Liking points: Tapeless recording, 5year Warranty

Like the camera very much, P2 is okay--I'd be more excited about it if it were much less expensive to use

MY / OUR COMMENTS IN RESPECT OF TECHNOLOGY P2 IS POSITIVE. WE ARE SATISFIED FROM THE CHOICE MADE. PANASONIC CONFIRMATION TODAY INTR TO BE LEADER WITH REGARD TO THE IMAGES ON ACQUISITION SOLID STATE. A NEGATIVE POINT IS THE ACTUAL COST OF CARDS COMPARED TO OTHER COMPETITORS

Absoulute convenience. It is so easy to shoot, transfer and reshoot. The convnience and quality are unsurpassed. At first the whole idea of using a "non-tape" based format brought fear. Now I can't believe I ever would resist it.Absolutely love P2!

(+) a good system of videorecording (-) high cost for P2 Cards (-) occured much time to run the software P2 Viewer when HD is full

Ability to shoot DVCPRO50 and change to 720 or 1080i Basicly able to film diferent formats.

Love our camera & P2 workflow. Happy to see some affordable P2 cards.

My HPX170 performs extremely well for our needs. I'm amazed at quality this camera yields in the field and studio. I don't have any negative comments to report.

The camera has been wonderful. It is my first P2 only camera and I couldn't be happier. With the release of the E series p2 cards, I can shoot everything in 1080 and not worry about running out of memory. Thanks for releasing the new E series cards.

I really like the HPX170. It's easy to shoot with and super easy to download clips from (not having to capture in real-time is wonderful). The various controls are easy to access, as are the menu functions. My only concern is the issue of archiving; not having a master version of the material (ie, a video tape, or in the case of a film camera, a negative) that can be stored. I realize that this is the trade-off with P2 cards, but, still, it makes me weary. Careful file management is obviously extremely important. Still, I shudder to think about what would happen if the hard drive goes down and there's no master tape I can return to.

I love my HPX171 and I love it uses CCD instead of CMOS. I love the intraframe compression and the 4:2:2 sampling but I simply hate the pixel shifting technology. I should like a little more definition

Positive: Great images, very easy to use and make the transition from the DVX100, no other system upgrade required to be able to use the P2 technology, all the shooting formats are supported natively on my Mac system, manual controls and modifiable images. Negative: A little heavier than I'm used to, more noise in the picture than I've seen from my DVX100 and the HD1080 image is a little soft.

I like it. Image is good. However the flap at the back of the camera covering the different connections, tends to get loose in the field.

Great Camera, Made me think ahead.

Nice and easy to work with, trouble free mechanical design, nearly perfect workflow depending on the pc work stations and editing programs

HPX170 is very clever in providing a pleasing picture with relatively few pixels. Design consistency between Panasonic cameras very helpful, especially between the DVX 100 series and the HPX170. But even the E-series card is far too expensive for what it does.

I love it! The flexibility of shooting formats and frame rates, the tapeless workflow, the ruggedness of the cards. The only thing I'd like to see done better is the speed of transfer when offloading, but I'm sure with time this will get much faster as well.

Great handling, controls nicely laid out. Could use higher resolution LCD--keep the firewire connection

+ amazing ergonomics, lightweight! + poor workflow in transferring cards to HD's!!! Provide us with a cheap alternative to the "Panasonic AJ-PCD20P"

Perfect camera. Would make improvments on the viewfinder/lcd screen. Better resolution etc…

I love my new camera its great to work with , very user friendly, easy to use quality of image is amazing compared to others. LOVE IT

I love the camera, but file distribution is still a bit of an issue. ie, I can't just give my client a tape at the end of the shoot and say bye bye.

We use HPX171 and P2 is awesom! Card and reader prices are only things to complain. File based workflow is giving us new oppurtunities, but its also making terabytes of files. Putting all together, we are glad that we choosed HPX171 instead HMC151.

Positive: Great quality, comfortable to use, light. Negative: A not available PAL format, P2 card is too expensive.

I am very happy with my ag hmc150. It is better than my expectation. The things will help my work are: 1.- 20x or more optical zoom. 2.- Posibility of use digital zoom. 3.- SDI in adition to HDMI output

I think it would be better to include the longer life battery in the package, even if it raises the cost. Most people will end up buying extra batteries (i did), but it would have been worth it to have the longer life battery included

**good picture***profesional handling

The camera is excellent. The quality of footage it produces exceeds expectations. The only thing that bothers me is the TC/RESET button. It doesn't seem to serve any real purpose. It would be nice if this button allowed me to reset my timecode, but it does nothing when I press it. In order to reset my TC, I have to got through the menu to do it. Its a pain, but I still do it.

I love the quality of the image it produces.

It just works well and looks great!

I really love the camera. The video I shot was crisp and clear even in low light conditions.

Makes great pictures in a lightweight easy to use camera package.

Great Camera, like the CCD so no rolling shutter, would like higer resolution Sensor.

Overall I'm very happy with the HMC-152.

this has been the best purchase (hmc-150 & hmc-40) of video equipment in all the years of my video production -since '94.

I only can use only 1 memory per time, will be great 2 memory slots.

1080p footage is so highly compressed as to be unusable. Lots of compression artifacts and noise! We're having to stick with 720p for a better picture.

I like the camera

A longer telephoto end of the zoom range would be great - say 20x. Startup time is a little slow for a tapeless camera. The larger 5400mAh battery should come as standard with the camera. Battery life is excellent!!!

I just finished my first shoot with the HMC-150, and I am very pleased with the picture quality. I would prefer that the metadata update and content viewing capabilities of the AVCCAM Viewer software are in separate applications.

Easy to use, great picture. Actually miss heavier camera for shoulder mount, easier to keep steady. Love the transfer and workflow.

I really love this camera so far. I would have like to have seen the full size battery included in the package as well as a memory card in the package. Even if it were a small SD card like a 4GB. Not a deal breaker, just a better overall experience.

good

Nice product, expensive battery, one memory slot.

I really love this camera. I let some of my other film friends borrow it at times and they love it as well. They think the picture quality is awesome and I may have influenced some to purchase the HMC 150.

Too expensive battery for AVCCAM

i can't take 3:4 format pictures, at SD quality, i can't change the objective, i think the 3D lenses will be nice to fit... but anything else it's beautiful, it's the camera of my dreams

Excellent quality product, would like to see 2 memory card capability and improved low light capability.

The camera overall is an upgrade from the DVX-100B I used prior to purchasing the HMC 150. The video quality is better but the demand on my PC has resulted in the need to purchase a new system from what I used with the DVX.

This is a great camera. I just purchased my 2nd HMC150! Thanks, Panasonic!

I feel that the camera is lacking a second SDHC card reader, like the P2 range has on their cameras (2 P2 card readers)

The camera is very easy to handle and its lightweight makes it easy to shoot without a tripod.

GOOD

Very pleased with the HMC-151. Video quality is good, and low light performance is adequate (good for the price). The controls all fall very naturally to hand. Given the price vs. features, it's hard to complain, but things which could be improved are obviously the sensor resolution which is less than 1080p, and therefore results in a slightly soft picture at full resolution. The lens is excellent, so no complaints on that front at all. The gain switch could be improved by offering all steps of gain on one switch, without having to resort to menus. The LCD screen is bright and clear, but could always do with a little higher resolution for easier focussing (even with assist). The plastic covers on the XLR inputs could also do with straps to keep them from getting lost. All minor things which don't take away from a great camera, but these would be good places to start for the next version of the camera.

I am very pleased with the camera. Recording to a memoy card is big plus.Picture quality is great. I shoot mostly outdoors and the automatic settings do well.The only negative thing I can say is I wish it had greater optical zoom power. I would like to buy a telephoto lens, but they are very expensive. Should you come out with a telephoto lens for this model, I would like to be be notified if possible. Thanks.

We are very pleased so far. We've had a little problem with some converted files used in SD format.

Positive: lightweight and simple to use with the card: Negative: Cannot see the clip number while in recording mode - also takes a long time to convert all data into workable data

At first I was a bit intimidated, but after a few interviews, I became very comfortable with the camera and trusted its ability to deliver.

The AVCCAM equipmen is perfect for my use, regarding, price-quality-handling

High Quality- Low Maintenance camera, Pop a card in and go!, Easy to review clips, Portability is key.

the sd card slot is a little awkward at times

Positives - great wide angle lens, love the on screen focus and zoom marks and focus assist. Nice wave form monitor. Negatives - audio monitoring is poor quality output to headphone jack - lots of hiss. AVCCAM viewer sometimes does not respond well

I like my new camera - it has not failed on me yet and the image quality is very nice. I can´t find any negative thing to say about it right now.

I think the camcorder is great. My first one had problems but Panasonic replaced it. So far that unit is working fine. The audio noise is a bit high (audio when no mic is plugged in) but I have adjusted to it.

Like the design of the camera--the layout and the way it handles when shooting hand held. Would like higher resolution flip out screen for more accurate focusing.

For its price range, it's awesome how much can be done with that camera, everyone is always amazed when I grab it and even more when they see the results.

I love the beautiful image quality from the HMC150 camera.

I am overwhelmed by the quality of the video it produces. A video camera with no moving parts other than the lens is a miracle to me.

I love how light it is. I like the color saturation. I wish the Iris and focus were separate rings.I would like over-crank option.

A terrific collection of features in a compact package: Great lens, fabulous format, decent ergonomics, etc. I just wish that the picture was a little less noisy when shooting in lower light. Also, that the AVCHD format was less demanding on computer resources when editing.

Auto setting very often is poor adjustment, i.e.over-under exposed,soft focus. Manual,when adjusted correctly is beautiful

HD made simple. My clients want a crisp look and this camera delivers it with out the expense of larger systems. Since we are all small businesses we all benefit.

HIgh quality Video, Tapeless has proven time saving and easier to manage. I would eventually like to see a camera of this size which has half inch Cmos chips and Accepts certain 35mm lens natively.

Great camera! Excellent pict. quality!

I have HMC-150 and I really like the quality of the video:sharp, precise, and warm. To adjust the white balance is so easy just a matter of pushing a button. Price/performance is excellent. It will even better if you can improve the ergonomic of this video camera.

This camera is awesome. Very light, long record times, great color replication, perfect external pro features, and affordable.

I use manual setup exclusively. Auto tends to over expose. I would have appreciated a larger capacity battery.

Positives: lightweight, professional approach and adjustments, diversity of formats possible, low light performance, common and cheap memory usage. Negatives: avchd format requires powerful editing computers, no native editing possible, expensive external microphone, focussing requires some practice. I already bumped into heavy compression errors filming in a club with strobe lights.

I like the machine completely, It is fully featured, light, sturdy and takes great video. The SD card media is awesome!

I like solid state recording to inexpensive, widely available media ("SDHC" cards). I would prefer higher bitrate, 4:2:2 color space recording.

AVCHD on SDHC cards is the #1 reason for this purchase. Professional control and professional look of this camera are also high points of this camera. Having several rcording/capture options sealed the deal for me. I do wish it had a better built in michrophone.

I find the camera to be very versatile and trouble free.

POSITIVE: The HMC150 is really come at hand by its features in a SDHC card. This surely revolution the way people can afford a HD Camera with all professional features of Panasonic HPX170 in a low cost card. NEGATIVE: I felt the automatic control is too quicky, I comparing with the DVX100 or HVX200. The SHOT MARK feature could be assign in CAMERA MODE, just marking the last clip recorded. Fell that the card door is a little weak, but I dont had any problens.

I love this camera, picture quality and ergonomics are excellent. One request I would have would be to be able to adjust the 'gearing' on the focus wheel. It would be nice to be able to pull focus with just a small movement as this would minimise camera shake.

I am very happy with the professional quality and confident this camera will not become obsolete for a very long time,

Perfect price, all important features, Cam is easy to use, the quality of pictures are great, the use of SD-Cards is the best solution Panasonic ever made for basic-broadcast cameras (better than the expensive P2s). The only problem is the extrem noisy internal microphone.

(positive) Small and lightweight package. Very long battery life. Convenient storage on SDHC cards (no mechanics). (negative) Picture quality coud be better (sharpness). AVCHD format not directly editable.

So far the camera is great. I've no complaints which means that you've done a great job in developing this camera.

Fast record start/stop - quick to begin recording upon SDHC card change. Incredibly efficient HD acquisition codec but too processor-intensive (so far) in post production.

Great picture quality. I love the camera. Professional cam -HD with sdhc...what more can I say?? Good price. The internal mic is not the best & I would have liked the mic adapter to have been included. The lighting I can deal with. Overall---It's a great camera. I needed a professional camera with HD & sdhc. This camera foots the bill at the right price!

Lacks low light performance. Light weight and great picture.

I really like the camera now that I'm used to it, but I don't like giving up the built in ND filter that I have with the 100A SD camera. In order to shoot in very bright sunlight, I have to add shutter speed. I'll probably buy a screw on ND filter, but that's not going to be convenient when going back and forth from inside to outside. I didn't pick up on this when I was shopping the camera, but I've learned to live with it.

I like the camera, but really...REALLY wish I could save scene files to the SD card. Is there any way to include that in a firmware update?

Great camera! Works well under all condtions! But was surprised that optional XLR microphone attachment arrived in so many small pieces, especially the little screws. The small spring to the main screw has already been lost, but it's not essential.

I continue to be impressed with the image quality and feature set of the Panasonic AG-HMC40 camera, especially for a camera in this price range. The 1080p24 and 720p60 modes add flexibility, the AVCHD (PH) recording offers good quality and the manual features and focus assist features add creative flexibility. The interval record feature is a plus. Most of my few negative experiences with the camera are ones that are to be expected with a camera in this price range; low light noise, limited accessories, etc. Two issues that I think could be addressed are the touch screen and the ND filter. I don't like touching the screen; an option to use buttons for the menus would be good. I don't like not having control over the ND filter; having an on/off button would be good. Overall, I really like this camera and would buy it again. In fact, I may buy a second one. I'd like to know what Panasonic recommends for adding a matte box and rails system to the camera.

I really like this Cam

The camera strap mount points are in awkward spots. I wish I had a lens cap that fit when the hood was off. I also wish I had a smaller eyepiece.

lovely equipment and will be buying more in the future

The HG-HMC40 Is a fantastic camera, quality image, lightweight feels PRO. Thankyou Panasonic, from now on my video cameras will be Panasonic

To me the big downside is the amount of configuration available on buttons vs. the menu as well as the smaller chip size. But for the price, it is an excellent camera.

Would prefer a wider lens with a closer MOD

Overall excellent product, would like to see better low light capability.

The product in elegant, professional, and very very good.

I would prefer shorter range on Zoom in exchange for wider view. For example, a 24mm wide angle (35mm equivalent) with only 6x zoom would be preferrable to the current configuration. I use Panasonic Wide Angle and Telephoto lenses, but would prefer to use only Telephoto. Also, best to have front threads on extra lenses to facilitate attaching lens hood/filters.

liking point - weight

We are very happy with our P2HD gear. Love the ease of popping the card from the camera, slapping it into the editor and easily accessing files.