4) Low light is much worse than SD, but I guess all HD is. It works for us because we light everything. Wouldn't work if you don't have lighting control.

5) We really wish it had a 20x zoom. The 13x is a compromise from our old 100A's.

We'll probably buy another one, but we're waiting to see if Cannon comes out with an SD card based HD camera.

We just bought our HMC150 & the ease of using the SD cards is FANTASTIC as opposed to the minidv tapes & P2 cards that our HVX200 takes. The savings in the cost of the SD's vs P2's is astronomical as anyone reading this already knows. My son shoots weddings & business profiles for the internet along with hunting videos for outfitters, as he is pro staff for various hunting gear companies.
Unless you are needing to shoot an Indy film or something like that, the resolution from the smaller ccd's is adeqate for his/your needs without the exorbitant costs for the HVX's P2's, bigger tripod system, firestore etc....

On the Pro side, the wide angle lens that it comes with is great & it the camera as a whole is MUCH lighter for those LONG hand held shoots & you can get by with a lighter tripod/head combo than needed for the weight load of the HVX while not sacrificing that FULL size "PRO camera" look for a job! Lets face it when someone is forking over $1,000.00 for a wedding, they don't want to see a little camera that looks like they would use to shoot family movies with no matter that it is HD ect....
Also we bought a Wind netbook that we can download footage on site to free up the SD cards so we only need a couple of them & the netbook is so much lighter & smaller than a full size laptop rigged up to use as a firestore for the P2's!

On the Cons, we could NOT use our Sennheiser shotgun mike that fits perfectly on the HVX as it appears in the shot unless you are zoomed out 1/2 way! I don't know if there is some kind of an adapter that we can use to lift it up & out of the way yet.

My son is currently in Missouri on a Hunt that his dad is filming him in with the HMC150, so I'll have him update this review with how it performed in the field in rough conditions with an amatuer at the controls! The temps are dropping & we have had a LOT of rain...........so we'll sure have more to share as they are filming full day shoots for a week in extremely inclement weather conditions!

BTW... you might want to Immediately go ahead & buy the long life battery & UV filter at the same time you buy this as they are a DEFINITE "must" to protect the expensive wide angle lens that it comes with & to NOT lose a shot when filming because your battery died!

I am completely happy with this camera's performance. I'm still learning some of the finer in and outs of it but I am completely satisfied with its color pick up and picture quality.

The recording media is very affordable, I bought to 16gb class 6 SDHC cards when i purchased this camera and so far is the easiest format to use especially if you come from a background using dslr's. The formatting must be done in the camera if anyone is wondering, and if you do format the sd card in your computer you will get an error message once you pop in.

My only problem with this camera is the AVCHD editing. It's a monster to edit and rendering is a painful process. I'm buying a new computer to accommodate the editing process because I currently can't effectively edit my work with the duo core processor I have at home. In my office I have a Core2 Quad and it is also kind of sluggish and rendering in any of the HD formats is about 15:1 (minute) ratio. It's just ridiculous.

But enough of that, I did enough research to know that the editing would be a beast, I just wasn't truly aware of the true impact it would have on me.

All in all this camera is an exceptional product and I am extremely pleased with my investment.

2/25/09 I forgot to mention these cards can be played in a PS3, which is a great feature for reviewing the days shoot. =)

7/10/09 So it's been 5 months now and I recently hooked up with a local magazine to do their internet video content. [...]

I still love this camera and it is DEFINITELY one of the BEST INVESTMENTS I have made on any type of equipment I have ever owned.

If you are looking for an affordable camcorder that actually shoots 1920x1080 24p with XLR inputs and good control over image settings, this unit will not disappoint in terms of picture quality.
Despite all my negative comments below, when it comes down to it the camera produces and extremely good picture and film like look when you have your settings and lighting correctly done.

My last camera was the Canon XL2, when I opened the box the the HMC-150 I was completely underwhelmed. The build quality seems cheap, you can just see how they did some cost cutting to get the price down on this camera.

Lets face it, for the price you get good features so it's hard to complain but here is what I don't like:

CONS
1. 4:3 LCD is absolutely a waste, obviously they pulled it from the parts bin from older models to cut costs.
2. Zoom, is either manual or servo, can't use both. Need to toggle a switch to switch between.
3. On screen menus are straight out of a video titler from the 90s. Confusing and just overall thrown together I am sure Panasonics menus on cheaper camera have to be better.
4. Auto zoom rocker speed not all that adjustable takes time to adjust too.
5. Battery that comes with the unit is worthless, if you are actually going to use the camera for more than 60 minutes at a time you need to upgrade.
6. Tons of buttons all over the place, requires some exploration. Quite often you find yourself asking why did they put that there?
7. Built in microphone is average but who seriously uses those on any camera anyway?

PROS
1. Price
2. Extremely good picture quality and film like look when probably lit and scene file settings are dialed in.
3. Relatively light weight easy to move around.
4. Optical stabilizer works pretty well.
5. Zoom assist function quite handy.
6. Lens despite negative reviews is great for this price range.
7. SD card recording is top notch.
8. XLR inputs with phantom power.
9. Outputs galore, should cover all your needs.
10. Head phone jack re-enforced.

In the end most of the negative parts of this camera are washed away, when you have realistic expectations of it's capabilities.

I've had the Panasonic HMC150 for a few weeks now and have used it on a few shoots and have been very pleased. It has been especially handy for shooting long form presentations and live events, as you can get over 100 minutes of 720P HD on a 16GB SDHC card that I bought for [...] each on [...]. That is a huge advantage when you have a lot to shoot and don't have the time between shots to dump off your P2 cards to the laptop. There are a few extra stops on the ND Filter preset versus the 200 camera, and the lens seemed to hold up well even at long lengths from the back of a concert hall. Wish it had come with a higher capacity on the battery but other than that, this is a good addition to our stable of Panasonic HD cameras. Import into Final Cut Pro 6 was easy via "Log & Transfer" and the overall quality of the video is great.

This is the perfect camera for documentary filmmakers. It's modeled after the near perfect DVX line of Panasonic cameras, has a great lens, and terrific display screen. It's an ideal system for anyone looking to upgrade to HD.

The workflow of the SDHC cards is also amazing. For a fraction of the price of a P2 card, you get unbeatable storage capacities and beautiful image quality.