The Official Panasonic HC-X900M Owners thread

The "official" part always cracks me up. As for your question, have you already looked at the Panasonic site?

No it will not. TM700 takes "G" battery, X900 uses "N" battery. TM900 battery's can be used in the X900m though, since they both use the "N" battery. At least Panasonic did not change battery's again this year.

B&H say March 25. Amazon just says "pre-order".

I'd trust what B&H says, over what Amazon says.

Camcorderinfo.com has reviewed the X900M, and rates it BELOW last year's model, the TM900. They say the X900M has poorer low light ability, for example, and is less easy to hold. However, the X900M has better 3D capability (in which I have no interest), and some other improvements that are said not to have much practical benefit over the TM900. The TM900 is now significantly cheaper, of course, but camcorderinfo.com says it is the better choice even if it were not cheaper. I'm torn between the two, and would appreciate any thoughts on this issue.

About 18 months ago I was torn between the SDT-750 and the TM900. The 750 was being discounted heavily because of the included, and ugly, 3D lens. As near as I could tell, there were few differences in the guts of the cameras. Being cheap, I bought the 750 and saved about $100.

My only regret has been that the "official 750" thread is a dead one and anything I learn comes from the 900 thread. If I post to it, I have to start with, "I have a SDT-750 that is a cousin of the TM-900...."

You seem to be in the same spot. You are looking at two cameras that are so close to the same that videos you take would be indistinguishable.

My thought would be to go for the cheaper one.

Bill

PS: Regarding low light, I was in a dimly lit museum yesterday and was not disappointed with any low light issues.

Hi

The TM900 and X900 are essentially the same camera internally with the X900 having a wider angle lens. Despite the wonderful PR spin and adding the word 'pro' onto everything on the X900, Panasonic have made no real changes in this newer model to improve noise (hence the same model number), which is also going to be similar to the 700 series as well as the last years 900 series. Noise comes from the sensor, and until Panasonic change the sensor (unchanged since the TM300) then noise can only be tinkered with using noise reduction in the chips software where you can only remove so much without removing lots of detail.

YouTube removes noise during uploading and compression (as well as a lot of detail), so noise just isn't resolved on playback from YouTube.

Regards

Phil

So, Phil, if you were to have to choose between the TM900 and the X900M, the wider angle lens would tip you towards the latter. If price were not an issue, are there any other features that would tip you one way or the other?

I have a TM900 now, but I would be tipped toward the X900M if price was no object because of both the slightly wider angle lens and slightly improved image sharpness.

But price and depreciation are important to me so I would never consider buying a X900M now because it's current $1199 price will be $599 or $699 during the 4 week period between Thanksgiving and Xmas.

IMO, I doubt you would see a difference in sharpness between the two on a big screen. I think the only reason to get the X900m over the TM900 right now is if you wish to shoot 3D with it. It's much improved in this department over it's predecessors.

Isn't the crystal engine proII change with pixel shift technology going to be worth 400$? Doesn't sound like it. Going to wait to read the reviews when the camera is released 3/25.

Hi


Pixel shift is just marketing. There will always be pixel shift as it is next to impossible to line up the mirrors and three CMOS chips that accurately. Also there are camcorders using many more pixels than that required for HD with no improvement in picture quality. It is physically impossible to resolve more detail than 1920x1080 of HD no matter how many extra pixels you start out with! HD camcorders can't even resolve full HD at 1920x1080 due to limitations in processing and the extreme compression down to H264 at around 28Mbits/sec. Shifting the green pixel by half, even if I believed that were really possible and was happening, makes zero difference to the final outcome.


If money were no object I'd get both Apart from a wider angle lens, there is nothing that would push me towards the X900, and the wider angle lens alone isn't enough for me to upgrade from the TM900. It's clear Panasonic have just produced a camcorder cheaper to manufacture for them, it might even be the case the less compact wider angle lens is cheaper than the one on the TM900.

This year hasn't seen any R&D from Panasonic on its camcorders, but they are not alone in that, Canon is a similar story.

Regards

Phil

Does anybody have any idea when this will actually be available? The Adorama page suggests it's in stock, but it's not; and everybody else is just taking pre-orders. B&H had listed March 25 as the available date, but has now taken that down. Panasonic does not list it on their website (you can find it with searching, but it doesn't show up on the main camcorder page).

Actually, B&H does have it in stock. Won over by the wider angle lens, I've ordered one, for delivery Thursday.

I currently have in my possession both the X900M and a new Panasonic TM900. I'm a pretty unsophisticated user, but thought I would share my first impressions, for what they're worth.

The wider angle lens on the X900M makes a significant difference, and is a big improvement, at least for my needs (currently making videos of the construction of a new house, interiors are more easily captured).

Low light performance (using just the auto settings) seems to me to be slightly better with the X900M.

The TM900 is easier to grasp, and slightly lighter, but it is not a big difference to me. The X900M is still a very small device, compared to its competitors, and easily slipped into a jacket pocket.

The EVF on theX900M is brighter.

The eyepiece corrector dial on the X900M seems more stable. With the TM900 (and the TM700 before it), I had to adjust the dial almost every time I pulled out the eyepiece. However, the mechanism appears identical, at least externally, so this may just be a random difference between the particular units I have.

The sound recording on the X900M seems richer, based only on recording my voice as narrator.

The exterior of the TM900 is glossy black, the X900M matte black. Conceivably this would make a difference if the user was in sunlight and wanted to be unobtrusive, the X900M might be marginally less obvious.

Based on the above, I'm going to keep the X900M, and return the TM900.

Some tramcars from Prague, Czech Republic

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXTlOUoBEyo

Original 1080/50p file:
www.embedupload.com/?d=5FQWWIRBMI

Amazing quality. :-) Screenshot from videofile looks as regular 2Mpx photo.
www.img24.eu/images/vwgy1857.jpg

I just bought an X900M a few days ago. I'm pretty happy with it so far. The picture quality is stunning (when there is plenty of light).

Here's a short video of some test shots on the Tennessee River (watch in 1080p!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SONwLAj1doI

Nice...thanks for sharing. Congrats on the purchase. What program did you do the editing with?

Do any owners of the X900 know if HD Writer 4.0 (supplied with the X900), has the ability to burn 1080/60p files to a AVCHD 2.0 Blu-Ray disc?