The Panasonic does look impresive and the specs look good too. The camera only has a 1/3 size sensor whereas the Sony EX3 has a 1/2 sensor. Look at the cost of PS2 cards and then consider that you can use SD cards in the Sony for a fraction of the price (Sony's own SXS cards are also expensive).

The Sony has the ability to rack focus and zoom, together with exposure, white balance compensation amongst a few other definable functions all at the touch of a button. Just set up your A shot and save, then set up the B shot with zoom, focus, exposure etc. and save. Now press the A button and the camera sets up your saved shot, press the B button and the camera jumps to your B settings. You can define the speed, and how the camera applies the transition.

In favour of the Panasonic, Sony handheld shooting is dreadful, I am now using a tripod or monopod for most of my work.

Would I buy the Sony or Panasonic today? I would still opt for the Sony.

Do you know an SxS to SD adaptor card supplier in UK Vince? Have you tried real time downconvert real time ingest?

BD

I use Kensington 7 in 1 adaptors these fit in the EX3 no problem. The adaptors can be purchased from Amazon UK at about £14 each, I use Transcend 16gb cards (class 6), again these can be purchased from Amazon UK.

Yes, I have tried most ways to bring in video clips, generally I use the ClipBrowser and have that convert the files into SD avi clips. Not ideal, but I am still looking for the best solution. Having said that, there is nothing much wrong with the quality of footage. I shot a sequence on my Canon XH A1 in SD and compared it to the same footage shot on the EX3 in HD and downconverted to SD and the Sony was better.

Thx Vince - appreciate your input as have been where I am now and this saves me much family time!

Appreciate not all have SDI. Do you have SDI in on your edit kit - did you try it?

BD

Yes, I can use my Matrox RT X2 card to capture SDi. The quality isn't brilliant, certainly no better than just importing a HD clip straight into a SD timeline and then selecting scale to fit (Premiere CS3).

Please feel free to use my full name - Vincent.

Ok - but is that a good 'no render' longform workflow - long GOP and real time downconvert/resize? Then add colour correction, captions etc?? Sorry know little about Premiere. Cheers BD

The Matrox card renders everything as you bring it in. Colour corrections and Chromakey Green screen etc. are also in real time. i.e. instant.

I am in the middle of a DVD project at the moment so have not had much time to experiment further, or in other words if I find a better soluttion then I would have to start the entire project again so I am not looking for the ultimate solution just yet, but I will find it.

Premiere is excellent, it is worth downloading a 30 day trial, but to get the best results then you will need to invest in a good graphics/render card - these are not cheap.

Thanks so much for your help here - really tough decisions! I just decided on the Panasonic AG-HPX301E though. Will do native SD DV/DVCPro and its top notch AVC I format is available for top quality HD jobs. Crucialy it will edit really well on Avid that isnt the latest all singing all dancing 8Gb RAM, 64bit latest hardware/software.

I intend offloading IN CAM to SDHC 32Gb for it has an USB socket and the P2 cards are soooooooverpriced.

Thx again for your input.

BD

I am sure you will be delighted with the Panasonic, at the end of the day they all produced excellent results. The creative process is in the hands of the individual.

Good luck with it all.