best all around indie-budget camera!
one of the best equipment investments i've ever made!
this camera has loads of pro features with the convenience and cost-savings of SD memory card recording.
produces one of the most gorgeous images you can get from a 3 chip HD camera for under k.

feels like a camera i will have for the rest of my life and that i'll always use and be happy with the images i can make with it.

from commercials, corporate video, documentary films, short narratives, wedding videos and webisodes, this camera is the new HD workhorse that will always give you a lot back for your money.

A good starting point for transitioning from film
I knew I would have to do it sooner or later. Even shooting Super 16mm is (a) too expensive and (b) too heavy. I have seen so many good documentary films that originated on HDV or AVCHD based camcorders that I thought I should really make an effort to go digital.
As it happened, I attended a Panasonic seminar that convincingly touted the value of a modern H.264 type codec for the "filmakers" vision. So the Sony and Canon alternatives were effectively eliminated as options by the smooth presentations given by Panasonic. This left the choice of cameras down to the HMC40 (cheaper and lighter) or the HMC150. Both can do the things I need to do (24P being a requirement)and both are designed to create a "film-like" look to the image.
My choice of the HMC150 was based on the feeling that 3 1/3" imagers are going to be less noisy than the 3 1/4" imagers installed in the newer HMC40 camera. I did not do any side-by-side comparison testing but I am guessing that I am correct in this assumption although the degree of difference may not be noticeable in the final image.
It has been about two months that I have been using this camera. What it can stuff into a tiny SD memory card is amazing to me. The images have been outstanding for a television camera and really not too bad for a cinema camera. I miss interchangeable lenses and controllable depth of field but I don't miss changing the magazine after a few takes and I dont miss heavy battery packs and Nagra sound recorders.
I did find that the manual iris control on the camera is impossible to use while shooting and that manual focus is also clumsly and can create sound noise while filming if you are using the on-board mic or even the mounted shotgun. The simple solution was a Vari-zoom remote and that fixed the two biggest operational problems I had.
The camera was packed with GVG's Edius Neo. That works a treat with AVCHD and as long as you have a decent modern laptop with sufficent speed and memory, it is fast enough to operate and to render out edit files to disk or SD card. I prefer to have the final finishing completed by a real editor (probably using FCP) but I can manage the rough edits with Edius without too many problems.
So, I am not sorry. This is the first digital cinema type camera that I have purchased and it will probably be the gateway drug to a Red One or something like that. I miss film but if you are not making a feature film with multiple rented 35mm cameras (paid for by someone else), why not use a camera like the HMC150? The cost of the hardware is more than offset when compared to running a S16mm camera to create 60 minutes of finished projectable film. SD cards are cheap. Digital projectors are getting better and DI from inexpensive digital cameras to 35mm film neg is possible if the content is good enough to justify the cost.

Great image quality, but don't be misled by promotions
I've had the camera for three months now, and as video cameras go, it's at the top of its class and price range.

My gripe is with Panasonic's rebates, however.

The free card never materialized. Initially, I was told it would come automatically by registering at PASS, which is one of the worst manufacturer support sites in the world.

Six weeks passed, no card. Meanwhile, I had to buy cards from Amazon. The Transcend Card I purchased corrupted my files. So I called Panasonic's rebate department. They had no record of the request. I downloaded a form, cut out the UPC symbol, filed the request that way.

Another six weeks pass. No card. My rebate isn't in the system. Now the UPC cutout is gone, and they have no record of it. It's past the deadline, anyway.

So it's another case of being tricked into buying a product and not getting the incentive.

Bottom line: Buy this camera on its own merits, not the outside chance you might get something for free from the manufacturer.

It just seems to me that if someone is putting ,300 on the counter for a product, they could just include the stupid (real value) card as a good gesture and appreciation of your business, not make you jump through hoops like a circus dog for three months, only to find out there's no doggy bone at the end of the hoop line.

It's poor customer PR and service.

Panasonic AG HMC150 vs AG-HVX200
We just bought our HMC150 & the ease of using the SD cards is FANTASTIC as opposed to the minidv tapes & P2 cards that our HVX200 takes. The savings in the cost of the SD's vs P2's is astronomical as anyone reading this already knows. My son shoots weddings & business profiles for the internet along with hunting videos for outfitters, as he is pro staff for various hunting gear companies.
Unless you are needing to shoot an Indy film or something like that, the resolution from the smaller ccd's is adeqate for his/your needs without the exorbitant costs for the HVX's P2's, bigger tripod system, firestore etc....

On the Pro side, the wide angle lens that it comes with is great & it the camera as a whole is MUCH lighter for those LONG hand held shoots & you can get by with a lighter tripod/head combo than needed for the weight load of the HVX while not sacrificing that FULL size "PRO camera" look for a job! Lets face it when someone is forking over B001DKELYC,000.00 for a wedding, they don't want to see a little camera that looks like they would use to shoot family movies with no matter that it is HD ect....
Also we bought a Wind netbook that we can download footage on site to free up the SD cards so we only need a couple of them & the netbook is so much lighter & smaller than a full size laptop rigged up to use as a firestore for the P2's!

On the Cons, we could NOT use our Sennheiser shotgun mike that fits perfectly on the HVX as it appears in the shot unless you are zoomed out 1/2 way! I don't know if there is some kind of an adapter that we can use to lift it up & out of the way yet.

My son is currently in Missouri on a Hunt that his dad is filming him in with the HMC150, so I'll have him update this review with how it performed in the field in rough conditions with an amatuer at the controls! The temps are dropping & we have had a LOT of rain...........so we'll sure have more to share as they are filming full day shoots for a week in extremely inclement weather conditions!

BTW... you might want to Immediately go ahead & buy the long life battery & UV filter at the same time you buy this as they are a DEFINITE "must" to protect the expensive wide angle lens that it comes with & to NOT lose a shot when filming because your battery died!

Great Camera
I got this camera about a month ago, and I think I've figured out every possible manual control on the camera and the best ways to use them.
Everything is great about the camera except a few things.

The battery is tiny. I bought a larger 4 hour battery works great, 0 from J&R
The auto focus is poor, it's very slow
The on-board mic is bad

but what do you expect.

Audio controls are nice and easy to use.
Video quality is excellent. A little noisy, i wish the sensor was bigger.

Editing with a quad core 2.66GHz PC with 6GB of RAM.
Editing works great, with Sony Vegas 9.0 Pro
However I need to get some more RAM because when full editing lags more.

Overall a good camera. I'm shooting a wedding this weekend. I'll write another review after that experience.