I have the A710 and have shot a lot of video with it. I find it just as good as my Canon camcorder. I haven't used it in a long time and probably never will again. The S5 has the same video but with stereo sound, zoom while filming and in camera editing. I'll be buying the S5, primarily for the excellent video. I take short clips in Yellostone and simply don't want two cameras around my neck.
A regular TV works at 30 fps, 640x480. A DVD is the same. HD gives you more resolution, and some HD standards offer a higher frame rate, but the latter is only useful for sports and the like, when you might want to slow down the action. Eyes don't work at 60 fps, they work at around 30 fps (that is to say, a frame rate of around 30 fps will be interpreted by your eyes and brain as being fluid).
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This might be true, with fast-moving subjects. A 30fps camcorder picture with interlaced scanning (which most of them use), will not look jerky. Digital cameras use progressive scanning and with just 30fps, progressive video can look jerky with moving subjects. That's why the best progressive-scan camcorders have 60fps.
As you say yourself, you are not the typical holiday videographer. I think you are comparing the Sx video quality with that of high-quality, semi-pro video gear. That's like saying the stills image quality is bad because it cannot compare with a Mark III. Most users will copare the video quality with average, family camcorders. When compared to those, the Sx stand their ground well.
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Almost every single(> 99%) Mini DV and HDV camcorders shoot interlaced 30 FPS video. This is wonderful for displaying the video on your 480i Interlaced Standard Definition TV or your 1080i High Definition TV. However, deinterlacing the video to display it on a progressive display can in some cases remove half of the resolution if done poorly.
Digital cameras use progressive scanning and with just
I agree with everything you said. The convenience of having one camera that gets decent stills and videos is such an obvious advantage to most of us. I'm very surprised that more of the long zoom makers don't put more emphasis on video. I think there are many buyers that feel like we do.
Sampling rate on mini DV is higher than Digicam. It is true that HDD camcorder IQ is not as good as mini DV at this time including mini DVD. The quality disadvantage is not obvious on TV. I don't think you can notice that much if your expectation of footage is for family trip, vacation and like majority users. All I want to say the video clips from S5 is very good to my expectation and I am willing to leave my Elura at home. Of course Elura is more capable camcorder but S5 is good enough for my purpose. On the other hand, S5 digicam saves more time when uploading the clips to computer for making movie. DV need to run tape to get the file in your computer. It is one of the reason I am staying away miniDV. It simply consumes me a lot of time and time on PC, too. In summary, the quality of S5 video is close to miniDV and there is no noticeable defect on the video quality.
