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When I first heard about the Panasonic AGHMC40, 1 was excited to see how it would compare with the AG-HMC 150, which is my primary camera. At a street price of $1,850-$1,995, how would the HMC40 match up with the HMC 150, which has a street price of $3,250?
The HMC40 (Figure 1) is a much smaller and lighter camera than the HMC 150, which makes the HMC40 an ideal camera to use with a Glidecam or Steadicam. The HMC40 uses 3.25" CMOS imagers, which Panasonic calls 3MOS. The 3MOS imager captures at a full-raster 1920x1080. It records to the AVCHD format with a maximum bitrate of 21Mbps. It records in 1080/6Oi, 30p, and 24p as well as 720/6Op, 3Op, and 24p. In addition to these video options, the HCM40 also shoots approximately 10.6-megapixel stills, all to a Class 4 or higher SDHC card. At the highest recording setting, a 16GB card will hold about 1.5 hours of footage.
As far as optics go, the HMC40 has a 12x Leica Dicomar lens with a 35mm equivalence of 40mm-490mm. Compared to the HMC150, the HMC40's lens is not as wide, but it will zoom in tighter.
The HMC40 can be configured in three different ways. Without the handle, the HMC40 resembles a larger Sony HVR-Al. In fact, the size of the HMC40 falls right between the Sony HVR-Al and the JVC GYHMlOO (Figure 2). When using the camera without the handle, it would be very easy to pass the HMC40 off as a consumer camera- that is, if you ever needed to shoot in an inconspicuous manner. A second way of configuring the camera is with the included top -mounted handle, which really gives it more of a pro feel.
A third configuration is to purchase the optional AG-MYA30G, which allows the use of dual XLR inputs along with a mie holder, which provides +48V phantom power, as well as mie level/line level controls. I see the AG-MYA30G XLR/mic holder adapter as a much better solution than adding one of the popular XLR boxes to the bottom of the camera. Not only does it greatly add to the audio capabilities, it also makes the camera look more professional. The street price of the AG-MYA30G is about...