| There
have been some problems with the Panasonic 100A
and time code continuity on the tapes. It does
not seem to work as well as the Sony camcorder.
Since I had some time on a flight from Toronto
to the UK, I tested the various situations. After
recording, I would use camera playback to test
time code continuity, because you can view frame
by frame. While this might not be the same as a
deck, whenever the code worked, the playback showed
that the numbers were consecutive, so I thought
it must be OK to evaluate the results on camera
playback on my test.
There are two time code settings. In PRESET,
you can set the numbers, which is necessary
when putting a new hour code on each tape.
In my experience with the Sony PD150, PRESET
works fine and if you replay a previously recorded
tape, playback and pause will pick up on the
time code (certainly this does not work on
the Panasonic). The other choice is REGEN.
This setting allows regeneration of an existing
time code on a tape - but you cannot enter
numbers in this setting.
In my testing, I used two methods. Method
#1 was to use PRESET - set the hour number
at the beginning of the roll and stay in PRESET.
Method #2, as recommended by some chat groups,
is to start in PRESET - set the hour number
and roll 30 sec of colour bars - then go back
in the menu and set for REGEN - for the rest
of the tape.
Here are my findings in five different situations:
Start and stop and start again without turning
off:
Both methods maintain proper TC with no breaks
although the recording seems to go back as
much as one second into the first shot.
Start, stop, turn off power, turn on power,
and start:
Method #1 - TC had a break - jumps ahead as
much as 40 frames!
Method #2 - No break in TC. This is true if
you use REC CHK button to re-cue or do not
use REC CHK when you power up.
Start, stop, turn off power, change battery,
turn on power, and start:
(The important thing here is to wait a moment
for the camera to totally power down before
you replace the battery. Otherwise the TC might
go to zero.)
Method #1 - TC had a break - jumps ahead as
much as 30 frames!
Method #2 - When I didn’t use REC CHK
there was no break in TC. There was a problem
when I re-cued with REC CHK. There is a blank
section where the TC seems to freeze then it
jumps ahead a few frames.
Viewing a portion of the tape then re-cueing
to continue recording:
(There are two methods to re-cue the tape -
REC CHK in camera mode and END SEARCH in VCR
mode and switching back to camera mode. END
SEARCH takes some time - so be patient!)
Method #1 - TC had a break -using REC CHK,
there is a blank section where the TC seems
to freeze then it jumps to odd number - using
END SEARCH, TC jumps ahead about 6 frames.
Method #2 - Using REC CHK, there is a break
- a blank section where the TC seems to freeze
then it jumps ahead a few frames. But there
was no TC break using END SEARCH in VCR mode
and switching to camera mode - then start recording.
Putting in a tape with material on it - to
be able to continue with additional shooting
on that tape:
(END SEARCH does not function in this situation
- it mentions this in the Panasonic manual.
You can only re-cue with REC CHK)
Method #1 - TC had a break - jumps ahead as
much as 4 seconds with REC CHK.
Method #2 - TC had a break - there is a blank
section where the TC seems to freeze then it
jumps ahead a few frames.
So Method #2 is more reliable and should give
you break free TC, but I could not re-cue a
tape that had been taken out of the camera
with either method. Method #2, changing a battery,
and END SEARCH functions take time and patience.
Richard Stringer August 2004
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