Hi folk,
Have just taped a classical concert using Sony M10 for audio and Panasonic SD900 for video. Those are fine. The Panasonic's audio is to my ear somewhat harsh (no clipping detected though). So its a matter of syncing the Sony audio. (With loud rock and punk the Panasonic is usually okay).
But I took some stills and a bit of B-roll with a Fuji Finepix F80exr and maybe a few frames are usable with much tweaking, but the stills are nearly all atrocious. My phone does a better job.
I've never got the hang of this camera which I've had for about 4 years - but now I've read up about them here:
http://kimletkeman.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/fuji-f70exr-how-to-shoot-it-mkii.html, and apparently they can be much improved if you avoid all the gotchas - like never let it shoot HR. They don't work out of the box it seems.
But I still don't trust the Fuji. Since the SD900 takes brilliant stills, I thought I'd upgrade to a Panasonic TZ40 (in US ZS30). Panansonics do tend to work on default settings. What swung my choice is the ability to touch the screen and it will focus at that point. Amazing if it works.
The video is noticeably not as good as the Camcorder, but good enough for cutaways.
A lot of suppliers in the UK seem to have sold out. I could only get order a red one, otherwise there would be a wait.
Much of its use will be at concerts so I wonder what Tapers' experiences was?