Hs20 video

[howiem]

I've been looking at 3 cameras which are:

Fujifilm HS20 EXR
Canon SX30 IS
Nikon P500

They are all pretty similar in range with the Nikon giving the best wide angle and canon giving slightly more long range but the Fuji giving the ability to add filters and a 2* teleconverter which obviously gives a much further range than both the Nikon and Canon.

Image qualtiy I guess is pretty similar as there aren't really many reviews on the Nikon and Fuji yet. The one drawback of the Canon is C/A on most landscape shots but can be corrected in photoshop. From what I read the Nikon above iso 400 is pretty poor.

My biggest worry about getting the Fuji for me is the video. Whilst I won't shoot loads of video from what I've seen on examples on youtube the auto focus is pretty bad when using the video option at the moment. I'm wondering if Fuji will eventually bring out a patch to correct the auto focusing? Any ideas on this?

I currently own a Nikon D300 with various lenses and a compact Sony HSC 20. I recently purchased the Panasonic FZ100 but as soon as I downloaded the first several images I wasn't impressed with the image quality especially at prints over A4 size so I decided to send it back and get a refund.

I'm looking at a super zoom walkabout for family days out where I don't want to lug around my 25kg+ DSLR gear. I don't expect DSLR quality images but I expect very good snap shots which I didn't feel I got from the Panasonic.

As I say I'm leaning more towards the HS20 EXR as it's main purpose will be photographs but I'm hoping that the auto focus with the video will be improved at some point.

Any help and views with my decision will be very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Howie

[Cresho]

some suggestions, read up on lense clicking, zoom capability, audio is noisy, audio is in mono.

These three suffer from one to all of these symptoms. Recommend you get a real video camera for video.

Get a dslr like a canon that does both video and images really well. Nikon just released a new entry dslr that does both but not sure about the quality. Hands down nikons are superior to canon in image quality.

[howiem]

Originally Posted by Cresho

some suggestions, read up on lense clicking, zoom capability, audio is noisy, audio is in mono.

These three suffer from one to all of these symptoms. Recommend you get a real video camera for video.

Get a dslr like a canon that does both video and images really well. Nikon just released a new entry dslr that does both but not sure about the quality. Hands down nikons are superior to canon in image quality.

Thanks for the advice. I don't really want to get another DSLR as I'm back down the route of carrying lots of weight with me on family days out or limiting myself to just 1-2 lenses. I have two labradors (black and yellow) which often I want to capture in the distance so a big zoom is a big advantage on these family days out.

From what I've read the and saw on the reviews at least the Nikon and Fuji have sterio speakers attached to them so the sound should be sterio but agree that audio can be noisy on all of them and the fact you can't use an external mic could be seen as a disadvantage.

I've owned both Canon and Nikon film/digital D/SLRSs and I wouldn't necessarily say Nikon has superior image quality but they are different. I chose Nikon in the end because I found the image on the LCD screen more closely resembled the image on my computer and it served my purposes better than the Canon I used to own.

Thanks though for replying to me and appreciate your comments

[Cresho]

Originally Posted by howiem

Thanks for the advice. I don't really want to get another DSLR as I'm back down the route of carrying lots of weight with me on family days out or limiting myself to just 1-2 lenses. I have two labradors (black and yellow) which often I want to capture in the distance so a big zoom is a big advantage on these family days out.

From what I've read the and saw on the reviews at least the Nikon and Fuji have sterio speakers attached to them so the sound should be sterio but agree that audio can be noisy on all of them and the fact you can't use an external mic could be seen as a disadvantage.

I've owned both Canon and Nikon film/digital D/SLRSs and I wouldn't necessarily say Nikon has superior image quality but they are different. I chose Nikon in the end because I found the image on the LCD screen more closely resembled the image on my computer and it served my purposes better than the Canon I used to own.

Thanks though for replying to me and appreciate your comments

if you pixle peep, even on images if you go to interfacelift and you have a good eye, just looking at the image without pixle peeping i can tell you which is canon and nikon. canon has horrible red abberation.

[markm75]

I have both the fz100 panasonic and now the fuji hs20..

I was torn between the two, so tried them both.

Low light video on the fz100 needs tweaking or post processing or an LED light, but otherwise i love this camera so far.. i wish the low light video were better, but this can be fixed with more light

The HS20 i havent tested in low light yet, but my comparison shot between the hs20 and fz100 at the same iso level turned out that the fz100 looked much better. The exr mode didnt seem to help.

Though i wanted a camera that was more DSRL like, i dont really like having to use manual zoom on the camera (mainly for video), its clunky, or requires practice i guess.. but the autofocus issue is HORRID, enuf that im sending the hs20 back immediately.. I tried various tweaks to avoid the issue, none helped.

Both of these offer stereo recording.. the HS20 is 1080p while the fz100 is 1080i.