[leehal]

I have been trawling through reviews, forums and magazines and still cannot reach a definitive conclusion.

I bought a Panasonic SDR-150 which I think is great with regards to size and daylight picture quality.

I am specifically looking for a camcorder to use at music concerts.

I used my Panasonic at a recent gig and was disappointed with the quality of the recording, from a previous post I learnt that I maybe should reduce the quality setting to reduce the graininess of the end product.

I am looking at the Sony SR11 as an alternative, but I am thinking will the extra picture quality mean that in low light the picture will be no better than my existing camcorder ?

Am I better off going for a low end camcorder in standard definition that will be more forgiving in low light, might not produce an overall better 'quality' picture, but the end product may be better given the low light I need the camcorder for.

Hope this makes sense !

[redsox_mark]

I used my Panasonic at a recent gig and was disappointed with the quality of the recording, from a previous post I learnt that I maybe should reduce the quality setting to reduce the graininess of the end product.

Reducing the quality setting will reduce the quality, it won't reduce grain. You could reduce grain by changing the exposure (i.e. make it darker but with less grain), or reduce the shutter speed (less grain but not smooth movement).

I am looking at the Sony SR11 as an alternative, but I am thinking will the extra picture quality mean that in low light the picture will be no better than my existing camcorder ?

Am I better off going for a low end camcorder in standard definition that will be more forgiving in low light, might not produce an overall better 'quality' picture, but the end product may be better given the low light I need the camcorder for.

In theory, due to less (and larger) pixels, a SD model should give better low light performance than HD. And in the case of high end DV cams (e.g. Sony VX2100) this is true. But low end SD cams have small sensors and not so great low light performance, and more effort is being put into the HD models. From the reports I've seen the SR11 low light performance is good, and will be better than the Panny 150, and better than your typical low end SD model.