The TM300 and HS300 allotment the aforementioned higher-end appearance as the HS100--manual focus ring, EVF, accent shoe, and microphone input--while the HS250 trades those for a added bunched design. Both the HS250 and HS300 accept a 120GB adamantine disk. As the name indicates, the TM300 is akin to the HS300, but annal to SD cards or the congenital 32GB memory. They all accommodate the optical angel stabilization and Intelligent Automatic appearance of the beforehand versions.
Because of the altered media, the camcorders accept hardly altered designs, but the aforementioned affection sets and should accept identical video quality. (As such, for the purposes of this review, we ran our accepted video tests on alone the TM300.) The accomplished video affection they action is 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution at 30 frames per additional at 17 megabits per second, and can almanac about 8 account of video per gigabyte of accumulator space, or about 4 hours of video in the centralized memory. The abutting akin down, 13Mbps, gets about 10 account per gigabyte.
The three models absorb the aforementioned 12x zoom f1.8-2.8 lens--the aforementioned lens as the HS100/SD100--as able-bodied as the aforementioned leash of 1/4.1-inch 3-megapixel 3MOS sensors, with an able resolution of 2.07-megapixels anniversary for 16:9 video. The absolute 3-megapixels for the predownsampled AVCHD video assuredly break the resolution barrier; normally, 3-chip systems use lower-than-HD resolution sensors, which don't assume to aftermath awfully aciculate
Panasonic's leash of top-of-the-prosumer-line HD camcorders--the flash-based HDC-TM300, and hard-drive-based HDC-HS300 and HDC-HS250--in abounding means awfully advance over beforehand models like the HS100 and SD100. Panasonic jettisoned best of what I awful about those models, including the too-low-resolution CMOS sensors, adapter placement, and how the chiral controls function, and retained aggregate I liked, conspicuously the across of chiral controls and eye-level viewfinder, at atomic on the two highest-end models. While the aggregation replaced the awkward ring-based chiral operation with an appropriately awkward blow screen, the advance in video affection and achievement accomplish these a far added good bet.
Weighing aloof below than a pound, with ambit of 2.8 inches advanced by 2.8 inches aerial by 5.5 inches long, the TM300 is the lightest, admitting not the smallest, of the three and is beyond than competitors like the Canon Vixia HF S10. It's adequate to hold, abnormally with the slight advancement ambit against the aback that makes the zoom about-face and photo button easier to reach. The beforehand models had a toggle to about-face amid the LCD and EVF; with this one, you cull out the EVF to accredit it, which is a nicer and added commonsensical design.
In adverse to the beforehand models, alone the optical angel antithesis button lives central the LCD recess, and best of the controls accept been replaced by a amalgam button/touch-screen interface. Within the recess, below adamantine covers, are all but one connector--AV, basic video out, mini HDMI, and USB--and the SD agenda slot. (Panasonic recommends a Class 4 card.) In an absorbing architecture move, Panasonic added an accent shoe to the TM300, but put it in the ancillary rather than the top--a added applied area accustomed how far your duke covers the top. Mic and headphone jacks are on the advanced appropriate side, below the beam and adjoining to the shoe.
Under your appropriate deride lies a acceptable approach punch for allotment amid power, video and still recording, and playback. Above the LCD on the anatomy are the Intelligent Auto and 3-second prerecord button; on the LCD's bezel are zoom and almanac controls, a annul button, and Q(uick) Menu and Menu buttons. Through the Quick Menu you accept video quality, time lapse, account size, onscreen affectation options, LCD brightness, and guidelines. Via Menu you baddest options such as area to almanac (built-in anamnesis or SD card), accept from a scattering of arena modes, Digital Cinema (24p) mode, mic options (surround, zoom or focus; bass settings; and levels), and affectation options like Zebra and histogram. To the larboard of the lens are two buttons for invoking chiral controls. Pressing chiral focus switches the lens arena operation amid zooming and focusing. The Action button brings up three options on the blow screen: white balance, shutter, and iris.
Primary operation occurs through the touch-screen menus, which fly out from a small icon in the lower-left corner. In auto mode, there's spot AE and AF, backlight compensation, intelligent contrast, fade, soft skin mode, telemacro, and MagicPix night mode. In manual mode, you select via a scrolling menu on the left.
The annoying touch-screen interface holds back a solid prosumer HD camcorder that otherwise effectively competes with models like the Canon Vixia HF S10. If you don't need the EVF, accessory shoe, or mic input, and you don't do a lot of manual focusing, the HS250 is the best value of the lot, and you should probably save yourself the $300 or so price difference. Between the TM300 and HS300, I favor the TM300; it's cheaper and most people don't really need the overwhelming storage capacity on the HS300's hard drive.
At 2.7 inches, the LCD is a typical size for this class of camcorder; overall, it's fairly good. However, it's not very effective as a touch screen. There's visible feedback when you press one of the virtual buttons--it turns yellow--which helps when you're frustrated and pressing them repeatedly, attempting to get them to register your touch. I found the system in the HS100/SD100 awkward, but at least you could use it with the EVF. Since this model uses a touch screen, you can't change any of the manual settings while using it, which is a major drawback.
It performs relatively well, including booting quickly from a cold start. The EVF, while coarse and not particularly color accurate, is far better than nothing, which is what you get on most competitors. The zoom feels relatively precise and easy to control, and the camcorder focuses reasonably quickly in all but the lowest light. The audio sounds a tad thin, but acceptable. And Panasonic's optical stabilization works solidly out to the end of the zoom range.
The video quality is quite good, showing none of the artifacts that plagued the older models. Video looks sharp, though a tad softer than competing models from Canon and Sony, but color and exposure live up to what you'd expect for a camcorder in its price range. Low-light video looks a bit soft, though not nearly as soft as we've seen in previous models, and remains quite noise-free. The audio sounds the same, however, a bit thin but with adequate volume and microphone coverage. And while the stills look quite nice zoomed out and printed as large as 11 inches by 16 inches, you can see all the interpolation artifacts when viewed at 100 percent on screen--though Panasonic claims 10.6-megapixel resolution, the real resolution is only as high as any individual sensor.
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