chrishull3
I look at the Canons and wonder why the price hasn't come down (they're not exactly new-models, are they).
What's your take, compared with the Pana 900 models?
Low Light and Bright-light:
Computer shopper does suggest Low-light with the Pana 900 (and 700/800's) is a bit noisy - a factor of the combined 3-sensor area - good for accurate daylight colour (which most people experience on holiday), but not so good indoors - but you have to draw the line somewhere.
CS also suggest there is a green cast even in daylight, this may be setting-up (so why, I wonder?), but you may be able to correct it with an R-filter. In the days of film I used an R-filter on my nikon zoom as I thought it benefited . .. it's very subtle. However most Editors permit a "global correction"
CS doesn't appear to review camcorders over £1k so that excludes the "better" Canons. They did like the new Sony, but that's even more than the Pana900.
The Prosumer Canon XM2, mentioned earlier, is likely to be well-ahead of modern consumer kit . . . the only snag being use of tape and SD (4:3) format. I understand the XM2's lens is quite something - and so it should be for nearly £6k when new. even now it will set you back £1k5-ish.... I have serious doubts it's a good-buy at that price, although the quality (which I've seen) is spectacular . . . and not to be confused with modern highly-compressed and enhanced stuff, that we consumers accept.
Another bonus is it uses CCD, so these should be better for high-speed objects.
Having manual exposure control certainly helps and I quite like the LANC option - it just makes the footage smoother . . . IMHO.
However, I'm considering a SDHC camcorder - and that includes Canon G10, maybe XA10 - etc.