As background, prior to the last month I have been shooting with a Panasonic HPX-170 in 720p 60fps, which gave me very good results. I bought a PMW-200 a few weeks ago, and this last weekend I did my first project, an indoor dance recital, in 1080p 30 fps. The results were amazing ! The colors were true and lively, the sharpness was excellent, focusing using the peaking (in white) was easy-to-use and very accurate, noise was low enough that I used a +3 gain for the entire event. On a new 46" Samsung TV no significant noise was visible on playback. My only real complaints are the poorly-designed tripod mount located way away from the center of the camera, and the very stiff RECORD button. I lost a portion of one dance because I hadn't pushed the button hard enough to begin recording. I otherwise highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for a very high-quality easily-portable HD camcorder.

very stiff RECORD button. I lost a portion of one dance because I hadn't pushed the button hard enough to begin recording. .

Mark, I assume you are referring to the record button on the grip? That is designed for use during hand-held shooting, and it does require a good deal of pressure so it doesn't accidentally get pressed. When I'm shooting from a tripod, I can't even see the record button on the grip and so I wouldn't want to use it even if it did take less pressure to trigger. Fortunately, there are better options.

I usually use the record button located on top of the handle. But if you don't find that inconvenient, then try programming Assign Button #5 for RECORD. You can't get better than that unless you attach a 3rd-party zoom/record controller to the pan handle of your tripod (highly recommended for shooting dance recitals, plays, wedding, sports, and meetings).

"Mastering the PMW-200-160-150-100 Camcorders" (http://www.vortexmedia.com/DVD_PMW200.html)