HV20 or XM2 (XL2 I think its called in USA)
 

I was wondering if this camcorder might be what I am looking for!

Ive got a Pana GS280 at the moment which is soon for eBay as its low light quality is terrible and it suffers a huge amount of CCD smear.

I was thinking of getting a 2nd hand XM2 for around the £800/900 mark but it is getting on in life (launched 2004/5 I think) and this new HV20 looks interesting.

Being a CMOS chip will it remove the nasty HAD CCD smear/flare problem when shooting cars at night (headlamps, dazzle, street lights etc) and what will it be like for very low light, comparable, better or worse than the XM2 which was REALLY good?

I'd be initially using it for DV resolution stuff, the fact its HD doesnt really interest me at present as my stuff will end up on DVD and on the net anyway, its just low noise, low light and decent manual controls I am after and the XM2 had the lot - just a shame its still so expensive (even 2nd hand) and its also a few years old now.

Here is a link to the kind of thing I would be wanting to shoot, this has been edited a LOT to get the light levels up (as its from the Panasonic) but the XM2 I had a loan of managed it fine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ix4t63WCVA

As you can see the smear is unbelievable and I had to boost brightness / levels in VirtualDub by a MASSIVE factor to get the levels up.

How does the HV20 do in this kind of situation? Could I put it in 24/25p mode and get amazing results or would a second hand XM2 be a better bet?

Any info greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Rikki

PS: Im based in Scotland so it would be the PAL version I would be interested, if that makes any differences at all. THanks.

SD, low-light stuff? I think you're in the wrong forum - sounds like you need a Sony VX2100/PD170P which exceeds even the XM2 performance in this arena.

You're probably pretty safe with the HV20 - do you really want to lug a "Big" camera around? Still testing the HV20 myself, but it's safe to say the video I've seen posted under similar conditions to yours looks pretty good - check out the stuff posted on Wolfgang's blog - he's got some low light stuff for comparison.

DB>)

Wouldnt want to lug a massive camera around, bar the kudos it gives at shows and events its not much fun but I know the XM2 does well in low light so if the HV20 does as good or better then I'd plump for that one.

R