Comparison CX760 and GW77: Video Frame Grabs in Low Light

No one is going to be owning both the GW77 and the CX760. But one might ask if there is a big difference in quality between the two, given the $800 price difference. Where one might see this is in dim light.

So I took my GW77 to a BestBuy where they had a PJ710 (same as the CX760 but for having a projector and no viewfinder). I took two short video clips with each camera, one a wide view and one a close view, both camcorders at wide angle fully open, both shooting 108060p. The 710 was tethered, so I was restricted in what I could shoot. Because the 710 was in Dolby 5.1 mode, and the GW77 was in Dolby stereo, the set of clips cannot be combined without transcoding and loss of quality. But since these are static shots, the *video* frame grabs are actually just as informative. The frame grabs were carried out in Sony's Play Memories Home program

Wide shot, 710 (760):



Wide shot, GW77:



Close shot, 710 (760):



Close shot, GW77:



Now you can compare color, noise and resolution in this dim-lighting situation (the close shots are better lit). I could not detect any difference in audio quality, but you will have to take my word for that.
Edited by markr041 - 8/11/12 at 8:58pm

These are the original AC3 audio tracks, zipped, from the two camcorders' close shots. The music you hear is from the speakers of the display camcorder that is in the frame. The little speakers are poor; the point is to compare how they sound across the two cameras. The PJ710 audio may be louder as I set the GW77 audio to the low setting (no gain riding). Any glitches you hear are from the source speakers, not the two camcorders.

PJ710 (surround sound):

PJ710.zip 516k .zip file

GW77 (stereo):

GW77.zip 388k .zip file

Mike, you are asking the right question. I was first concerned in the low light about sharpness and noise, and I do not see much difference there. So, now color. The yellows in both shots are brighter in the GW77 frames compared with those of the 760. The overall look of the GW77 is slightly brighter, pehaps the 760 was slightly underexposed (both were on auto). The yellows are the clue - you have probably seen BestBuy yellow tags (they are all over the store), which do you think is reproducing that color best? The skin color (leg) of the guy in shorts appearing in the GW77 wide shot appears natural. I have been very happy with the color balance of the GW77.

Because the PJ710V was tethered, I could neither hold it properly nor move around with it. At full telephoto, I could not detect much difference, but again this was not a good test given the constraint.

Do you see in the videos any differences of note?