I went to the darkest bar i know of and filmed this.
It doesn't take much light to improve the quality. In other words - the camera does NOT need tons of light.
However it was struggling to see and it was difficult to focus, even with the focus assistant. This was a very poor place to film (good place to test its limits)
Settings: Shutter priority 30
Shade setting ( i should of set white balance)
HDV standard (non 24p)
Pulled off camera with firewire and edited with Premier Pro 2.0
No color correction or contrast adjustments (when editing), i only adjusted opacity when fading.

I took a bandwidth hit on the last video so im going to try blip for this one.
Both files are the same, one is high def (1280x720 @ 10171kbps) the other is 700 x 394 with a low bit rate.
http://blip.tv/file/get/Road82-LowLightBOG16mb582.wmv Small 16mb file
http://blip.tv/file/get/Road82-LowLightBOG950.wmv Big 104mb
Its a 2 minute video.

Not bad, sometimes I wonder what kind of low light quality reviewers expect when they say the HV20, I assume, doesn't do well in low light... Seems more like settings to me...

I think most any camera struggles to auto-focus in low light..

It seems pretty candid, did anyone notice that you taping?

I asked everyone except the guy eating.

That was one of the first things i read about the camera when i started researching it. Don't remember where i read it but they said it does poorly in low light. It does just as well as my Panasonic GS500 - not that that is the ultimate camera in low light.

It does fine in low lighting i think. The test for me is how it does on the 4th of July. With the fireworks. If it passes that test i will be very happy!

I asked everyone except the guy eating.

That was one of the first things i read about the camera when i started researching it. Don't remember where i read it but they said it does poorly in low light. It does just as well as my Panasonic GS500 - not that that is the ultimate camera in low light.

It does fine in low lighting i think. The test for me is how it does on the 4th of July. With the fireworks. If it passes that test i will be very happy!I just sold my 500 and have an HV20. I think it does better in low light than the 500. What I especially like about this cam is the ability to trick it in not applying any gain (in dark areas). It's not as sensitive as a DVX but it is adequate.
That first video byt the way was nice...second one stil downloading. Good choice in music (it fit the scene well).

I find it a lot better in 24/25p mode for low light. Its awesome this way.

It doesn't look too bad actually. The usual bit of noise of course. Wonder what kind of lighting Canon used for their HV20 clubs shot in a night club/bar also.

Funny, you never got permission from the guy eating? He appeared the most throughout the clip that I assumed he must have been a friend.