hey
just wondering which camcorder has better low light performance? does the panasonic 3CCD have a better low level performance than the sony's CMOS sensor.

I spent the last couple of weeks trying to decide which of these two cameras I should buy. I've read just about every review out there.

In the end, I decided to check for myself. Armed with memory cards for each camera, I visited a local department store and was able shoot some video with each camera. Both were run with their automatic settings which is probably the way either would be used by me on most occasions.

I was able to play back the video of each on a ps3. Under the store lighting conditions, the Sony easily had the cleaner, brighter image of the two. In darker areas of the store, the SD5 picture quality degraded quicker than the cx7.

Add to this the ability to add a video light to the Sony left me with the opinion that it is the better of the two in low light conditions.

Great feedback Cummo -- thanks. Does this mean you bought the CX7?

I haven't seen one of the CX7's, but I absolutely love the size and feel of the SD5 compared to mini-dv recorders like the HV20. Besides low-light, how do you think the CX7 & SD5 compare?

Also, does anyone know how the SD1 compares to the SD5 in low light? It might be be better since it has bigger CCD's.

From my own findings, sharpness was similar on both cameras.

The Panasonic's image stabilisation was slightly better than the Sony.

The Panasonic seemed to auto focus slightly quicker than the Sony.

The Panasonic is the smaller of the two but for me the Sony was the most comfortable to hold. With a comfortable grip on the Panasonic, I found it tended to point down and I had to bend my wrist back to get it level.

I preferred the touch screen on the Sony to the toggle on the Panasonic. The Sony also has zoom buttons on screen.

I didn't like the plastic catch that holds the Panasonic's lcd screen in place. When I first started playing with this camera, I didn't realise there was a button you had to push to release the screen. A light pull opens the screen without using the button. It appears to be something that would wear over time.

Finally, as mentioned above, I thought the Sony handled the low light conditions better.

I did decide to get a Sony, but not the CX7. For other reasons (viewfinder, manual focus, mic point etc.) I purchased a HDR-SR8E with the 100G. HD.

With this camera being slightly heavier and having the viewfinder, I am able stabilise the camera better.

i came across this quote in an sd5 review: "The level of grain in low light is quite high, with little or no colour"....i`m really concerned about this cause i`ll be shooting mostly indoors...and i`m new to this subject...so what exactly are low light conditions ? what if i shoot in a room with a 100w bulb ???

fwiw ..... I'm currently using the SD5
it's OK.....outdoors it's awesome
indoors it really depends on the lighting
100w bulb light should be ok
anything less than 50w and you're introducing grain

I found some workarounds that help tremendously
if you're going to shoot in low light, WHITE BALANCE on something WHITE in the dim room..
Iris up to 18db and set the shutter to 1/60 (both extremes of their range)
turning on the "backlight compensation" adds more gain (at the expense of grain)
turning on Magic Pix turns on a few 500 watt floodlights, but you nor your subject better move, as it'll look like a film roll that's missing several frames for every one

The SD5 has ALOT going for it
SDHC for one...as we have quite a few of these laying around
the HDMI is a standard plug and not the mini-HD

the CX7 has Color Infrared Night Shot and a Hot Shoe for an external Light
however, Memory Stick PRO™ Media Compatibility
Tested to support up to 4GB media capacity; does not support high speed transfer function; does not support Access Control security function." - to me that's a real letdown
as far as I know, there's no cap on Panasonics SDHC capability .. I've heard reports that it's been tested with 8's with no issue .... I believe it's only restraints are at Class 6 SDHC memory, anything under Class 6 (class 2 for example) work fine

thanks for the quick response puck...the sd5 it is then..ehm...about the 8gb class 6...i was going to get the panasonic one...will i still have problems with it ?

thanks for the quick response puck...the sd5 it is then..ehm...about the 8gb class 6...i was going to get the panasonic one...will i still have problems with it ?

you mean a Panasonic 8gb class6 SDHC card in a Panasonic camcorder?
that should be about as close to a perfect match as anything

man,.... if only Sony would come off it and market a camcorder like the CX7 that uses SDHC instead of MSPD ..... I'd gander that ALOT of consumers pass this camera by simply because of the format

it'd sell like hotcakes if it supported SD