The Official Panasonic HC-V700 Owners Thread

I'm interested in hearing more about this particular camera as well. My main reason is a first baby on the way too! I have some time before baby comes though. Hopefully enough time to save up enough to get a camcorder that I will be happy with. I was set on the Canon M500 until I read in these forums that they don't do full 1080P. Boooo.

Ordered mine yesterday along with a 32gig sdhc card.

Post a link to your first YouTube clip!

Since there seems to be little about this camera I sure will! Give me several days to setup something on YouTube.

Is there anything in particular to capture? I want to hit some action events like kids soccer game & r/c car racing. The racing would be indoors under florescent light.

Outside shot panning towards the sun slowly to check for lens flare. A couple people on amazon said lens flare was an issue and needed a lens hood. This doesn't seem to be a problem with the TM90. Just curious if it is true.

Thanks,
Ron

I've used it to record some t-ball action. Haven't checked it out on the TV, nor have I imported the footage to the Mac yet.

Just posting so that I have this thread subscribed.

I'll update as I get more used to the camcorder.

NOTE - I have the HC-V700M model. Plus I got a 16GB Sandisk Class 10 card (45Mbps).

Do you know approx how much 1080p you can fit on a 16GB card?

According to the instruction manual-
16GB - 1hr 20min

And battery time is only @40 minutes with the supplied battery (vbk-180). The optional vbk360 gives you @1hr 20min. That also applies to HA, HG, HX, & HE mode.

Filmed, wait- can I say that? Video'd several things so far with my V700. One thing very noticeable to me is when panning or zooming things aren't 'crisp'. It's like it loses focus. Is there a name for this? Objects in motion aren't as 'crisp' as still objects. Guess I should look at similar videos shot by others.

Image stabilizaion- this camera rocks! Last night I was capturing some r/c cars running an off-road track. Rested the camera against my chin to help keep it stable. Noticed when taking it away my hand started to shake a little. Leaned it back. When playing the video back I could not tell when that happened. Amazing! Barney Fife will look like a pro with this camera.

Are you set to 1080p? It shouldn't lose res when you pan unless you are just panning much too quickly for 60p playback.

I'm set to 1080p. Maybe I'm being to nit picky. If I could put a small clip on YouTube it would show what I am talking about. Suppose you are zooming in on a bird in a tree. When slowly zooming in the object will most likely stay in focus. It just isn't 'crisp'. Once I stop everything gets perfectly crisp. Every feather on the bird, every leaf in the tree, etc.. Tell me I'm being to picky.

btomasie & pitdaddy,

I'm considering this camcorder along with the Canon M52.

I would be very interested in your comments on low light performance and if at all possible a youtube video would be really nice.

Here's a low-light sample from another HCV700 owner Biting Commentator.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jjjS0doFa4&feature=plcp

I am pretty impressed with the low light performance myself, the little video lamp is almost useless though unless you like a blue tint on what ever you are shooting.

Hello, this Panasonic HC V700M is my first camcorder. I wanted something new to the market and fairly user friendly. So far very happy with my purchase. I do have a few beginner questions. I am a new Mac owner and after reading the owners manual for the cam and several post on other sites I'm confused about downloading my videos in 1080p to my Mac using iMovie. Will it not recognize the 1080p? If not is there a easy work around or other inexpensive editing option? I would like to be able to plug my cam in to my Mac and download/ edit with little to no fuss.
The main reason we purchased the cam is my wife and I are expecting our first child in a few weeks. What recommendations do you have for me to perminatly store/backup my videos? Am i okay keeping evething on the mac? Is there a cloud storage option? Do I need to purchase an external hard drive in case the mac crashes or gets to full?
As I used the cam more I will pass on any good or bad things I identify to the group.

I believe you need to do some extra work in order to get AVCHD to work with iMovie. I have the latest iMovie but I am in the same boat as everyone deciding between the Canon M52/50/500 vs. the Panasonic HC-V700/M. My research found this: http://www.macworld.com/article/1147...hd_imovie.html

Ronomy, I have some lens flare when shooting into the sun. Give me a week or two and I'll have Youtube videos. My camera has a UV filter as a lens protector. When adding a lens hood it can show up in the corners of the screen when the lens is set wide.

Check out the Wasabi replacement batteries. They rock!

pitdaddy, great news about the Wasabi batteries & thanks for that bit of info! Did you get the charger kit, if so do you know if they will also charge the stock Panny batteries?

Did you get the lenshood, was it from New World Video Direct?

Last question What brand UV filter did you go with?

Much of the shooting I did last weekend was out in bright sunlight, a polarizer will be a must for my kit from what I can see, still loving this little camcorder!

Haven't tried the charger with the Panny battery but assume it will work. My lens hood is one of those collapsible rubber ones. The UV filter is a Hoya multi-coat. Curious to know what brand of filters others like. I will be traveling in July and most likely will shoot thru the windows of a car on occasion. Will a polarization filter help?

Something else I like are those lcd screen covers/protectors that can be found on Ebay.

Where did you find the rubber lens hood? Is it threaded or does it wrap around?

Here's the lens hood I have been looking at on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-HC-V...I3D19M8A63AN6F

A circular polarizer will definitely help shoot through windows, it removes most reflections off of glass, water or anything non-metallic that has harsh reflections. Will also deepen blue skies and improve separation between the sky and clouds. There are some pretty good examples on Youtube showing what they will do.

46mm collapsable lens hood- http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...bber_Lens.html

That's a cool hood!

I did see some YouTube footage and did see some flare but it wasn't that bad...at least what I saw was OK.

Finally took a couple hours and looked through all the raw footage shot last weekend and put this together.
The biggest surprise to me so far is how well the tele-macro function works, was not expecting to have so much fun chasing insects again. This will be a perfect backpacking camera.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JRIn...ature=youtu.be

@Kayook, the low light video you passed along gives a good indication of the camera's capabilities... not bad at all. There was also a scene in your video where the sun was setting, it too demonstrates the camera's low light abilities. Considering the price of this camera i'd say it's not too shabby.

@pitdaddy, i agree with Kayook... great news on the Wasabi batteries. Just too bad this camcorder uses twice the power of similar camcorders in its price range. I saw a comparison on youtube where they tested three brands (panasonic, wasabi and another brand) and although not on par with panasonic the wasabi battery performed very well. The other brand failed miserably. The reviewer pointed out the fact that if the batteries state of charge is not correctly identified by the camera and it shuts off abruptly, file corruption can occur -- thought this was interesting.

I decided to head out to my local camera shop today and compare a few of the cameras. I was looking at the Canon M52, Sony CRX580 and the V700. Very limited on what I could do in a brightly lit showroom along with not being able to view the recorded results on a high def tv. I knew the 43mm lens on the Canon would likely be an issue for me but seeing this first hand definitely confirmed my concern. The wide angle lens on the Sony was very close to the panasonic but the IS appeared to be better on the Panasonic (maybe I didn't have it setup properly on the Sony) and the small sensor size on the Sony (just about 1/4") concerns me a bit and it was $200 more to boot. I think you're paying for all the Bell and Whistle that Sony has included on this camcorder (e.g. wifi, backup to HHD, lots of manual settings, etc), although I would like to have 24p.

Not ready to pull the trigger yet but getting closer.

Glad I read this, I never would have thought about this. Any suggestions on a circular polarizer that might work?

This Panasonic 46mm one has received a few decent reviews, but the price is a tad high.
http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-DMW-...6779760&sr=8-1
I am assuming any 46mm circular polarizer made by Hoya/Tiffen should do well. I'm going to go look local this weekend for one.

BTW, that lens hood link from my earlier post steps it up to 58mm (not the rubber one).

My accessories bill is catching up to the camera price

Cool, thanks. I'll check it out. I probably don't want to spend that much on this, but at least it points me in the right direction. If I'm shooting a vacation where we'll be spending a lot of time in the car (filming out the window) and then fishing (filming the water) would it make sense to get a circular polarizer AND a UV haze filter? Or would the polarizer be good enough. Sorry - VERY new to camcorders and all the stuff I'm learning is starting to melt together a bit Thanks!

No apologies needed, I am new to these little camcorders too & am by no means an expert on current shooting equipment. I have been editing other people's footage for going on 15 years yet preferred still cameras on our own back country trips, mostly due to weight limitations in backpacking. With this camera I am changing my ways for good. Now I just have to figure out how many "accessories" for it I want to carry up the trail.

This summer will be a huge learning experience.

There are various filter kits that include the UV, CPL and a Fluorescent filter or sometimes an NDx8 filter.
Here's a 3-pack from Hoya for example.
http://www.amazon.com/Hoya-Digital-F...6782960&sr=8-3

Hmm, looks like I'll really have to start doing some more learning. I want to keep it as point and shoot as I possibly can, but if I can pick up a couple basic filters to really improve image quality, I'd be stupid not to.

Just got my camcorder this week! When I opened up the box and took it out, I was surprised at how small and light it was. It almost felt like a toy. When I added the battery, that added a bit more weight. But after reading all reviews and seeing some demo vids, I'm really happy that I bought it. Now I just have to find some good reasons/excuses to get out and use it! The main reason I bought it is our first baby due in November. But I look forward to getting plenty of practice in before hand. I'll pry buy one of those extended batteries off Amazon. I already got a Sandisk Extreme 64GB SDXC for $47 shipped!

One question, what do you all recommend for editing software on Windows PCs? I have been leaning toward the Sony Vegas Suite. Are they many complaints with this software? Any better similarly priced alternatives?
Thanks
Mike