Sorry Austin :( I got a little excited when I saw the link...

It's more than a bit premature to say the lens, sensor and 'filter thread' are 'better' on the HV20. Don't you think? If you haven't seen the camera and tested it, it's all conjecture on your part. Let's wait for some real hands on testing.

Austin, do you have any real world comparitive material to show? I don't find the rotating fan to be too 'definitive' to my eyes. Something outdoors at a wide angle setting with lots of detail would be great as a comparison.

Hang on, Ken, we'll have "real world" HF10 video coming very soon. I'm passing the camera around to a couple of trusted friends in the Austin / San Marcos area. Austin Meyers got it first and I asked him to do the motion studies. Another colleague will provide some beauty shots (or at least, some real-world stuff) this upcoming week.

Everyone who has seen Austin Meyer's wildlife / Caddo Lake material knows that he's capable of delivering stunning video with these little camcorders, but he's busy with SXSW right now so the camera is making the rounds among some other folks so that I'm not monopolizing his time too much (thanks for all you do, Austin).

Please provide some short m2t/m2ts/mts files if possible, of the same (mostly static) shots, so we can zoom in and see the differences more clearly without additional h.264 compression. Thank you for helping us see their differences.

>It's more than a bit premature to say the lens, sensor and 'filter thread' are 'better' on the HV20. Don't you think?

HV20's sensor is bigger. This offers more bg blur, which is what I am personally after. As for the filter thread, it's 43mm in the HV20 which makes it much easier adding a step up ring and going to the 52mm which is a size that many filters exist. On the HF10's 37mm, you might even get some vignetting with such a step up ring, not sure.

HF10 First Look
 

Chris, what's the world record for holding one's breath? ;)

Okay Ken you better exhale now. It'll be later on in the week most likely.

Just pass the O2 around and I'll be fine. At least I got to see Austin's outdoor shots. Can't throw them on my Pioneer plasma due to the nature of the file and inability to put it on a DVD, but it gives you an idea.