My review is based on my experience with this AG-HMC40 camcorder, not necessarily a product review per se.
As a pro photographer I have a solid knowledge about stil cameras, exposure and techniques. When I made the purchase here on Amazon.com I knew I was about to step out of my comfort zone when going from my occasional video taping with SD to AVCHD HD. So, last week I purchased the AG-HMC40 along with a Rode Microphone. At first I was a bit overwhelmed when reading the owners manual but then opened up the included "HMC Book", a nice spiral wound book that explains in plain English what the functions do and how to do certain things, and found it answered a LOT of my questions.
I did some test videos, connected the HDMI to my Toshiba Regza 1080P TV and played them back. My test videos were in 720/60P and the video literally blew us away.
I tried to copy a couple clips onto my pc but didn't do it right so the video didn't play. I did a bit more reading and now got a workflow plan. Yeah, if your going HD this is a great unit but DO READ UP on it to decide if you are really ready to make the change! A couple SDHC high speed chips, A Blueray Burner, A BlueRay Player, more memory in the ole PC, an SCHC card reader and more is going to be needed just to get started.
I had an important photoshoot coming up where I hired to take photos of a celebrity event. I asked my wife to come along and video with the AG-HMC40 in full auto mode. Her training consisted of 15 minutes of me explaining how to put the camera on the tripod, connect up the Rode microphone, turn it on and off. Showed her the button to record/pause and zoom and that's about it. The results were astounding, I am pretty sure they will want the buy the video from me as well meaning it could possibly pay for itself on its first time out!
Had a couple other photogs there come by to check out the Panasonic. He had the Panasonic 700 which I thought was a great unit but he said it was nowhere near the 40 like what we were using.
Registration on the Panasonic website was kind of a pain but finally got that all done and then was able to download my user license to the included editing software.
So, I am currently in the process of uploading the video we took yesterday and plan to render it to standard definition so I can put in on a regular DVD. When I get the Blueray burner I will then burn it to the higher format.
If you are sure you want to go HD then this AG-HMC40 Camcorder is a must have.
