The Panasonic HDC-TM300 is one of the best offerings Panasonic has for camcorders. It uses a flash memory and it along with model HDC-HS300 won the CamcorderInfo.com’s camcorder of the year award for 2009. The TM300 is easy to use and offers excellent performance features, good design and numerous manual controls making it about the best on the market. The price is a bit steep at $1299, but if you’re a serious camcorder user, it is one of the best for the money.
Features are relatively easy to use and Panasonic has always incorporated more manual controls into their designs. Because of not putting a large internal drive in the TM300, holding it is easier as it seems to fit the hand better. The manual controls offered include shutter speed, aperture, gain, white balance, and focus. The TM300 also has a feature called Intelligent Auto that makes operations of the camcorder much easier for the beginner especially with the inclusion of a touch screen utilizing much of the features availability on the screen. The Intelligent Auto feature allows the user to track their subject on the screen and the camcorder automatically makes adjustments to the exposure and focus settings.
The HDC-TM300 has a feature using a manual lens ring that adjusts a number of controls. If there is a disappointment with this camcorder it would be the use of these rings. The LCD screen must be closed and the viewfinder must be used to adjust all other controls besides focus and zoom and they’re not quite as smooth as some other camcorder models. Panasonic’s choice to limit the functionality of the lens ring is questionable, but they still are pretty impressive for what they do offer.
When compared with other camcorders, the Panasonic HDC-TM300 is one of the best HD camcorders on the market. It didn’t rate first in every category but the numbers were very good and whatever weaknesses it had were very minor. One of the major attractions to purchasing the TM300 is the sleek looking design and the ease in use of handling the camcorder. Without worrying about the mechanics of working with the camcorder, this allows the user to spend more time and focus capturing the images the camcorder was designed to do. For ease of use, high technical features with good functioning controls, the Panasonic HDC-TM300 is a very good buy for the camcorder aficionado regardless of the high price tag.