Panasonic readies five 3D camcorders

Just to be sure that nobody has any doubts about its commitment to 3D content creation, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Panasonic launched 12 new camcorders, five of which can capture stereoscopic images. Panasonic HDC-HS900 Panasonic's HDC-HS900 with optional 3D lens attachment At the top of the range the HDC-TM900 …

[Tom 52]

More change on the outside than the inside.

This HDC-TM900 does seems quite similar to the previous HDC-TM700 on the inside, but some improvements on the outside.

* Something that may not matter to everyone (but does to me), is that the DC power in socket that was oddly hidden behind the battery has been moved to where the record mode dial was in the TM700. So now both battery and power lead can be connected to the camcorder at the same time. Seems most people have missed pointing that out, including the Panasonic web site diagrams.

* The dial has moved up a little and is now a sliding switch.

* As said, the TM900 can take the 3D lens, but the TM700 apparently cannot.

* The LCD screen is now 3.5" instead of the TM700's 3"

* PC Editing software is HD Writer AE 3.0, instead of 2.1 that comes with the TM700. Surely they'd upgrade the software for the 2.1 users.

* On the inside however, there is a new Hybrid Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) instead of the TM700's Power OIS.

* Some other smaller camcorder software features included.

I'm just not sure if I'd go for the TM700, or wait maybe a month for the release of the TM900 and hope the price isn't too much, and that stock of the TM700 haven't finished. I really do like what Panasonic have done (apart from the odd placement of DC in on the TM700), having said that, there are a few more days of CES, so maybe something even better will come along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Would be good if they now allow don't require a fixed focus

In the previous model, you could not adjust the focus, so it only worked for one fixed point of focus with everything that was closer or further away being out of focus.

From the picture looks like they have not have addressed this.

Their previous response to this issue was "ok yeah, if you want one that does 3D with variable focussing properly then we have professional ones at Ten times price."