Well I have had the camera for a few days over the weekend now and have had a read of the basic functions of the camera in the manual and it seems very easy to get your head around. I've had a few practices at taking videos and testing functions as I've been reading and it's great!
Today I took the camera to the swimming centre (very nervously) to get some underwater footage of the kids at their swimming lessons. Even after reading the instructions and knowing that the camera is waterproof I still found myself checking and re-checking every hatch and lock to make sure I had everything locked up tight. I organised for one of the instructors to take the camera in the water and she looked at me in shocked disbelief, she said she felt very strange putting the camera underwater and that it felt very natural. I tried to look confident and reassure her that it was fine (but had my fingers crossed behind my back). Fortunately I had done everything I should have done because the camera performed exactly as expected! I would have liked a slightly different perspective but the sound and vision came out so much better than I thought it could. It was great to know that all I had to do at the end of using the camera underwater was to give it a rinse under the tap and wait for it to dry.
I have uploaded a couple of the videos that were taken onto Facebook and they are below, I did it the old fashioned way manually as I still haven't got to the section in the manual about the one click uploading. I have found the function within the camera but still have to investigate how to set it up. Next video I will do the uploading that way.
I am still very satisfied with the camera overall and what I have achieved so far. I am getting to used to the slightly less sensitive touchscreen and find the mini stylus very useful as well, the screen responds better to that than my finger so far. It feels strange to hold the camera vertical instead of horizontal and get landscape, I'm used to my iPhone which shows the image sideways if you forget to flip the phone on it's side. Being able to hold the camera vertical helps to keep it steadier and is definitely a more comfortable way to use it.
I must also add that I went out and purchased an 8gb HD SD card and now have plenty of space to store all my photos and videos!
This week I will be trying to test out the different image settings and video settings to see how they compare to each other and play some videos through our big TV to see what they look like on a larger screen than my laptop.
So take a look at my videos below and feel free to comment!
Panasonic HM-TA20 HD Mobile Camera
Monday, October 17, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
We get introduced to the new camera
I've been very lucky to be one of a few people who get to trial and review a Panasonic HM-TA20 HD mobile camera courtesy of 'Soup' and the 'Panasonic Insider Crew'. Here is the offical web page from Panasonic:
I only received the camera by courier today so I have opened the box and had a look before connecting it via USB to my laptop to be charged up. I'm impressed at first glance by the styling of the camera and the vivid electric blue colour. There are a number of buttons and covers around the edges and it took me a bit to figure out how to open the USB cover (I'm notorious for trying to figure stuff out without the use of the manual) but ended up looking it up. There are locks to stop accidental opening of the covers (the camera is safe to use underwater) and the USB port has a button which pops it out to be connected. When I first tried to connect the cable I found it a bit tight (probably because it was new) and was a bit nervous as I didn't want to push to hard and break something off before I even got to use it!
After leaving it to charge I then turned it on and had a bit of a look around and set up the date and time. The touch screen is a bit less sensitive than my iphone screen and that is probably because it is waterproof. It was still easy enough to get it to respond though. The onscreen menu is very simple with only a a few things available to change. This is fine as it is point and shoot. I figured out how to change the date / time settings without the use of the manual and everything else seemed self explanatory!
It doesn't come with an SD card and the internal memory is limited to 10Mb so I didn't try using the video mode until I sort out a card to use. I did take some photos though on the 2Mb (1600 x 1200) mode and that fit about 12 photos before being told memory was full.
I wandered around my garden and took a few shots of some of my plants. Below are four which I wanted to share
I will continue to take photos and videos in different situations as often as I can and give a running commentary of what I think of the camera as I go. I will also share it with my two children who are 5 and 4 and see what they can do with it!
After leaving it to charge I then turned it on and had a bit of a look around and set up the date and time. The touch screen is a bit less sensitive than my iphone screen and that is probably because it is waterproof. It was still easy enough to get it to respond though. The onscreen menu is very simple with only a a few things available to change. This is fine as it is point and shoot. I figured out how to change the date / time settings without the use of the manual and everything else seemed self explanatory!
It doesn't come with an SD card and the internal memory is limited to 10Mb so I didn't try using the video mode until I sort out a card to use. I did take some photos though on the 2Mb (1600 x 1200) mode and that fit about 12 photos before being told memory was full.
I wandered around my garden and took a few shots of some of my plants. Below are four which I wanted to share
I will continue to take photos and videos in different situations as often as I can and give a running commentary of what I think of the camera as I go. I will also share it with my two children who are 5 and 4 and see what they can do with it!
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