wow, the level of detail of canon is amazing, makes sony's picture look very soft. good going canon! and thank god for the 58mm diameter.

does hfs show in video mode expoparameters before shot?

very nice footage, loved the horse side by side. Every detail from the Canon was just so much more crisp and intense. Even the mist was much more present in certain scenes than the Sony. I am with you on the low light, the Sony has better low light but even in low light I prefer the look of the Canon, it just looks less noisy to me, but that is just my opinion, to each his own. And if I really need more light, I'll buy the light for it lol, no biggie. Thanks again for your excellent videos, I now feel confident to purchase my Canon. I did use the Sony hands on and everything you said I agree with, so with your videos and the other videos I have seen on Youtube I am ready to lay down the debit card :)

Paramon, can u upload ORIGINAL video with horse from XR520 to rapidshare.com ?

Thanks again paramon. Your footage is extremly important for me, to make my decision buying the right camcorder!

I watched the footage on 50" screen,
yeah, there is a difference between 16 and 24 Mb/s

"there is a difference between 16 and 24 Mb/s"

Wondering the differences between older/cheaper cams like HV30 and say, the XR520. Do you see a real difference of quality and sharpness.

Thanks for the videos! Outdoors, the Canon seems noticeably better. Interesting to see how they handle the mist and the changing sky, plus there seems to be a sharpness difference.

Can you do a room comparison with the New Canon and the HV30/20 or HF100???? Please please please????

It seems the Canon has a bit more contrast, and therefore may look sharper. But it has less color than the sony. The yellow glow of the Canon (watch the horseman) makes it unsuitable for quality recording if you ask me. I asume the Sony will give better results in post production.

Take a look at the ISO test images on camcorder-test.com/camcorder.html (select the 2 cams) and you can even notice the white pixels around the blacks at the Canon. Typical for a over-boosted contrast.

Canon colors look a bit strange. Is it Cinema mode? Canon is definitely much shaper, but a bit overexposed. If possible can you please describe settings you've used on Canon and on Sony.

Paramon, that did it. I have already ordered my HF S100, Its on its way.

The HF S100 is available right now at all major online stores - Amazon updated availability to 31 March.

The S10 will have to wait. But it probably makes more sense to buy the HF S100.

Thanks for the videos

megaupload.com/?d=13I4ZN5O - link to the original footage with the horse from both camcorders.

that`s NOT originals! please upload ORIGINAL MTS clips! thank you............

i really prefer sony colors and white balance decisions. But i really don't like just 16mb rate

megaupload.com/?d=13I4ZN5O - Canon have excessive factitious oversharp and contrast.It you so disfigure a Picture or he really so shoting?What was settings of sharpness , contrast and ....Why you recoding this video in MPEG-2?

Some of the Cannon shots were a bit too blown out (probably could have been manually stopped down), but the level of detail was definitely in the Canon clips. Great test / comparison, paramon. Something that concerns me...and I don't know if it is the way these vids are processed for posting...but there is a lot of ghosting in the movement (seen it on other vids posted by you using this camera). I am not liking that - would like to get to the bottom of that. Is it the 30p emulation (not actually 30 "progressive"...it's recorded in 60i just like the 24p mode...not native "progressive" but an emulator). The colors are just too good to pass on. Have you played with the 8 MP Still camera yet?

Paramon,

Thanks again for the great and helpful test footage. Someone above noted they preferred the color on the Sony, I definitely prefer the warmer colors on the Canon. One example is the warmer white of the carriage and another the colors contrasting with snow in the scene are warmer. Maybe I'm lazy and don't want to warm the image up in post, but I like the warmth of the Canon. Something that concerned me is the staggering blur of the wings of the birds. Is this a rolling shutter issue? Can it be cleared up by using a faster shutter speed? I think the Sony EX 1 and 3 don't have this staggered motion of birds in flight, but have to go back and look at some EX footage.

Thanks, Paramon.

That's great. If you look at the original Sony footage you posted for download, it has huge artifacts from rolling shutter or compression in the cars driving by and the horses legs as he rounds the corner toward the cam. The the Canon doesn't have those. Would love to know what the cause is on the Sony.

Did you turn off all the stabilizations of both camcorders while testing?

Hey paramon. Great footage and really appreciated. A few questions though. The canon seems to exhibit a pretty strong color bias towards a warmer feel. But it also seems quite unnatural, whereas the Sony feels much more realistic. This is a shame because the Canon appears to resolve MUCH more detail at times. However in the raw footage you posted, the Canon appears to show some HEAVY aliasing in parts of the scene. Yes there is more detail in this scene, but it has an overall unpleasant look with the "brownness" of the scene and how jagged some diagonals appear to be. And you shot this in 24p correct? Also what are the settings you have on the Canon for these comparisons? Is it full auto? I noticed that at times the Canon exhibits the same bias towards the yellow/brownish look in the comparison with the HV20 and the XR520V. Just curious how you are shooting it.

Would it be possible to get a 60i vs 60i head to head of the XR520V and HF S10? Or just perhaps some 60i footage of of the HF S10 alone? This would help produce an apples to apples comparison I think, as the progressive modes do seem to add better resolution to the footage, so 24p vs 60i isn't entirely accurate, especially if you want to see what the difference is between the "standard" shooting modes.

Thanks again for all the awesome footage!

The 'issue' with Auto W/B off in sunny outdoors is a well known issue. If you look closely you notice that Sony's tends to add tad too much green/yellow (=not enough red). Less noticeable (until you're made aware of it).

There's a good workaround for both camcorders. Obviously you can do PP but you can also use the daylight W/B for bright outdoor conditions (see caveats and full FAQ here: lucienk.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%21A4AE3FB12A26635%211108.entry).

The overblown highlights is also in the faq. I always shoot with custom picture effect contrast -1 but that's mostly personal preference.

I think the sony have best color apearance, best white balance, best stabilitation, and best moviment, and the canon have best sharpnest, but a lot of pixels dancing arround of the image and the vertical lines and the cars ho cross the picture with bad movmevent.
you can see this : av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/20090204/zooma397.htm

I don't know, but to me this seems heavily biased towards Canon to the novice camera person (like me). For example, in the last scene with the hotel you only see the building with the Sony, but in the Canon shot it's zoomed out somewhat so you see people walking also - which gives the appearance of more detail. I noticed a couple other times shots were further away with the Sony and then magically zoomed in with the Canon. Like the mother and son on the sidewalk, or even the women in the first few frames.
I like the Canon, but OIS and better low light = Sony wins.

I think Canon is just set to higher sharpening and contrast

Absolut great what you have done. But I still can't decide which camcorder. Right now I have seen little few videos from the Panasonic HDC-HS300 which is impressive as well.... You might know that camcorder... If you have some hints then I would be very happy... :-)

Canon looks sharper n more detailed.. but how about the brownies color?? Does it have something to do with setting??

Anyway, thanks for sharing.. it's a nice side by side comparison.. especially the horseman :)

Hi Guys, great review paramon.
I agree the canon looks warmer in pics, but the sony is has better colour accuracy, albeit providing a colder look.

Is there any reason you cant change the settings on the Sony to shoot in a warmer look?

How did you find the image stabilizers between the two models?

Sorry for too many q's

Thanks a Lot paramon, you really made it easier for me to decide which of the river I should be.. It was a hard time for me to choose between Sony and Canon.

I think we are seeing bias by poster's comments towards the Sony...as if to say..Sony should be better...it really is better..right? All else even, resolution trumps everything else. Larger /better lens & 24MB just plain enables the Canon to deliver better resolution. How often do we shoot in almost no light? I'll give up the Sony's extra stop of sensitivity easily for having a 25% sharper picture in all other lighting situations. I'm a Sony guy, but my HFs100 is coming in tomorrow.

Hi. Is it just me or do the white areas with Canon look more kind of 'red' than they do with Sony?
What about still photos? How does Canon perform in that area compared to Sony and Panasonic?

1:40 is that vignetting on the Canon?? o_O

canon is the only choice.

sony is a distant 2nd....

so far that it's out of focus, literally!

NIce Video ,Great Work
I will buy both
Canan for day recording and
Sony for Night :)