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Review John Kaponi
If like me you want to record every second of your child growing up then you will drawn like a magnet to the new pocket sized HD camera from Panasonic the HM-TA1, retailing in the shops at the moment from £85.
With the snow falling on the ground at the time I received the HM-TA1 I immediately put the camera to test with a short film I uploaded on YouTube (view in video section).
The camera was very easy to use, even my 5 year old was able to navigate around the controls and start filming. Maybe Panasonic inadvertently have started a revolution with the camera being so small and easy to use children from primary schools, who are "wannabe Spielbergs" could start using the HM-TAI to learn their "art"?
In terms of the technical issues I found a couple of relatively small problems, for example if like me you are Windows Movie Maker user, the MPEG-4 format the HD camera generates cannot be used, you are then left to use the editing package from Panasonic, unless you have a Mac and then its a totally different story.
The battery must be fully charged at all times, I found several times the battery would die on me if I did not go out on a full charge.
Ultimately would I buy one? Probably yes, its always handy have a HM-TA1 on you in case of something happening and you cannot get hold of your bulky SLR or video camera.
Panasonic have made sure the camera is web compliant with the camera able to be used as a web cam perfect for Skype, which allows users to make free video calls over the Internet. All you need is a high-performance CPU for video conferencing with your PC or Mac.
3/5 Very good
Technical details:
GENERAL
Power Supply (Battery / AC Adapter) DC4.2V / 5.0V
Power Consumption Max. 2.5W (Recording / Charging)
Weight (w/o Battery) approx. 93.0g
Dimension (W x H x D) 53.0 x 104.0 x 17.8 [mm]
Media SD/SDHC/SDXC Memory Card
Image Sensor 1/4.1-type MOS
Total Pixels 5.33 megapixels
Effective Pixels
Motion Image 2.93 megapixels [16:9] / 2.19 megapixels [4:3]
Still Image 2.93 megapixels [16:9] / 5.08 megapixels [4:3]
LENS SECTION
Focal Length 4.1mm
F Value F2.8
35mm Film camera Equivalent 49mm (16:9), 59mm (4:3) [Motion Image] / 49mm (16:9), 39mm (4:3) [Still Image]
CAMERA SECTION
Standard Illumination 1400 lx
Minimum Illumination 12 lx
Image Stabilizer E.I.S. [Electronic Image Stabilizer]
Focus Auto
White Balance Auto
Shutter Speed
Motion Image Auto(1/30-1/4000)
Still Image Auto(1/20-1/4000)
Zoom
Digital Zoom 4x
MONITOR
Monitor (LCD) 5.08cm (2.0") LCD ( 153,600 dots)
STILL IMAGE SECTION
Recording Format JPEG
Recording Image Size
Still Picture 2.1 megapixels (1920x1080) [16:9] / 8.0 megapixels (3264 x 2448), 1.9 megapixels (1600 x 1200), 0.3 megapixels (640 x 480) [4:3]RECORDING SECTION
Signal System 1080/30p, 720/30p, 540/30p, 480/30p
Compression (Recording Format) MP4 , iFrame / MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (MPEG-4 AVC file format compliant (.MP4))
Recording / Playback MODE
MP4 1920 x 1080 30p (12Mbps / VBR) / 1280 x 720 30p (9Mbps / VBR) / 640 x 480 30p (3Mbps / VBR) / iFrame 960 x 540 30p (24Mbps / VBR)
Audio Compression AAC (Monaural)
Microphone 1ch, Monaural
Speaker Dynamic type
Media Remaining Indication Yes
Continuous Recording Time MP4 : 29 minutes 59 seconds / iFrame : approx. 20 minutes
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