hx5 vrs zs7 video comparison

[johndoe03]

hello everyone .long time sony fan here ,sorry to say after reading alot of reviews and watching this here video sample i am now leaning towards the panasonic .i wish it had 1080p.
lets discuss this video shoot here .to me it looks like the panasonic has whiter whites and does a better job with video.looks more natural to me .
i still have not bought a new camera .i am still researching .

does anyone know if panasonic plans to release a camera that will do 1080p??if so maybe i,ll wait on that .but i like what i see out this zs7.

i guess embedded videos arent allowed here?
so go to the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCCw0al3G6Q

[dalemccl]

I don't have either camera and have been reading the forums and looking at sample images and video in anticipation of a purchase. Here's my guess about the video you linked to, with regard to the whites being whiter in the Panasonic video. I think this may be related to the fact that the Panasonic is exposing the video at a higher level than the Sony. The higher exposure tends to blow out the whites. I think that would make them look whiter.

For example, check the video at the 2 minute 0 second point. Directly above the gray vehicle toward the right side of the screen, there is what appears to be snack shop. In the Sony example you can read the sign, it says "Coffee Snacks". In the Panasonic example, it is overexposed so it looses the detail and the sign is unreadable.

Above that sign, to the immediate left of the utility pole there is what appears to be a shutter around a window. On the Sony side you can see the individual horizontal slats. On the Panasonic side the higher exposure causes the individual slats to partially disappear.

That doesn't necessarily make the Sony video better; in fact, overall I prefer the Panasonic side of this particular YouTube video (other than the light streaks), but the two cameras' different approach to video exposure may explain the differences in the appearance of the whites.

[Hawgwild]

While I agree with your observation concerning the exposure, the Sony also delivered a more color saturated video. All these differences may be tweaked in the menu, I don't know, this is only my observation from watching a single video, which is not enough evidence for me to decide on.

[FiveO]

Originally Posted by Hawgwild

While I agree with your observation concerning the exposure, the Sony also delivered a more color saturated video. All these differences may be tweaked in the menu, I don't know, this is only my observation from watching a single video, which is not enough evidence for me to decide on.

You can't tweak any picture adjustments on the HX5V. You get what you get. The ZS7 saturation and contrast are actually considerably better than the HX5V in both stills and video. That said, I think the HX5V video is better overall.

The comparison set that we all have become so familiar with demonstrates some key weaknesses of both cams but it does not show the best of what either cam can produce. He has simply pitted one auto mode against another which means exposure cannot be adjusted (ZS7 and HX5V), picture adjustments cannot be made (ZS7), some intelligent features are forced on (ZS7), etc.

[keldunwoody]

Actually you can change the exposure compensation on the Hx5v. To me, its video is more pleasing than the zs7.

[Hawgwild]

Originally Posted by keldunwoody

Actually you can change the exposure compensation on the Hx5v. To me, its video is more pleasing than the zs7.

That was my thought as well. However, I think the ZS7 is an absolutely awesome still camera and does macro very well. The lens is super sharp.

[shoturtle]

That is leica for you, great lenses.

[keldunwoody]

Originally Posted by Hawgwild

That was my thought as well. However, I think the ZS7 is an absolutely awesome still camera and does macro very well. The lens is super sharp.

I agree that the zs7 is a very sharp camera....i just wanted to point out that there is a tadbit of wiggle room with the hx5. My wish of finding a compact camera that does everything I want perfectly may never be realized - for my purposes (the compact camera is a sidekick to my olympus e-pl1, which isn't so great with movies, and my daughter has super fair skin which shows color bias something terrible), I needed a long zoom and really great color accuracy indoors, and to me, the hx5 won on those points.