The Official Panasonic HC-V700 Owners Thread - Page 7

Thanks guys. In reference to the filter question, that's exactly what i had heard and was afraid of. Really glad you guys understood my question, not all did. Do you still suggest a filter for outdoors and remove it for flash use? Thanks for the help.

It would be nice to see macro videos from this camera.
Thanks! :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ug5lKF-VlxA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzbXFArUx-I

Yes - I am a big fan of filters for protection, polarization and depth of field control - so I put more stuff on the front of my lens than most people. Because I use external lighting, I don't use the flash much, but when I do, I have take all of my filters off.


Cheers,

Bill

I'm looking at purchasing the HC-V700. Is it possible to plug in a portable hard drive directly to copy the contents of the SD Card when it is full. I'm wanting to take it on a trip to China but do not want to lug around a laptop just to do file transfers.

Thanks

There are machines that do that. An example: Wolverine. However, SD cards are cheap, stable and take up no room. I took pictures and HD video every day on a trip to Italy last year and only got two 32GB SD cards half full. You can reduce the unlikely risk of loss by using a lot of smaller SD cards. If one goes bad, it will be a fraction of the total project.

On the other hand, if every clip is truly priceless, you do need some sort of back up system.

Bill
Edited by bsprague - 7/25/12 at 6:09pm

Thanks Bill. What I was wondering is whether the camera will recognise an external hard drive connected directly into the USB port for file transfer. The Panasonic site indicates it's possible to connect directly from the camera to a DVD burner via USB cable but makes no mention of a hard drive.

Somehow the external drive needs power. I don't think generic external HDDs from WD or Seagate will work when plugged into the USB on the camcorder. Specialty products from Panasonic may be different. I think having enough SD cards is the best plan.

Bill

That was my dilemma earlier this month. I bought three 32gb cards for each place we visited and two 16gb cards for the journeys in between. Found a neat aluminum sd card holder to store all of them in. There was no 'internet' connection to speak of to transfer things to Youtube until we got back home. Fortunately I came home with a total of 60gb of videos to edit.

Just put my order in for the V700MK through Amazon...I was really, really wanting to pull the trigger on the HC-X900M, but for $500 more, I just cant justify it after watching some of the sample vids posted from the v700. I previously used Panny's PV-DV953 which is a mini-dv 3CCD camera and we loved it, just hate all the minidv tapes running around the house! I guess worse case I can ship it back if I'm not happy.

Oh and just want to add...I love Amazon Prime!

Panasonic documentation states Memory Card Compatability with Class 10, up to 23 MB/sec. Does this mean that there would be no benefit in purchasing more expensive Memory Cards that run at 45 MB/sec or 95 MB/s over the less expensive 30 MB/sec memory cards.

Don't get MB/sec mixed up with Mb/sec. One is bytes and the other is bits. A Class 10 card is capable of accepting data about three times faster than the camera can produce at the highest setting. There is no benefit in buying faster cards. In fact, I think the documentation says Class 6 is all that is needed. Somehow, Class 10 became more popular, more common and easier to buy.

I do enjoy testing any card and found a German program with an English option called "H2testw". Google for it. There are multiple places to get it. It's free. It was written by a German magazine to test storage devices. It can determine if there are errors on a SD card and how fast it is. In other words, you can verify your SD card is a good one before you trust it with precious video.

Bill

"I do enjoy testing any card and found a German program with an English option called "H2testw". Google for it. There are multiple places to get it. It's free. It was written by a German magazine to test storage devices. It can determine if there are errors on a SD card and how fast it is. In other words, you can verify your SD card is a good one before you trust it with precious video."

Good find. Thanks.

As was already stated, the V700 can't record any faster to the card than Class 4 write speeds (~4MB/s which is more than enough for the max bit-rate of 28Mb/s) but that's not to say there is no benefit in getting a Class 10 card. The write speed is only part of the equation, and since some manufacturer's take liberties with classifications, I'd suggest a Class 6 at a bare minimum. However, as I was saying, the write speed is not the only thing to be concerned with. The read speed is also very important if your transferring the files to your computer and some of the better Class 10 cards have read speeds up to 6+ times as fast as a Class 4 card.

What this means, is that it will take you much less time to transfer all your videos from the card to your NLE. For example, assume you have two 32GB cards that you filled with video, one being a Class 4 with a read speed of 8MB/s and another being a Class 10 with a read speed of 45MB/s. If you were to transfer the data from both cards to your computer, the time it would take to completely read the Class 4 would be ~65 minutes while the Class 10 would complete in ~10 minutes. Hope that helps.

Good points. I just bought another card for mine yesterday, and I always go back and forth between getting a class 6 and a class 10. I always seem to end up going 10 because the price difference never seems to be that much, and I'd rather have too much speed than not enough. I've never complained that a memory card was too fast.

So I got my new V700M and I'm pretty impressed so far with the video. I have plugged it up to my TV, directly via HDMI and the playback is beautiful. However, I guess there are issues with the AVCHD format and importing into video editing programs? When I input the video into iMovie (which apparently cant handle 60p - or at least it recognizes it but wont encode in it?) the playback seems jittery and not smooth at all. I've posted a video I made in 1080/60p then used an open-source app called "Media Converter" http://media-converter.sourceforge.net/ and the script "rewrap-avchd-mov-pcm.mcpreset" which I found this on the following discussion in the apple support forums - https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2380085?start=270&tstart=0
From there I uploaded it to youtube and here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLtfMkmeM7Y On my machine I'm noticing ghosting and it just doesnt seem smooth at all.

I was hoping you guys could correct my errant ways or maybe share your workflow and software options of getting movies off of the v700 and onto sites like youtube etc while retaining that beautiful picture quality. I've got access to both my macbook pro and a i5 quad core custom built pc, so I'm open to either PC or Mac software, just would be easier on my mac logistically (being portable)

Thanks!

I would suggest:

1. Use a PC, not a Mac. Apple is not as friendly as it should be to AVCHD and 60p.

2. As a start use the software that came with the camera - you can edit clips, combine clips, add transitions and make blurays or videos with minimal quality loss using 108060p. You do not need to convert the file to upload to Youtube; it just takes longer. Youtube converts whatever you send.

3. For a PC there are lots of software options that work with AVCHD 108060p files. But first see how you do with the free software.
Edited by markr041 - 7/30/12 at 11:31am

I'm assuming you are referring to HD Writer which came with the camera? It just seems lacking in features and not as polished. Can I use it to convert to an apple friendly format? Can you tell me specifically some options for PC software? I'm guessing Sony Vegas Pro would be one....any other recommendations?

I don't know Apple and have no reason to care what Apple wants for video.

"Not as polished" as what, an apple? Have you tried HD Writer? What is it lacking for you?

What features do you need? Without knowing that it is difficult to recommend editing software. I do use Sony Vegas Pro also. It handles 108060p files from the Panasonic camcorder natively and is full featured (even the nonpro version has a lot of features).

Ok, I understand you dont like Apple. HD Writer just seems very "clunky" for lack of a better term. I have used both Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas Pro for work on a limited scale, in addition to my home I typically use iMovie out of convience - as I said its easier for me to bring the laptop on family getaways/vacations. I have tried HD Writer, I'm actually giving it another go right now, but for instance I cant find slow motion anywhere...Also, I dont see very many effects other than fades and b/w. Is there a middle ground between Sony Vegas Pro and HD Writer?

It's not that I dislike Apple, it's that I dislike Apple not supporting the AVCHD standard (2.0), causing trouble for many users. And since I do not own any Apple computers (why should I?), I have not studied how to make things work for them.

Yes, a middle ground is Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11, which is less than $100 and works just like Vegas Pro. You can download a full-featured, no watermark free version that is good for 30 days to try out. You can certainly do slow-mo with that, and see if it has enough other features to suit you. HD Writer does have transitions I believe, but the Sony software has a lot more features, including audio.

Hi automag, glad you're enjoying the images from your new V700. It seems to me, depending on how much you want to spend, you have 3 main choices:

1. If you don't want to shell out any money, HD writer should work on your PC - as should Windows Movie Maker, which comes standard with Windows 7.

2. If you want to spend about $29, you can buy Aunsoft MTS Converter from the Mac Apps Store, convert your 1080/60p AVCHD files and edit in iMovie on your Mac.

3. If you don't mind spending about $60, you can buy Vegas (PC only) or Premiere Elements (Mac or PC) or any of a number of other prosumer editing programs.

Cheers,

Bill

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking to purchase a camcorder for my father's birthday and the HC-V700 looks like a great choice. However, one concern is the battery life: owners have said the included battery lasts less than one hour. I know he was hoping for something with 1.5 - 2 hours of battery life. Have people been able to achieve this with any aftermarket batteries?

Also, a friend recently recently raved to me about his new Canon M500 - I understand it is more expensive - but is the difference in cost justified over the HC-V700? I read in one other thread it has better low light performance and color accuracy... I'm having trouble deciding but have to make the purchase soon - any input would be much appreciated! Thanks

I used both and low light performance of M506 was a reason to keep the Canon over the Panasonic. If low light performance of V700 was better, I would definitely keep the V700, because of several reasons.

You have to decide what youre planning to film. I film a lot indoors like party's and my children so low light is very important.
I noticed some ghosting when moving camera in low light and the image becomes (don't know the exact word) smudged/blurred. Also color accuracy is not so good.

With enough light, the V700 is very very good at this price point, but I would spent the extra 50.- to buy the M506 if low light is important.


Update: did some more testing and I believe this camera has some serieus issues. When panning or moving fast, the image is blurred and not smooth at all. I've googled this issue and found more people noticed this. There's a review on Techradar where they noticed this too.
Edited by Garret14 - 8/6/12 at 3:11am

1080p60 is both a blessing and and curse. The files are so big that it works a computer hard. But HD Writer solves a lot of that. The mechanics are confusing, but it appears to use some extra information stored on specialized files created in your camera to glue clips together in ways where frame by frame rendering isn't done the "normal" way. So if you want fast performance with 1080p60 files, use it and live with the "creative" feature set limits.

Since you want both Apple and PC compatibility, try Adobe Premier. The pro version is expensive, but the "consumer" version is cheap. If you buy the boxed set of the cheaper Premier Elements 10, it comes with install disks for both Mac and PC. The license allows the serial number to be used twice. Put one copy on your Mac and one on your PC. (The computer needs an internet connection to install). The Apple and Windows versions are nearly identical, so you would easily use both. The PC version can be installed as 64 or 32 bit.

Premier Elements 10 works with 1080p60 files and gives you so many creative transitions, effects and controls that few will learn how to use all of them. Slow motion is easy and it allows interesting control of the audio when you slow down our speed up a clip. The down side is that when it comes time to render the final product, it can be slow.

Very good support for YouTube and Vimeo is built in as final rendering presets. So if you start with your 1080p60 clips, add the slow motion or other effects, it speeds the rendering time by creating video optimized for YouTube or Vimeo prior to uploading. You can, of course, upload 1080p60 to YouTube and let them process it, but you need a serious connection due to file size.

Bill
Edited by bsprague - 7/31/12 at 8:45am

The last 2 minutes of this video are all macro shots also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JRInOcaXrI

Adding to what was said about Premier Elements 10-

It is very easy to use and proxies clips so previewing is not choppy. (HD Writer and Sony Vegas Pro also do this.) If you don't like some of the presets selected for rendering you can modify them and make your own custom ones. I made several videos using Premier Elements and love it. The 'help' is user friendly and comes as a PDF file. Print what you need from the PDF and you'll be a expert with it in no time. The HD Writer software that comes with the camera isn't as 'user friendly' like Automag was saying.

Thanks everyone for the info you've given! After downloading some trials I think Premiere or Sony Vegas is exactly what I'm looking for

Now - I'm looking to add a mic and light via the cold shoe, does anyone have a pics / links to what they are currently using? I saw a few dual V brackets and they look huge! I also saw a dual L bracket type setup that attaches via the tripod mount, but I'm not sure how that would effect weight/balance of the camera.

Your handle suggests you work for an auto magazine or own a 928, but you have not said what you are going to use the camcorder for. Without knowing why you want a light or mic it is hard to suggest anything. So, my suggestion would be that you use the camera for awhile. Get used to it and what it will do. You might find that the built in mic is fine and you don't need additional light. The KIS (keep it simple) method often works the best.

Bill

Is this the same as the 700M? http://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-HCV700MK-Camcorder-Internal-Memory/dp/B0072B5DZC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343948214&sr=8-1&keywords=hcv700+panasonic

Why is there a K after the model number?