Panasonic's AG-HMC40 does 1080p24 on something of a budget
By Tim Stevens 
posted April 20th 2009 9:43AM
posted April 20th 2009 9:43AM
posted April 20th 2009 9:43AM
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This is actually a really good budget option. Most people pay upwards of $8,00 for the same thing. You can't go wrong buying this.
this does look pretty fancy, if I do say so myself.
Its actually not the same thing The piece glass of this camera is shit. It's got some great feature but dont fool yourself into thinking you could replace an XDcam with this.
meh, I'm gonna have to completely disagree. If you are serious about your videos, which I imagine anyone interested in this camera would be, the PMW series by Sony is the obvious choice. The PMW-EX1 has been around for quite some time now and is currently available for just over $5000. The massive 3.5" CMOS chip on that baby will shoot higher quality picture with richer color than this relative POS will ever shoot.
I think the more important idea that I'm getting at is that at this end of the scale, the resolution and frame rate has no relevance, and you should be focusing on the quality of sensors and lenses used. There is no indication as to the quality of the lens here, but on the PMW-EX1, they use a top-notch Fujinon Professional lens...
Very true andrew9223, there's a reason that the price is about 1/2 that of an EX1, but I'd still be very interested in seeing what the footage from this camera looks like in Aug.
The EX1 has three 1/2" sensors. I have no idea where you got 3.5". Perhaps 3 .5" sensors is what you meant...
yeah, 3 .5" censors, but everyone got the idea...
It looks to be a good medium-budget buy indeed! There is definitely a gap between most consumer and professional HD Cameras.
Now cameras can have big bezels too.
now what's that bezel for?
I'll be using panasonic's later this year, but on the p2 system. Now, if I had this, there'd be no need to get a computer with PCMCIA. Although I think there might be other reasons my macbook might not cut it when I start working in HD.
Seems like a good competitor to the XH-A1 (currently $3000 at B&H), something Panasonic was lacking. The 60p is a nice feature for slow motion and along with the SDHC card give the Canon stiff competition. Too bad they had to go with AVCHD which doesn't match Canon's HDV. The XH-A1 also looks significantly more impressive (important for filming weddings and such). More options are always better.
That is a phenomenal price for an hd cam for low/no budget films..... For roughly 10k you can get pretty much the whole rolling gear for a shoot and actually not have a single item be rented.......
While thats definitely a really good price, I'd like to see the quality.
$3,195 for this piece of poo?
You can get the HMC150 for $3,199.95 at B&H right now.
Who in their right mind would pick the HMC40 over the HMC150 at the same price?
The imagers in this camera are too small, and the optics are questionable.
The HMC40 would be a viable alternative if it only cost around $1,999. Even then it's still risky.
It should also be mentioned that the new Panasonic GH1 that's coming out will probably shoot better video than either the HMC150 or HMC40, and cost half the price of either.
WTH is Panasonic thinking?
How did they become so out of touch?
....Waiting for RED's Scarlet.
trolls...
$3,195 MSRP. HMC150's MSRP is $3,999. So street price for HMC40 probably around $2600-2800. CMOS sensors should be interesting and we'll probably be seeing footage shortly. Don't forget that everyone slammed the HMC150's choice for AVC until they saw the footage and were blown away. Big thing to worry about here is wobble/skew/flash, though Panasonic did just release a new firmware to reduce flash problems. What I find amazing is the 2.2 lb aspect. That weight might allow a light DOF adapter on this to be flown sans vest.
will this fold up. can I put this in my pocket ?
You can buy an HMC150 for that at B/H. this camera really needs to be $1500 to put up any competition at all.
very nice, but have no need for this, id just go with a consumer camcorder of course flash! Wait till those 64GB cards come out later this year, then the HDD cameras will be extinct, lol, well almost, till the 128cards come out, what da fuck ever im done
tightens rope around neck
Ah, nice. I'll take the 5D Mk II then.Sure, not as easy to use, but why should one get this over a 5D Mk II or even a D5000, GH1, etc.?
Things like this make me glad to be a film student =D
Got the HMC151 and the footage beats XH-A1any day;) AVCHD runs smoothly in Final Cut Pro via Log and transfer. HMC40 fights JVC HM100. They offer a small form factor, not the best footage for the buck...
they say a second xlr input is optional on this thing, which is disappointing (because no doubt Panasonic will ask a lot).
Kind of janky-looking buttons for a $3200 camcorder.
The 3 CMOS sensors for the HMC40 are 1/4". The 3 CCD sensors for the HMC150 are 1/3".