Robin, This, in my opinion, has been your best reivew yet. Lots of pictures, and excellent comments and information about the camcorder. I was going to go with the VX2000, but I'm holding off till the VX2100 comes out. It sounds like a fantastic camcorder. Since I live in Canada, it'll be about $5200 with taxes included. I'll go check it out at Henry's when it debuts in December. As an intermediate videographer, at 17, I currently own a Sony TRV38, although a great camcorder, I definatly need something more and since I'm filming 2 weddings in May and one in June, I'm definatly going to need a better camcorder. I also make movies with my friends. Currently we are in the works of doing a Starwars fanfilm using Adobe Premiere and Adobe Photoshop for the Lightsaber effects. (Frame by Frame editing! yah ) I'm applying at Ryerson University this spring for the Film and Production course. Anyway, enough blabbing, thank-you for this first excellent review! Keep it up!

James Poremba

I only have one question, why did Sony make it bigger? Well, any how, since the scam I went through on ebay and me being out 2k I don't know what camera I want now but this is a possibility. Maybe camcorderinfo should donate it to me well thanks for the review robin I waited for it for a while.

Bigger? The VX2100 looks smaller than the VX2000.

the comparinson pics are wrong. Look closer its opposite. The vx21 is darker

I just have a few questions about the camera, still. I played around with a VX2000 earlier in the year at BH Photo in NYC, and was wondering if a few things were tinkered with... Do the zoom/focus rings offer the same amount of resistance? I remembered wanting a little less tightness on them. Also, did the slowest zoom speed slow down? I also heard that with the VX2000, one cannot adjust the iris and then adjust the shutter without changing the aperture automatically. Is this still how it works?

On question... why did you give more weight to the camera's still performance than it's audio performance!?

I'm curious about the statement that the XL1S beats the VX2100 in low light performance and image.

In your current 3ccd camcorder showdown, the VX2000 image in low light is much better than the XL1S, and the VX2100 is supposed to be slightly better. I understand that the XL1S has pretty good low light ability, but that is also taking into account that to get the best low-light (the rated lowlight) performance you have to slow the frame-rate down to (if I remember right) somewhere around 15 fps? Which to me is not acceptable for lowlight conditions since you get the blur/stutter, which I want to avoid.
So, in the end, how do you determine that the XL1S has a better low light performance? I ask because I am looking at buying 2 "prosumer" camcorders and want to get the model that best suits my needs.

About the size of the VX2100.

I believe that it is the same body. It may look bigger because of the very large eye cup, the higher handle (makes it a bit taller), and the addition of the lense hood with built in lense cap.

The main body should be the same from what I can tell.

I am really pleased with the pictures showing the VX2100 low light performance in the other article on the site. The biggest issue I face when purchasing a camera is the ability to take good video in low to moderate lighting. The other downfall is the inability to correct for florescent lighting which I encounter a lot. Nobody else is addressing the issue of dynamic range in the luminance. Thank you for doing that.
I have used a Canon GL1 under florescent lighting and the color balance is excellent as is the low light performance.
Keep up the good work.

Great review, and I have read several so far. The only "nit" I have to pick is the part about the VX2100's USB port. If there is one on my VX2100, it remains well hidden.

__________________
L. Phipps

'Many people are blasting Sony for not including a 24 frames progressive mode'

I have just ordered a SONY DCR VX2100 and I plan to shoot in wide screen and edit using Adobe Premiere. I naturally assumed that the VX2100 records in PAL at 25 frames per second, am I right in thinking this?

[Excuse my basic question, as I am a slight novice and just getting into the technical side of things]

The VX2100 is a nice camocrder, but if you want to film in PAL at 25 frames a second, you are out of luck on the VX2100. You need to order the more expensive PAL version, the VX2100E (E presumably stands for Europe) make sure you've ordered a VX2100E not the standard VX2100. Hope this helps!

James

Thanks for that. What is strange is, if you visit the official SONY UK web site www.sony.co.uk and search for VX2000E or VX2100E then neither camcorder is found? Where as both the VX2000 and VX2100 are found (with no mention of either VX2000E or VX2100E). However, if I go to www.google.com and type in either VX2000E or VX2100E then these camcorders do appear, and the sites they appear on are on foreign language sites. So I can only assume that SONY intends for the VX2000 and VX2100 to be used in the UK (without any reason to mention the VX2000E or VX2100E).

I'm not really sure why they wouldn't have the VX2100E posted, but I know if you have PAL in the UK (which you do) you need the PAL camcorder, the VX2100E or like you said, if you want to record in PAL, you would also need the VX2100E, the Sony UK site might be mistyping it, check other camcorders on that site to see if they are in the PAL format (for example, the Sony TRV38E or the Sony HC30E, something like that)

James

Every review I ever read rate this camcorder as the best possible camcorder for low light performance. Sample pictures prove the same. Why only giving it a 7.0? How further can you go after a 1 LUX rating?

Oded S.