HV10 or HV20 - is it worth the price difference?

The HV20 has the ability to shoot in 24p

The HV20 has a jack for an external mic

The HV20 is better in low light than the HV10

The HV20 has better ergonomics than the HV10.

As you've seen, the two cams are extremely similar. They use the same CMOS sensor and both record via HDV. In addition to the differences pointed out previously:
- the HV20 also has an HDMI out, while the HV10 does not, and
- ignoring ergonomics, the HV10 is smaller and lighter, which is a good thing.

I'll be buying my HV20 soon, so other than the quality time I have spent with it at Best Buy, I don't have any direct knowledge. However, from all of the reviews I've read (and I've read just about everything out there), the low light performance of the HV20 is worth the price difference. I'm just a casual user who will be recording the family, our travels, etc. A fair amount of that recording will be indoors with less than great light, so the HV20 makes sense. My wife agrees that, for our anticipated usage, its worth $200 or so to get better low light performance.

For me it boils down to two things in day to day use for non-pros. Better low light in auto or better portability. HV10 and HV20 are the same in sensor and optical block. HV20 has better low light with better electronic gain (without the vertical bend noise). You can achieve the almost the same results in low light with HV10 in manual mode.

If you have both HV10 and HV20 you will find using HV20 for indoors most of time and HV10 for outdoors most of time. The reason is that you can put HV10 in your pocket all the time even wearing shorts and Tshirt. So many times when I take my kids to parks or other mundane places I wonder whether I should bring a video cam. With HV10 that decision is always a no brainer for me. With HV20 I do think about carrying an extra item.

The big decision aside from low light is that of ergonomics. If you prefer the upright, smaller form factor and don't care about improvements in low light, the HV10 makes sense. If you prefer a traditional horizontal form factor with better low light and 24p shooting, the HV20 makes sense. They're both superb units and it's hard to go wrong with either one.

I am looking at these two camcorders myself.... I have two questions. First is about the audio on the HV-10, I have read that the onboard mic is not very good and the camcorder lacks a Mic jack and attach point (shoe). Is that a big deal for a point and shoot user?

Second and more important for me is that I shoot my two sons football games. Does the HV-10 work well on a tripod for that type of recording.

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread.