Sony A99 Video versus Sony Handycam Video: A Video Comparison

"I agree the RX100 takes great video. Go back and look carefully at the second camcorder example again. I noticed artifacts and shimmering which leads me to believe the RX100 is significantly better than that camcorder for video."

If you are judging video quality from  the stream, you are misled. Download the original (or look at the framegrabs - you will see no shimmering or artifacts). The RX100 video performance is poor relative to mid-level camcorders in resolution tests. Go to slashcam.de or camorderinfo.com or digitalcamera.com and see the tests (tests that DPReview should be doing)- the RX100 video is low resolution and has plenty of artifacts relative to, say, the CX760v (730) and the GW77 (55). The RX100 does take nice video for sure; it is just not as nice as camcorders. Btw, the Sony Hx20V has better video performance in good light than the RX100 (but no manual control). But this is off topic.

The posted videos are illustrative; resolution charts can tell us more precisely what is wrong or right. And in this case, those kinds of tests correspond to what we see. And no one is arguing that the camcorder video is perfect either.