Sony TG1 vs. Canon HF100

[heckpopper]

hi all

i want to buy Sony TG1 or Canon HF 100 for Xmas.
I like the small size of the Sony, perfect for the handbag. But i am not sure about the quality, the sony tg1 has "only" 1080i, the canon 1080p. The Size of the Camcorder is important for me, but the quality should not suffer too much.

Reading the experience here in the forum, the TG1 has a bad quality in low light filming, but how bad is this in comparison to the Canon HF100?

What is the difference in quality at normal light?

thx

[PhilNUK]

I have had both, took the Sony back and swapped it for the HF100.

The Sony was perfect size and build. Fantastic outdoor footage, but for me the indoor stuff with an averagely lit room was really poor. My main intentions for the camera were to film my 2 year old son over Xmas, knowing full well the majority would be indoor. I tried the various modes and it still bothered me how poor it was, so I took a look on Vimeo and looked at Canon's low light footage which looked much better imho.
It all depends what you want it for... I just didn't want to look back at Xmas footage and wish I had stretched that little bit further for the better quality.
In outdoor light they are both similar, though the Cine Mode on the Canon gives another dimension to your filming. The Sony has 5.1 also, whereas the Canon only has stereo.

Personally I am happy I made the swap.

[davebrown88]

TG3/TG1 for me. why ? because I have been able to take the camcorder with me were ever i go and because of this I have been able to capture footage I wouldnt of got with larger camcorders.

in most situations we can all turn the lights up a bit to help with poor light

[parmsuk]

Hi,

Received the Sony TG3 yesterday and so far pretty impressed. I did some test shots yesterday evening around the house and thought the low light quality was fine and a big improvement over my 7 year old Sony DV TRV30 camcorder (cost me around £1400 back then)

I too was in a big dilema in what I should get next and the main factor for buying this camcorder was its portability over the other options i.e. Panasonic SD9/Canon HF100 etc.

Looking back over the years, the old DV camcorder came out for occasions and that was it. I've missed some specatcular moments with my young kids and really wished at those times that I had a camcorder to hand! but the old DV camcorder was just to big to take everywhere.

So just as someone else stated in this forum....when we look back at these special memories that we capture its not the quality that we will be looking at but more of what the content of the footage.....

Regards,

[Mr Lazy]

Originally Posted by parmsuk

So just as someone else stated in this forum....when we look back at these special memories that we capture its not the quality that we will be looking at but more of what the content of the footage.....

That's very true. So long as your kid's faces don't look like a ball of fuzziness (as is the case on some of my DV footage just before the old camcorder was retired and replaced with a HD one).