Originally posted by: Snakexor
Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
Originally posted by: Snakexor
i would agree with gsellis, try to grab an optura or elura for cheap, i totally forgot about those since we havent gotten the newer models in as of yet....and sparky, those links are nice, but if you read each review, the sonys have better image quality, but falter because of their lack of manual controls/still capabilities compared to others....
Perhaps I'm missing something, but of the DV (and by that I'm going to assume that the OP wants mini-DV, as it is pretty much the 'standard' right now) based camcorders in what I would consider a reasonable price bracket for consumer level stuff (sub $600), the Sony's fail miserably compared to the competition. Going up in price, they start to become competitive, but you're looking at the $700+ range then. The main thing the Sony's suffer on is low light. When the competition offers better overall video performance, significantly better manual options, and only slightly worse automatic settings, I'd say that the competition trumps Sony. But it's all a fairly moot point, as the OP specified he wanted a relatively inexpensive, non-Sony camcorder.
infact it is quite the oppostie, canon/jvc/panasonic/samsung all fall short of the sonys in low light, while for outdoor stuff sony is not the greatest (getting washed out/overexposed video)....
mostly outdoor = canon
mostly indoor/all around for <600 = sony
panasonic falls in between the two, with it being good at neither, but at the same time not horrible either
The two main mini-DV camcorders in his rough price range from Sony absolutely suck at low light performance.
"Low Light Performance (2.0)
When you see the low light performance of this year?s DCR-HC42, you?ll wonder how this camcorder could perform as it does in bright light. While the DCR-HC42 benefited from an upgraded imager, retaining more color information and producing an overall brighter image than the DCR-HC32 at lower light levels (in this case 60 lux), its blue filter (or the something that is boosting its blues) causes an influx of really nasty blue noise--nastier than the noise found on the DCR-HC21. It's particularly noticeable as it streaks across the magenta, pink, and red areas of the spectrum, and this noise is a big detriment to the overall performance of the camcorder, especially since 60 lux is only slightly darker than average indoor lighting. This bad performance negatively balances the camcorder?s cosmetic attractions and its widescreen options.
Things only get worse at 15 lux, where the DCR-HC42 shows a lot more of this noise in more conspicuous places. While the camcorder retains a lot more color information than the other HCs, this small plus is definitely outweighed by the hideous and obvious noise. It's so bad that I?m interested in looking at another DCR-HC42 to make sure that this problem is uniformly consistent with all of the models. Unfortunately, I have no reason to think otherwise. "
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-HC42-Camcorder-Review.htm
Low Light Performance (3.5)
The DCR-HC32 performs slightly better than the DCR-HC21, though not that much. At light levels of 60 and 15 lux, the DCR-HC32, like the DCR-HC21, shows unfortunate amounts of noise. The nasty blue noise seen on the DCR-HC21 is absent from the DCR-HC32, which is nice, and a lot of the color information at 15 lux that the DCR-HC21 loses, the DCR-HC32 retains. Both of these camcorders have identical imagers, which makes these differences seem odd, but it is exactly these subtle differences (and these are very subtle) that help distinguish a camcorder in the consumer?s eyes. The low light performance seen on the DCR-HC32 offers images within the same scope of performance as some of the lower-end Panasonic camcorders, though Panasonics tend to have better, more balanced spectra, with similar noise.
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-DCR-HC32-Camcorder-Review.htm
I'd hardly call that a definitive lead (perhaps over Canon, while others tie or beat them low light and completely nail them to the wall in areas like manual controls).
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