Panasonic HDC-TM300

Color (9.54)

The Panasonic HDC-TM300 proved to have excellent color performance in our bright light testing. This comes as no surprise, since its hard drive equivalent, the HDC-HS300 also performed very well. The TM300 recorded a color error of just 3.67 and a saturation level of 96.2%. These are certainly among the best scores we’ve recorded so far this year, matching the results of the top-tier models from Canon and Sanyo. The color performance of the TM300 was better than that of Sony and Samsung camcorders this year. Only the surprising JVC GZ-HM200 had significantly superior color accuracy. More on how we test color.

Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 produced a color error of 3.67 and a saturation level of 96.2% in our bright light color testing.

In the color error map above, you can see that the the TM300 struggled most in the brown and red tones, while doing an excellent job of reproducing all the other colors. The high saturation level already produces strong, deep colors, but the camcorder does offer an option to adjust color gain on a scale from -5 to +5. The crops below demonstrate the saturation range available using this tool.

Panasonic HDC-TM300 Color Modes
Auto 100% Crop
Color -5 100% Crop Color +5 100% Crop Soft Skin 100% Crop More...

Though there aren’t very many increments on Color Depth feature, you can see that ratching to -5 or +5 does actually produce a significant different in the recorded saturation. This is a nice option to have on a consumer camcorder if you have an aesthetic preference that isn’t easily reproduced with post-production editing software. The few camcorders that offer a similar option—such as the Canon HF S100—are often even more limited in their number of increments.

Panasonic HDC-TM300 Color Comparisons
Panasonic HDC-TM300
Canon Vixia HF S100 Sony HDR-TG5V JVC Everio GZ-X900 More...

For comparison, we selected the Canon HF S100 (which many people may be weighing up against the TM300) and two less traditional consumer camcorders new to the market this year. The Sony HDR-TG5V did an excellent job of reproducing the saturation of our Chroma DuMonde chart, but it struggled in accurately portraying greens and pinks. The JVC Everio GZ-X900 did quite a bit better with color accuracy—matching the TM300 easily—but the colors were far less saturated than what we are accustomed to seeing in high-end consumer camcorders. As for the Canon HF S100, the two camcorders had very similar color performance, with the showing slightly more accuracy and slightly less saturation.

Close-Up Color Comparisons				Expand
	Ideal	Panasonic HDC-TM300	Canon Vixia HF S100	Sony HDR-TG5V	JVC Everio GZ-X900
Red
Green
Blue
Light Skin
Dark Skin

All of this year’s top models from the major manufacturers are boasting excellent color performance in bright light. That makes the TM300 more of the rule than an exception in this category. Rest assured that if you spend $800 or more on a 2009 camcorder, the colors in bright lighting conditions will be accurate and vivid.

Low Light Color (7.44)

Color performance in low light isn’t expected to match the accuracy and saturation that a camcorder achieves in bright light. The TM300, however, did surprisingly well in our tests at 60 lux. The colors are nearly as accurate as they were in bright light, with a color error of just 4.90. Saturation was more heavily impacted by the diminished light, registering just 65.09% in Imatest. More on how we test low light color.

Low Light Color Accuracy Performance
	Color Error Map
	The map on the left is a diagram of the color error. The length and direction of each line indicates how the camera processed each particular color while capturing video. The Panasonic HDC-TM300 produced a color error of and a saturation level of in our bright light color testing.

As you can see in the color error map above, greens and pinks are still the most heavily skewed tones, as was the case in our bright light color testing. At 60 lux, however, blues were also not as accurately portrayed.

The impressive sensitivity performance of the TM300 obviously impacts the camcorder’s color performance in low light. The footage is not only brighter overall, but it has more vivid colors. When compared to the other models above, this gives the TM300 superior low light images. The HF S100 and TG5 do fine, but they are both darker and colors are more washed out. The JVC GZ-X900, which had terrible sensitivity, produced very dark, muted colors. Based solely on the reproduced Chroma Du Monde charts above, there’s no question which is the best camcorder for low light color performance.

Though not included in this batch, there have been some other camcorders this year that produced comparable colors in the low light testing. The Sanyo VPC-HD2000, in particular, had phenomenal color performance at 60 lux.

Noise (10.37)

Panasonic camcorders are doing very well this year in terms of producing clear, low-noise footage in bright light. The TM300, like its HS300 hard-drive counterpart, beats out the vast majority of the competition in terms of clarity in bright light. The camcorder averaged 0.55% noise: not quite as good as the scores of the Sony HDR-XR520V or the Sony HDR-TG5V, but better than the Canon HF S100, the Sanyo VPC-HD2000, and several other 2009 camcorders. More on how we test noise.

Panasonic HDC-TM300 Noise Comparisons
Panasonic HDC-TM300 100% Crop	Canon Vixia HF S100 100% Crop Sony HDR-TG5V 100% Crop JVC Everio GZ-X900 100% Crop More...

As you can see from the crops above, most high-end consumer camcorders today do an excellent job of filtering out the noise in bright lighting conditions. In fact, even at a 100% crop, it can be hard to see the noise detected by our software analysis. Of the camcorders selected for comparison, the HF S100 has the most noise, while the others have similarly low noise levels.