The Pananasonic TM-700 HD Video camera is an awesome camera. detail and quality of the video is very good. Low light situations are handled perfectly even in the regular AUTO setting. The 5.1 surround sound mic is a fun asset to have.. also if you will play this video through surround sound system.
One of the best features is the wide angle zoom lens. It has a 35mm (equivalent) angle of view when set to its widest setting. The lens will zoom out to 12X, or you can set it to zoom to 18X with no loss of quality.
The TM700 has two view finders. On a bright sunny day, you might want to use the eyepiece view finder instead of the LCD screen. Now you got a choice to choose. Many manufactures are leaving the eyepiece viewfinder off camcorders these days. This is a very nice plus, considering the camera sells for less than $1,000.
Panasonic hdc tm700 is also sticking with its 3MOS system, and each of the three CMOS sensors remains 1/4in in size with a gross 3.05-megapixels apiece. However, a smidgen more interpolation boosts still image resolution to 14.2-megapixels, up from the 10.6-megapixels offered by the previous generation.
The HDC-TM700’s sister-model, the HDC-HS700, should have similar performance to the TM700, as the main differences between the two camcorders are price, size, and storage media. The HDC-HS700 retails for $1399 and records to a huge, 240GB internal hard drive (as well as having a memory card slot).
The 35mm wide-angle lens on the HDC-TM700 fits more people and more of the background into the frame than a conventional 44.9mm lens. This is especially handy when you want to take a group photo in a small room.
*35mm-lens equivalent
On paper, Panasonic didn’t disappoint by including Intelligent Resolution technology (digital zoom with optical zoom quality), facial recognition, 35mm wide-angle Leica lens, 3-inch LCD screen, and 1080p at 60 frames per second (fps) recording mode.