Very pleased with this cam. i was experimenting with the settings .
Redsox Mark, your right the overall quality is great ,lovely coulors , there is some differance in the digital effects as my Canon MV800X has a low light option on the digital effects where as the MVX450 only has a night mode option but the plus side is the LED light can be swicthed on at anytime and its twice as bright as the MV880X cam. Where as the Canon 880x light can only come on when its set in Supernight mode .
The battery life is fantastic a good 80 to 90 mins easily.
The only problem was that it did'nt come with the usual back up battery for the cam, so I am going to jessops tommorow and see if they have it there.
I also brought a cheap external stereo mic from Maplins just to try it out.
My friend recorded me while I was busking with my Phonic amp ,it came it fairly good but when I recorded him with his guitar I noticed there was a hum. could it be that when I was recording him I did'nt use the Canon battery I used my own power supply , the same one that I use when I busk with the DC to AC Inverter running theough a car battery. It could be that it was picking up the grounding hum. As when my freind recorded me he used the normal Canon battery and there was no hum on the recording.
About buying external mics , would you say that sterreo was the best choice for recording live music . I will eventually invest in a quality mic, the Rode shot gun you mentioned Mark looks good.
Is the frequency responce something to look out for when buying external mics?
At this stage i will be able to afford this mic from Digital Village:
http://www.dv247.com/invt/2700/
Audion Technica are great I have some of there studio mics for live singing.
Dave