Panasonic announces new 3D-ready 1080p60 camcorders for 2011
 

For Journalists

The differences are minor, but from preliminary views of the photos, looks like they wised up and moved the DC IN jack from behind the battery to beside the mode switch.

Other differences include a "Crystal Engine PRO", which claims to produce less noise than previous models.

And 3.5'' LCDs on the HS900 and TM900 are a step up from the TM700 and HS700.

True, but the resolution is more important... Canon and Sony (only 50% of the pixels) have 960,000 dot LCD screens. I think 960,000 dot LCD screens are perfect to work with it, if you don't want to carry external monitors... so I find that aspect of the TM900 slightly disappointing.

So TM-700:
3.0 Wide LCD ( 230,400 dots)

TM-900
3.5 Wide LCD ( 460,800 dots)

So an improvement, but still lacking behind the competition. I recently bought a SD-700 (TM700 without on-board flash) and I don't see many big improvements over it. And it was very cheap (700 EURO).

Full 2011 Panasonic camcorder line-up:
Line-up Comparison | Camcorder / Digital Video Camera | Panasonic Global
(with specs)

I don't mind low pixel resolution, in fact, both my HDV camera's LCDs are in the 211K pixels range, so for me, it'll be an improvement.

1080p60 is now really taking off in the consumer market... It's too bad that AVC-Ultra for the professional market became vaporware. 200Mbps 1080p60 for the pro market would've been very appealing.

DC in on TM/HS 900 Series
 

Looking at pictures on the Panny global site, the SD800 has a cover indicating a much better location of the DC in jack (i.e. not behind the battery) but this cover is absent from the picture of the TM900. Maybe the DC in jack on the TM900 is like on the older TM700, still behind the battery?

Anyone know for sure about this subtle little change?

It does say near the "supposed" cover "DC IN" on the TM900 on press photos from a competitor site.

But until people get review units, it's not 100% certain.

Just an update that the amazon.uk site is now saying the TM900 will be released on 28th Jan, i.e. just over a week from now. I did n't check about the other new model variants but I imagine they will be equally close.

Just an update that the 28th Jan came and went and now the HDC-TM900 is showing "Temporarily Out of Stock" on amazonuk. Ah well, I can't say I'm surprised!

Also, I think I've figured out that the only model that DEFINITELY has the DC in jack NOT behind the battery is the HDC-SD800 (i.e. the one without a viewfinder). I don't know about the HDC-SD900 as there is no picture of that side of it on the Panasonic global site (yet). It's location on the HDC-TM900 is discussed above but it appears (to me) that the new models with viewfinders probably have the DC in jack behind the battery as before, which is obviously less convenient, as if you notice it getting low on power and need to switch to mains you'll need to turn it off first, you can't just hook it up to the mains and keep going.

You can't have everything!

The site that does have clear images of the DC IN location is a competitor site that I cannot link to or mention.

B&H says estimated arrival is March.

Edit: Amazon.com has the press images and one of them has a clear shot of the DC IN port.

Hopefully this link works: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._AA1500_.jpg

Just to say a well know uk on-line retailer has got a merchant with four TM900 in stock (for £950) so at last these new Panasonics are starting to become available.