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Panasonic HDC-TM700K Hi-Def Camcorder with Pro Control System & 32GB Flash (Black
Rating: 2 out of 5
Currently 2.0/5.0
We ended up returning this camcorder less than a month after we got it.
I hadn't wanted to spend $1000 on a camcorder to begin with, when our old one had been about $400 two years ago, but my husband really wanted this one because of the HD and all of the claims about picture quality and the big memory. The salesman was very good. I agreed to the purchase because we do take tons of video of our kids and we want them to be the highest quality possible. Plus, my husband just really enjoys video and photography.
However, we had issues with this camcorder right away. The first issue was that you can hear the fan on your videos, unless you use a separate, freestanding microphone or are taping something fairly noisy, like a kid's birthday party or something. It's not a loud noise, it's similar to the sound a an old cassette player would make. However, when you're paying for what you hope will be very high-quality video, you don't want this annoying background noise. It wasn't loud, as I said, but it was noticeable and detracted from the videos.
Another big issue was how complicated it was to use. Not only are the settings and controls difficult, awkward and confusing, but the software was very hard to work with. I'm not a very technical person and I don't do well with gadgets, so my difficulty with this camcorder wouldn't necessarily reflect on the machine itself. However, my husband is a gadget nut and much more adept at video and photography, though not a professional, and he was irritated and frustrated by the complicated software and editing features. It really detracted from the pleasure of having the videos themselves, and made us hesitant to start editing or working with whatever we had filmed. After less than a month, we took it back and bought another HD camcorder that was less money and a lot less frustration.
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