Panasonic Test Center: May 2009

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Flip Alternatives?

Custom response to ladyleet on Seesmic based on her requirements.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

10 Cameras in 4 Minutes: Quick look at cameras that shoot HD

Canon S400 (not HD), Panasonic DMC-FX37, Sony Webbie MHS-PM1, Sony HD AVCHD, Flip mino (not HD), Flip mino HD (not shown, shoots 720P), Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1, Panasonic HDC-SD100, Kodak Zi6

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Jamaica Plain Boats (Handbrake Converted TS1 MTS file)

Video: Encoder: H.264 Bitrate: 1,500 (kbps)

Jamaica Pond Boats

Jamaica Pond Boats, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Taken with TS1

Friday, May 22, 2009

I Can't Open It: Stauffer's Animal Crackers from JetBlue

Shot with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX37

I Can't Close It: The Suitcase

Shot with Panasonic DMC-FX37

Panasonic DMC-FX37 vs. DMC-TS1

Panasonic DMC-FX37 vs. DMC-TS1, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Panasonic's design for the DMC-TS1 On/Off, Shutter, and Zoom controls is worse in every way than the On/Off, Shutter, and Zoom controls on the DMC-FX37.

On/Off
The TS1 is a push and hold switch while the FX37 was a simple slider.

Shutter
The TS1 shutter is a smaller rectangle button and shares space with the Zoom control. Too crowded. The FX37 is your standard circular shutter control.

Zoom
The TS1 Zoom is an awkward slider, the FX37 has a much easier to control switch.

One more thing, to start and stop movie recording on the TS1 you don't use the shutter. There's a small red push button on the back. Very awkward.

Panasonic Lumix TS1: Sample Video

The Panasonic Lumix TS1 records video in the AVCHD Lite format. This is a newer format that isn't supported by many video editing programs at this time. I tried a number of them including iMovie 09 and Roxio Creator 2009. I also tried converting the AVCHD Lite file with VoltaicHD. Nothing worked until I used Handbrake. So here's the unedited footage from the Panasonic Lumix TS1.

Belhaven Scottish Ale

Belhaven Scottish Ale, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS1 and uploaded directly from the camera to Flickr via Eye-Fi.

Unboxing: Panasonic Lumix TS1

The TS1 records video in the new AVCHD Lite format. Make sure your editing software supports this format. If you find that the AVCHD Lite format is incompatible with your editing software, you can use software like the VoltaicHD utility to convert your video files to a format that can be edited by your software.

At the date of this post, iMovie 09 is incompatible with AVCHD Lite.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

John Federico _Shift Happens.

John Federico _Shift Happens., originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

This was the first photo I sent over Eye-Fi from my Panasonic DMC FX37 over an open Wi-Fi connection.

Eagle in Window

Eagle in Window, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Panasonic DMC-G1 works great with the Eye-Fi.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

There's some interference from the card causing audio static while recording. Might be the card sending up a still frame of the first frame of the video while recording. Sending in a support request.

Also using the opportunnity to test out hte Xshot 2.0.

Eye-Fi responds:

Thank you for contacting Eye-Fi Customer Care. I understand that you are hearing background noise when shooting video with your Panasonic DMC-FX37.

We are presently aware of this issue and the Eye-Fi development team is investigating this unusual issue. Unfortunately, we do not have a solution at this time.

It appears that the auto-focusing mechanism vibrates causing a audible noise while the Eye-Fi Card has radio contact. You may actually be able to hear the noise when holding the camera inserted with a connected Eye-Fi Card.

At this time I would say it is best to limit the use of an Eye-Fi card with an DMC-FX37 to only shooting photos with the following caveat, photos taken in low light or slow shutter speeds may be blurry do to the vibration caused by the auto-focusing mechanism issue described earlier. Because of this we do not recommend using this camera with the Eye-Fi Card.

First Video Sent via Wi-Fi from Panasonic DMC-FX37 using Eye-Fi

First Video Sent via Wi-Fi from Panasonic DMC-FX37 using Eye-Fi
Originally uploaded by stevegarfield

This is very cool. I sent this video to Flickr over Wi-Fi using the Eye-Fi Explore Video 4GB SD card over my home Wi-Fi network directly from the Panasonic DMC-FX37 digital camera.

Eye-Fi responds:

Thank you for contacting Eye-Fi Customer Care. I understand that you are hearing background noise when shooting video with your Panasonic DMC-FX37.

We are presently aware of this issue and the Eye-Fi development team is investigating this unusual issue. Unfortunately, we do not have a solution at this time.

It appears that the auto-focusing mechanism vibrates causing a audible noise while the Eye-Fi Card has radio contact. You may actually be able to hear the noise when holding the camera inserted with a connected Eye-Fi Card.

At this time I would say it is best to limit the use of an Eye-Fi card with an DMC-FX37 to only shooting photos with the following caveat, photos taken in low light or slow shutter speeds may be blurry do to the vibration caused by the auto-focusing mechanism issue described earlier. Because of this we do not recommend using this camera with the Eye-Fi Card.

Panasonic DMC-FX37 and Flip mino HD

Panasonic DMC-FX37 and Flip mino HD, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

This photo clearly shows how the wide angle display on the Panasonic DMC-FX37 is far superior to the one on the Flip mino HD.

The videos come out better and you can see more clearly through the display while shooting and playing back.