Buy Sony HDR-CX100 AVCHD HD Camcorder with Smile Shutter & 10x Optical Zoom (Black)

I don't have a lot to add over what has already been said by other reviews, except to confirm that the picture quality degrades rapidly with decreasing light levels. In good light, the picture is jaw-dropping excellent (played back on a 50" Sony HDTV), but in dim interior lighting, it can be just about as shockingly awful. My best advice is to turn on every light in the room and surrounding rooms. If that doesn't do it for you, upgrade the wattage of the bulbs. My reference point for low light performance is a Sony mini-dv cam form 2002, which was pretty good in low light - better than the CX100, actually.

Battery life with supplied battery is pretty poor. I got the bigger capacity Lenmar from Amazon and it works great. Grab yourself a 16G MS Pro Duo while you're at it.

I dinged the usability by a star, because even after 4 months of a lot of use, I find the menus on this cam to be awful. I have only had Sony cams, so it's not like I'm a newbie. I'm sure I'll eventually be used to it, but still...

One great thing if you have a PS3 - just burn a data DVD with the .MTS video files from the camcorder and stuff it in the PS3 to play it back. The quality is simply amazing.

Overall, this is a great camcorder, and the low light performance is the only issue which occasionally makes me wonder if I should have spent the extra money for the CX500. Now that the price on the CX500 has dropped significantly below msrp, I probably would have gone ahead and spent the money to upgrade. Having to buy a 16G MS puts the price much closer to the CX500, since it has 32GB built in, and it has the EXMOR-R backlit sensor which improves the low light performance significantly.Get more detail about Sony HDR-CX100 AVCHD HD Camcorder with Smile Shutter & 10x Optical Zoom (Black).