HMC151.. various questions.
 

Hey everyone, I have just purchased a brand new panasonic hmc151. This is my first solid state camera, after working with a long line of sony based miniDV camera's.
So finally scrummed the money together and went and brought my first HD camera.
I was recommended 151 from people i work with.
So i'm new to the layout and such of a panasonic camera.. but it tinkered about got to grips with it and just shot some test footage. Nothing special, it was over cast but i need to test it out at least.
To say the least the footage just seems overly grainy.
Now i could be completely wrong but the footage look compressed.
So would you guys be able to suggest anything to hopefully increase my knowledge and performance of this camera. Setting's or the way i'm logging.
I logging footage on FCP.
I felt some comfy with miniDV now i just feel like a complete amateur again and really worried about the quality.
I've googled about before i came to post here and i couldn't find anything about my issues.
Regards
Tom

the hmc 151 records at 24mb/s at its maximum "PH" mode so yes it is compressed
you'll notice things like a bit more grain when you go from an sd to and hd camcorder
you might take a look at barry greens book on the hmc