Canon MVX25i

This is a Very Good Digital Camcorder. Video quality is excellent.

After days of extensive research I bought the Canon MVX25i as a replacement for my broken four year old Panasonic NV-DS11 camcorder and was not disappointed. Colour reproduction is glorious in all conditions and is as good as Panasonic's 3CCD NV-GS200 camcorder. I tested both and could not see any difference. The RGB filter on this 1CCD Canon really must make a difference. The Canon is packed with features and manual controls all of which are easily accessible from the menu. There is not a problem with tape mechanism noise as with cheaper Canon models (I tested the MV750i and noise was very apparent). The performance in lower light is pretty good, well at least as good as the competition (the Panasonic NV-GS200, I don't know about Sony) especially if you switch off the Automatic Slow Shutter Speed option. Image stabilisation is great, even in lower light (miles better than the Panasonic). The optical zoom of x14 is most welcome and the digital zoom (not that experts advise using this) is pretty good too at lower levels. The camcorder is fairly compact but still manages to have a robust feel about it. The colour night modes are fine for taking "still" video, but when there is significant movement everything becomes a blur. However the manual is not written clearly and the supplied SD card is only 8Mb, a few more Mb wouldn't hurt! All in all a great camcorder.