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Panasonic HDC-TM700

Panasonic HDC-TM700
  • Manufacturer: Panasonic (www.panasonic.co.uk)
  • Manufacturer: Panasonic (www.panasonic.co.uk)
  • Pros: Superb HD picture quality, especially at highest 1080/50p setting; SDXC card slot; ultra wide-angle lens; good range of manual features
  • Cons: 32GB of built-in memory seems miserly compared to others; 1080/50p content can be tricky for iMovie to handle; side-mounted mini accessory shoe
  • Price: £998.99
  • Star rating: 5 Editors Choice

Put the HDC-TM700 side by side with its HDC-HS700 sibling and you’d be hard pushed to tell the difference between the two. Both camcorders are finished in fetching gunmetal grey, both have a 3in LCD touch-screen, f1.5-f2.8 lens with a focal length of 35-420mm for video (35mm equivalent) and a 12x optical zoom. Both also offer 1080/50p recording at 28Mbps.

Look closer, however, and you’ll notice that the TM700 doesn’t have the same bulky black bulge to its side and top – chiefly because it eschews its sibling’s 240GB hard disk in favour of 32GB of flash memory, supplemented by an SDXC card slot. The top-mounted cold accessory shoe of the HS700 has been replaced by a mini cold shoe on the TM700’s side.

That looks disappointing when you compare it to the two Canon Legrias, the JVC Everio and Sony Handycam, which all pack in 64GB apiece. However, despite the TM700 being the cheapest camcorder in this test, nearly all of its many virtues remain intact: from the lens ring manual control dial to its touch-screen interface and Intelligent Auto mode with face detection.

In the hand, the TM700 feels slightly less weighty than the HS700, and all the major controls fall easily under your thumb. We like the fact that it retains the HS700’s electronic viewfinder for accurate framing of shots. The only slight bugbear we have with the TM700 (one it shares with the HS700) is its narrow handstrap, which feels positively utilitarian compared to its rivals and could prove wearing after use in extended video shoots.

In use, the TM700’s picture and sound quality is of an excellent standard, the same as the HS700. Virtually everything we pointed the camcorder at looked gorgeous when played back on a high-definition television, especially when using the 1080/50p shooting mode. Panasonic’s proprietary Intelligent Auto technology also made light work of focusing, colour and lighting adjustments, although like all consumer camcorders on the market, the TM700 has a tendency to blow out highlights.

This product is part of our HD camcorders group test group product review. Other products in this group are:

 

Canon Legria HF M32

  • Star rating: 3

 

Canon Legria HF S21

  • Star rating: 4

 

JVC Everio GZ-HM1

  • Star rating: 4

 

Panasonic HDC-HS700

  • Star rating: 4

 

Sony HDR-CX550V

  • Star rating: 3

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