On Fri, 20 Sep 2002 17:24:28 +0800, "Gary Pollard" wrote:

>Well I got hold of my DSR-PDX10P this afternoon. Was interested to note
>(albeit with a pinch of salt) that the manual compares 7 lux to about F1.7.
>Brought it home, tried it in a darkened interior - late afternoon, blinds
>down. I didn't let it go as high as 18db gain, but I did try it at 6 and 12.
>I also squeezed more light response out of it by setting it at 25fps - it's
>a PAL model.
>
>My initial feeling is that in dark situations the camera can shoot at least
>as much as you can see and possibly even more than you can see, particularly
>as long as you can accept a negligible amount of grain. Maybe the other
>comparisons on the Net I've seen were at 0 db.
>
>It begins to give you less intense colour no earlier than the point at which
>your eyes start giving you less intense colour, so in that sense it's pretty
>naturalistic. At 12db on this model the grain is not all that noticeable. I
>haven't tried lovers by candlelight yet, or night streets - which I'll do
>tonight.
>
>Essentially I needed a back up for my PD150, and a camera to shoot in more
>discreet situations where I don't want a lot of attention. The low light
>performance may not be quite up to the PD150, but I'd say it's good enough
>unless you intend to film a lot of unusually dark situations.Otherwise it
>suits my purposes fine and matches the picture of the PD150 in normally lit
>situations.
>
>Three things piss me off:
>- that the batteries are not compatable with the PD150,
>- they don't include a battery charger
>- they don't include a wide angle lens as they did with the PD100.
>
>I'm particularly interested in the improved widescreen function which makes
>good use of the extra pixels.
>
>Gary

Thanks for the comments. It would be interesting to see
comparisons in too-low light with some Sony 1-chip models,
since I have several of these in addition to the TRV900s
and VX2000s, in order to "place" the TRV950 relative range.
I guess all this depends on what one considers "low light".
I could get good enough images from the Panasonic EZ30U
in a darkened room in daylight, but that camera was
useless in interiors I often shoot in for work (as are all
the one-chippers), and even during the day, one common
location I use is marginal for the TRV900, beyond the
one-chippers, and at times even challenging for the
VX2000... I suspect that if your house is brightly lit,
and that you travel to locations during the daytime (or
to brightly-lit night-time locations), the TRV950 would
be more than adequate - and it appears otherwise to have
excellent image quality (and desirable small size...).
Some day I will try one, though it is almost certainly
not good enough in "my" low light...;-)