Camcorders Canon MVX2i / Sony PC120 ?

Hi all,

I'm a newbie, and i'm looking for a camcorder ...

Things that are high on my priority list :
- Good qualty both indoors and outdoors. It's likely to get used in a number of situations.
- Small and compact, to fit in my pocket (at a push) or a belt bag. I like the vertical format bodies.
- Take 'reasonable' quality snaps, again both indoors and outdoors, that wil mainly get distrubuted to web pages rather than actually being printed out.

I'm considering the two cams in the subject line, but the Canon is £100 cheaper. I'm drawn towards the Canon at the moment because of it's 'superior Optical Stabilizer' (and the price).

Apart from that, there seems to be nothing to split the two.

What opinions can you guys offer ? ... and i'd especially like to hear from anyone who's read an in depth review of the MVX2i, or owns one.

[iainmcwhirter]

I have just gone through the exact same situation as your self and ended up going for the Canon as a) it was £100 cheaper and b) What Camcorder reckoned it was the best on the market at the moment.

My friend has a Sony PC-101 and reckons the image stabiliser on the Canon is a lot better. I find the Canon to be an excellent piece of kit but since this is my first camcorder I have nothing to compare it to. It has a wealth of functions and it sits nicely in my hand (although my hands are larger than normal). I found the Sony to be a bit less comfortable when I handled it in Jessops.

I haven't had a chance to record any tape footage yet as I only got the camera yesterday and the tapes at lunch today, but photos on the memory card look good, perfectly suitable for web images and the small photo prints (8" x 6").

If you want any more info let me know

once you have used the camcorder i'd be interested in the following things.

- general overall feel
- outdoor picture quality
- indoor picture quality
- how it copes moving outdoors to indoors and vice versa
- how well the optical stabilizer works, paticularly near the 10x zoom level
- whether you notice the reported motor noise ?

+ any other comments. I think quite a few people are looking at this camcorder so some detailed comments would be very useful.

[evans]

dh

Buy the sony if you can it is fantastic, I have just posted a long post in the subject :what camcorder to buy (scottyb) and I cannot recomment it much more. Please note I have the pc 115 model and not the pc 120 but the only difference is the bluetooth. The pc 101 is cheaper but there is a reason( less quality) although it is lighter and smaller. As long as you have good light and the pc 120 has a auto flash. then the pics are of photo quality and very sharp( I printed the smaller size ones and they are great).

hope this helps (wouldnt get the canon as these have a lot of motor noise on certain models) hope you are aware of it!

Also mine has a system for the pics theat auto focus on the subject using lasers to get a perfect pic.!!! As for stablization . I took footage of the circus and had no tripod (was holding it for 2 hours and didnt get tired) - well people asked me if I had used a tripod it was that good.!!!

hope this helps you (read my post)

I have the Sony PC120 camcorder, got it just before xmas... It has 1.5 Megapixels, DV in/out, Analogue in/out(composite and S/VHS), still picture resolution of 1360 x 1020... it also has the same laser focusing as in the above post, plus loads more... it is an excellent camera... I paid £950 from "Hi-Spek" in St. Albans. This is about £150 cheaper than "Jessops"

www.hispek.com They do mail order if required
www.sonyuk.co.uk