First review of the AG-HMR10 and the AG-HCK10G

[Julie Steele]

Hello All.... This is my first post to this forum and I thought this insight would be helpful to all the readers here.

 

I have been following and waiting for the AG-HMR10 and the AG-HCK10G from Panasonic to hit stores, and it did just this past week!

 

When I arrived at one of the first stores to have the camera in stock (Birns and Sawyer in Hollywood), I had anticipated getting a run-down on the system from a meeting I had set up with Doug Leighton Sales Account Manager from Panasonic and Pete Anway Head of Sales at Birns and Sawyer.

 

Doug and Pete both attempted to explain how to use all the features and answer all my questions about the system, but they both admitted they hadn't had a chance to play around with it yet or really read up on the manual since it was so brand new.

 

I have never bought anything that I couldn't get my questions answered on a forum like this one and no one in the country even owned this camera system yet! There would be no one on the forums to answer my questions or discuss experiences with.... I would be one of the lucky firsts and I felt that it was my duty to share my experience. :)

 

MY REVIEW

Pro's:

Overall it's fantastic! Amazing pro features, display and intuitive menu. It uses an SD card for recording versus a proprietary technology. But, the real innovative part and what I like most about this system is:

1. How compact and light it is.
   
2. The size of the camera allows me to shoot in ways and angles that I couldn't do with any other camera.
   
3. The menu, LCD, and recording device is seperate from the camera, which is truly ingenious!
   

Con's:

The Camera does not come with a camera cable. And the camera, recorder, and cable all come separately and there is no packaged price.

 

Important Notes:

1. The manual is only 10 pages and keeps referring to a .pdf that they give no real direction on how to find. You can find this .pdf manual on the enclosed cd-rom.

2. If using an apple computer there is no way to read the file formats stored on the SD card without at least finalcut 6, but more likely finalcut 7. I had final cut studio 5 and would have liked to know that I would not be able to edit anything on my system without having to upgrade first. If there is another way to read these SD card files on a mac, I couldn't find it on Panasonic's website.

 

Summation:

This is a great system, It's going to be perfect for my project. My recommendation to Pro camera stores is to order an ample supply of this system, because these will be flying off shelves as soon as mine and other rave reviews start hitting the internet.