I'm in love. No really! I have just had the new Panasonic HDC SD700 arrive and I am truly smitten. Here is everything a hi-def camcorder should be - and then some. In fact, I could only find one fault.

It seems that finally, a manufacturer has listened to not only us reviewers, but also its customers and actually made a camcorder WE want, not one that they reckon we need. As such, the  SD card based SD700 has the goods.

For example, it has a viewfinder in addition to the flip out LCD. As anyone who has tried to take footage outside on a bright sunny day will know, this is a major bonus! And the 3" LCD is a cracker too with controls on the bezel to activate tele/wide, record, the menu system, a quick menu and deletion buttons. It also has a row of icons across the top giving instant feedback of the camera's status including battery level, time left, the optical image stabiliser, shooting mode and wide angle degree currently being shot (the lens is a 35mm equivalent). There is an auto shooting mode that automatically switches the camera to the correct mode for the current environment as well as an auto contrast mode. Of course, everything manual is available at the press of a button right down to the combo focus/zoom ring at the front.

As I said, up here for thinkin'.

Speaking of the lens, it is, as would be expected from Leica (in my humble opinion they make the best), a ripper and has a clever self closing lens cover to protect it; you also get a small but effective screw on lens hood, but this sadly then precludes adding any filters etc unfortunately, something I think of as almost mandatory.

Adding to the lens quality is the one factor that sets most of Panasonic's camcorders aside from the rest in that there are 3CMOS. With these, you get the benefit of a whopping 14.2 megapixels in stills mode. Also in the "almost unique" category are sockets for both headphone AND external microphone, and a natty little add-on bracket affair to mount a hot-shoe on the barrel of the camera for a light. Tucked away under another flap in the body of the camera are ports for HDMI (cable supplied too!), Bluetooth and AVI multi-connector. The AV port is underneath the battery and this allows the battery to be charged in the cradle of the AC adaptor while you keep shooting.

Some other nice features include a three second buffer for continual recording thus minimising losing action due to sloppy reaction time to hit the record button, a new wind cancelling system that in testing was very effective (although a good dead wombat on a mic such as a Rode Videomic is still hard to beat) and a neat system allowing you to track the focus and exposure of a chosen item in the viewfinder - say a person, animal etc. The LCD also has an auto function to adjust the brightness according to the ambient light - very clever.

And this brings me neatly to the one fault in my opinion. The LCD screen is also a touch panel. I know this method has its fans, but as I have said a million times without exaggerating, why would you allow a primary viewing device to have fingerprints all over it. It's like driving with a filthy windscreen.

This is a cracker of a camera. It's not cheap at $2499 (for the SD card model), but it is not designed for the occasional weekend home movie maker, but aimed squarely at the serious hobbyist, film festival shooter or even as a backup/portable camera for the professional. It IS that good.

CONTACT: Panasonic Australia                                                   
ONLINE: www.panasonic.com.au
MARKET: Serious hobbyists, professionals
PRICE: $1499
PRO: Just go and buy it!
STARS: 9.5
CONS: Personal hate of touch screen technology

Addedum (added 12th March 2010)

The more upmarket version of the TM700 is the HDC-HK700, which is a hybrid camera, capable of recording to either its 240 GB HDD or SD/SDHD/SDXC cards from 32MB and upwards. Unlike the TM700, the HS700 has no internal memory but this is more than adequately replaced by its large hard disk. It has the same largish (for a consumer camcorder) CMOS sensors, optics and overall configuration. There is an insignificant difference in the weights, but not in the price with this leading model displaying an RRP of $2099.

 Frank McLeod had a play with camera and summarises his view as follows: "This is a truly delightful camera and would be great for the traveller given the amount of storage available. Of course, like all AVCHD cameras, make sure your computer can handle the load and check the system requirements before paying out your hard earned."

By David Hague

David Hague is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He now lives back in WA (Mandurah) on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety (he is on the Roadwise committee for Mandurah City Council), fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com, vbthedog@gmail.com via Twitter via @vbthedog. or