[Google eye]

I friend of mine recorded me on his Panosonic 3 CCD cam doing music at an outside market and the light was fairly low but not too dark, to be honest I was'nt overly impressed .

It was'nt much different than My Canon MV880X.

I believe it was a Panasonic cam.

Could this be due to the size of the lens or would you say this could have been one of the cheaper 3 CCD pany's.

I thought there would be a great difference in the quality but too me there was'nt anything too noticable.

Dave
I was expecting a lot more clarity

[MarkE19]

There are a number of different reasons for how good or bad the picture is.

3 CCD's tend to give a better overall colour reproduction, but are not as good as a single CCD in lower light conditions as the light on a 3 CCD cam gets split 3 ways.
The size of the lens & CCD('s) determins how much light is collected.
The quality of the lens can also make a big difference.

so having 3 CCD's is no guarantee that the camcorder will give a better picture.

Mark.

[senu]

3CCD camcorders do seem to be be a bit less light sensitive than equivalent single CCD models
But they capture colors better especially in good lighting

The light sensitivity is a quality of the size, and "quality" of the camcorder electronics
If a 3CCD camcorder has an array of chips which are bigger ( and consequently more light sensitive) than a single chip model they will better it in all aspects ( Colour reproduction tonal range and definition)
This is seldom ever the case though
The lens is of course just as important for resolving detail

CMOS technology ( of which there are also 3 CMOS camcorders) aim to get the best of both worlds... do they succeed?.. sometimes

The moral is that it is impossible to compare camcorder output quality on the basis of paper specifications alone, insofar as they contribute..
2 camcorders with identical paper specifications can easily perform differently
Also, the operator, working with the limitations of his kit in mind may get great results from a camcorder with seemingly modest features and specifications, better than a less accomplished one working with higher end kit

PS:I was posting at the same time as Mark but we seem to be saying the same thing somewhat