The Official Panasonic HC-X900M Owners thread - Page 2

I used Vegas Pro 11. It works well, though I had to create a custom project type to handle the 60p footage. Hopefully 60p will gain more support from software and hardware as it becomes more common.

I haven't tried the HD Writer software yet. I am curious though if it does anything better or more conveniently than the tools I'm using now.

^Ok, I was just curious as it looks alot like it was made with HD Writer, mainly the "Titles". Hd Writer software is not bad at all. It will trim and combine 1080/60p clips. It can also add titles, transitions and even music to them. It does it very fast as well by smart rendering. It will output all this as a 1080/60p native file which will play on some media player devices and new Panasonic/Sony BD players.

My only experience is With HD Writer 3.0 and was wondering if Panasonic added BR burning support for 1080/60p files with 4.0 since 3.0 will not do this. I would recommend that you give HD Writer 4.0 a look. If you are doing simple editing it can do it very quickly, most likely easier and faster than Vegas Pro 11.

Just curious if any of you owners/users would share your experiences/opinions about how good the low light capabilities are compared to previous models and, if possible, the Sony equivalents?

Also, does this have a mode similar to the Sony's "Night Vision"?

It does not have a "Night Vision" mode.

What is perceived as low light is subjective around here. It really depends on the actual low-light environment YOU are referring to.

The equivalent Sony models to the X900 have less noise/grain in what I consider "ultra" low light but their color accuracy is not quite as good as Panasonic's when it comes to low light.

I have the TM900 and it performs fine in what I consider to be a low light environment.

btw, if anyone is interested B&H photo has the X900m on sale for $899 right now.


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/838813-REG/Panasonic_HC_X900M_HC_X900M_High_Definition_Camcorder.html

Some samples....

GENERATION BATTLE: Panasonic HDC-SX5 and Canon HV10 vs. Panasonic HC-X900
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TyCd-AjAZ4

Panasonic HC-X900 - picture profiles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEgGCw6FoyI

Panasonic HC-X900 - GAIN TEST: 0dB, 9dB, 18dB
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N0qh31rZ08

Enjoy....

Interesting results... was the sun out more during the HV10 or am I correct to say the colors are WAY more vibrant than either of the other two?

The X900 looked more 'realistic' if thats a good term for it, good balance of vibrant colors (not as much as the HV10) but no noticeable blur. From the video I would guess the HV10 makes it look better than real life.

Panasonic X900 @1200 lux:
http://produktdbimages0.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_1200_lux_230.jpg

Panasonic V700 @1200 lux:
http://produktdbimages5.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_1200_lux_232.jpg

Sony CX740 @1200 lux:
http://produktdbimages0.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_1200_lux_228.jpg

Panasonic X900 @12 Lux Auto mode:
http://produktdbimages0.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_230.jpg

Panasonic V700 @12 lux Auto mode:
http://produktdbimages5.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_232.jpg

Sony CX740 @12lux Auto mode:
http://produktdbimages1.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_228.jpg

Panasonic X900 @12 lux optimized:
http://produktdbimages5.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_optimiert_230.jpg

Panasonic V700 @12 lux optimized:
http://produktdbimages5.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_optimiert_232.jpg

Sony CX740 @12lux optimized:
http://produktdbimages1.slashcam.de/camcorder-testergebnisse_testbilder_testbild_12_lux_optimiert_228.jpg

Source:
camcorder reviews/tests and comparison with test images and technical data

Thanks but if you find something similar in comparison with VIDEO I would be interested... could not care less about still images from any of these devices.

http://www.nvideoo.com/?p=148

Panasonic X900 vs sony PJ760 Lowlight and O.I.S test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSsL6mCXcXI&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esJHTcpZA0I&feature=related

IMO panasonic looks better in low light condition but o.is. looks identical

The manual white balance on my X900M isn't working. At all. There is an extreme pink tint to the entire picture after manually setting the white balance using both grey and white cards. I wait for the icon to stop flashing per the manual. I only see the pink tint in manual white balance mode. Has anybody else experienced this?

I am trying to use 24p with my camera. In the Panasonic lingo, this is called "digital cinema". I set my camera do "digital cinema" and "digital color" but when I use mediainfo on the clip, it shows 29.97 FPS. Shouldn't the frame rate be 24FPS or close to it ? I tried all possible combinations and never managed to get 24p. Any help appreciated.

Actually, your recording 24p but it get's inside a 60i codec or in other words 30 full frames a second. You need something like Cineform NeoScene which reverses the process and shoots out a pure 24p stream. It's different with the Panasonic GH2 in which it's a pure 24p stream from the very beginning. I find it stressful that Panasonic is still doing that to their consumer camcorders. Both Canon and Sony already have pure 24p from the beginning on their camcorders so hopefully, Panasonic wont do that again.

Thank you Paulo, you are always very helpful.

I am a new x900m user and cannot get my head around the motion picture recording formats. I think I understand that i is for interlaced and p for progressive, but is there much difference in quality or ease of editing. Also in i mode is there a lot of difference between HA through to HE? any help I would be grateful

http://www.digitalphotographywriter.com/2010/08/hd-1080p-vs-1080i-videos-progressive.html

In a nutshell, you will get significantly higher quality using the 108060p setting. That link nicely explains why.

I have edited 108060p videos on netbooks. If you have an Apple computer, you will have troubles.

I just bought a X900 from Amazon. Can you tell me Ian if the lens cover on the camera moves fairly easily if you try and push it with your hand. When I first got the camera - the lens cover was half open and moved between open and closed when I moved the camera. This rectified after first powering-on but the cover moves relatively easily with touch pressure against a possible spring. Just wanted to see if yours opens fairly easily too or if it is a fault with my camera?

Not if you buy Adobe Premier Elements 10 for $60. It works on any platform.

It should work better than that. You may need to return and replace it if that does not go away.

The built-in lens cover is spring-loaded and with a few ounces of force it's fairly easy to push it sideways towards the retract position. This is pretty much the way all automatic lens covers work. It's not a problem if you can retract it with your finger, but it is a problem if there are any friction or sticking points in its travel.

I actually use a clip-on lens cap on top of the automatic one anyway, just to prevent anything from potentially poking into the lens opening when the camera is bouncing around in my bag. The automatic cover is not particularly strong, and IMHO better safe than sorry.

Thanks, that was really helpful.

hello

I am just register me in the post, let me thanks in advance for your answer and comments.
Here my problem:
I have bought my x900m camcorder five days ago, also i purcharsed a 64 GB SDXC memory card. I seleted as media record the SDXC card, not problems when i play the videos on the camcorder but when remove the SDXC card an put into SD card slot in mi desktop / laptop appears the messaje : " the device has not format" (both have windows xp) and it is not possible use de windows explorer to see the files, the same problem using the SDXC card in my WDTV live (not recognize files) and in the LED Viera TV (purcharsed last year) saying "not valid file".
At the beginning i believed that the problem was SDXC card but also i tried a SCHC 4GB recording a short video in this case it was possible be recognized in the laptop and i could se a "mts" video file, but when tried on the LED viera TV again "not valid file"

Also when i conneted the camcorder via USB cable to my LED vierta TV and my panasonic BD 75 , only was recognized the videos recordered on the 64 GB built in memory but not see the SDXC card inside the camera.

Please confirm if my suspects are true:

- windows xp is not able to read SDXC card , this is the reason for messaje " the device has not format"
- windows xp could read SDHC card, I could see the mts file using windows explorer.
- WDTV live is not able to read SDXC card.
- i have not clues in understanding why the USB port in TV / BD player can not recognize the SDXC card inside the camcorder

Regards

Jesus

Welcome to the forum.

From Wikipedia: "SDXC cards are pre-formatted with Microsoft's proprietary and patented exFAT file system, which the host device might not support. Since Microsoft does not publish the specifications of exFAT and its use requires a non-free license, many alternative or older operating systems do not support exFAT for technical or legal reasons. The use of exFAT on some SDXC cards may render SDXC unsuitable as a universal exchange medium, as an SDXC card that uses exFAT would not be usable in all host devices. Since the FAT32 file system supports volumes up to the SDXC's maximum theoretical capacity of 2 TB as well, a user could reformat an SDXC card to use FAT32 for greater portability between computers (see below). FAT32-formatted SDXC cards can be used in a host device built for SDHC if the host device can handle 64 GB and larger volumes."

In other words, you might do better with 32 GB SDHC cards.

Bill

Hi all, my first post here. Just picked up one of these camera's about a week ago, oustanding pq for a camcorder.


Agreed! Between the onboard 32gb and extra sd 32gb you've got about 5 hrs at max res. recording time, more than enough imo.
Not a wonder they dropped the battery consuming hdd.
Everything works fine in xp sp2 x86.

Have rolled of some 50p footage at Perth Airport, Au as a quick test.
The raw footage was edited in vegas 10 using Sony's avchd at 1920 x 1080 x 25p. 50i might be better for this kind of fast movement.
Camera was set to iA, max OIS and hand held so not highly accurate pans. Keeping a speeding jet steady by hand with some zoom on takes a bit of practice!

Note the odd artifacts around the port wings at times, also a bit of jitter near and after touchdown in a couple of shots which I think is the OIS getting confused.
Will try again with tripod and no OIS.

With regard OIS, even with it turned off there's still some measure of shake suppression.

The audio is quite outstanding for a bunch of tiny mics built into the body!

Cheers,
Rob
Edited by HD pixels - 9/2/12 at 8:40pm

Thanks very much for the comments, i tried today using SDHC card, this was recognizes without problems by my WDTV in AVCHD 1080p and other less resolution format. Also in my viera LEd tv was recognized however here not avchd 1080p but not problems with less quatity video configuracion.

Now iwill buy a couple of SDHC 32GB class 10 cards

Regards

I don't know what model year the Viera TVs and BD players became AVCHD 2.0 compliant. The AVCHD 1.0 didn't include 1080p60 and my 3+ year old Panasonic BD30 works like your TV. I can insert a SD card directly and get a nice menu on the TV screen. However, it ignores 1080p60 files.

Bill
Edited by bsprague - 9/3/12 at 9:14pm

my viera TV was bought las year togheter with de BD (it is BD 75) i do not know if it is possible upgrade the finware to overcome the problem

For folks looking for a 1080p60-compatible BluRay player I'll offer my experiences with the Panasonic BDT-220 and 1080p60 files created by my X900M. This player has front SD card and USB slots, and will play 1080p60 from both of them. SD cards need to be formatted with the AVCHD file structure and metadata files. The player will play individual ".MTS" files from USB flash drives with any arbitrary folder structure.

Why the manufacturers have to distinguish based on media type is beyond me. If I can play individual ".MTS" files from a USB flash drive I see no reason whatsoever why I shouldn't be able to play them from an SD card.

I downloaded a sample disc image with 1080p60 clips at various bit rates in BluRay format (with the appropriate folder structure and metadata files) and burned it to a DVD. The player played all of the clips without any issues except for the 28MBit/sec clip. Because 1080p60 plays just fine from flash media this clearly isn't a problem with the player's imaging pipeline - it's almost certainly because of the limitations of the DVD transfer rate. I don't have a BluRay burner, but I'm pretty confident that the same 28Mbit/sec clip burned to a BluRay disc with it's higher transfer rates would play just fine.

There is a serious design fault on the Panasonic X900M in my opinion. There is a loss of video and more importantly audio when continuously recording more than say 45 minutes? The camcorder quite rightly splits the files into 4gig chunks BUT there are gaps between them with seriously missing frames. Panasonic refuse to acknowledge the problem even on a replacement X900M. Just wondered.if people were aware of this problem.