well my eyes must be fading coz I have a canon hv20 and a hv30 and have just been using them with Maxell pro master tape and having used the newer HF G30 on the same project I for the life of me can't see any difference, the HV20 was used to film the nightjar (bird) on nest site in 2007 and last year 2016 with the HF G30 same type of bird and same distance from nest site looking at the footage side by side I can see no difference amazed really don't waste your money on hype!!

Just curious, are you comparing your video at the camera's max. resolution on a HD screen, or are you comparing after down-sizing to SD/DVD quality? I would think that the slightly higher bit rate and resolution of the G30 would be apparent.

The specs between the HV30 and HF G30 are not world's apart. I have the HV30 and am still impressed with its image quality; nice bright colors. The image sensor on the G30 is slightly smaller than the HV30 (.352" vs. .370"). Megapixels aren't all that different; HV30 @ 2.96MP, G30 @ 3.09MP. Bit rate is 25Mbps on the HV30 and up to 35Mbps on the G30. If you're not shooting in MP4 mode on the G30, then you are getting less than that with AVCHD mode of 28Mbps. Very comparable cameras IMO.

On the plus side, with the G30 you get 20x zoom (vs. 10x), tapeless workflow, less demand on computer during editing, probably better image stabilization.

Mark

Hi Ian,

I have an HV20 and the image always amazed me - often looked better than my bigger, more expensive Sony 3-chipper! Just a heck of a little camera for the price ($700 US like 10 years ago). There is a trick to get manual exposure control without GAIN, which makes all the difference from default settings in low light.

The tape door recently got jammed, but I still use the camera head to record via HDMI to an Atomos Ninja 2 unit.

Thanks

Jeff

Agree Jeff tech moves on its got to have this many MB per second to do this or its no good well instead of jumping to the newer better camera maybe they should learn to use the camera they have because has I said before between the hv20/30/40 and the newer HF G30 no one would notice the difference what more could you want, The way things are going the video is going to be that sharp its going to cut your eyes!!! remember its content if its good people will watch it no matter what its filmed on.

The differences will show up at the edges of the performance envelope (e.g, poor light), in availability and effectiveness of manual adjustments, and the tapeless vs. tape.

Content is king; competent camera technique, and editing arguably coming in second and third. A good eye may see differences in the original material displayed on a quality HD monitor. But if recoded, especially to DVD, much of the difference will be lost.