Hello, for anyone who's interested: here are some image comparision tests (especially low light tests) of populair camcorders like the MX500, the TRV950 the VX2000 and the XL1s

TRV950 vs MX500
http://www.soundweb-asia.com/products_test/trv950_mx5000/page_1.htm

Low Light shootout between different cams
http://www4.big.or.jp/~a_haru/exknow2002au/night.html

Another low light test
http://www4.big.or.jp/%7Ea_haru/0208_3CCD.html

MX-500 low light example photo's (thnx to Eli Schwarz)
http://home.planet.nl/~snuve011/bram/100W.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~snuve011/bram/200w.jpg
http://home.planet.nl/~snuve011/bram/200Watt.jpg

MX-500 low light movie (thnx to Eli Schwarz)
http://home.planet.nl/~snuve011/bram/MOL001.ASF
http://home.planet.nl/~snuve011/bram/MOL002.ASF

Some kind of "fruit test"
http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/lowlight3/index.html

If you find more, post here!

Thanks, Bram! I put in the tags to make it easy to see these.

I use MX500 and PD-150 quite often. I owned a TRV950 and JVC GY-301E.

To me, the MX500 is quite poor under low light. Its video is very gainy, worse if gain is pushed higher than +12 dB.

950E, only marginally brighter, its video its pretty clean. The grain is more define and acceptable, even at +18 dB. But I dislike its way of handling exposure, iris+gain locked, and no F values during recording.

For control wise, I prefer the MX500. The image quality under bright sunny days, both are comparable.

Check my samples (other thread earlier on), all untouched, fresh from the memory stick.

DV301E is as bright as PD-150 but produces better image due to its wider dynamic range. It provides pro-like controls but physically, it's not as robust as PD-150.