Panasonic Camera (A2) vs. Canon Camera (AS)

The camera this year in A2 we are using is the Panasonic AGHMC41E. We have moved up from last year at AS from the Canon Legria HFR28E. The big question here is, why have we moved from the Canon to the Panasonic?

Canon Legria HFR28E

Panasonic AGHMC41E

The Canon is HD, whilst the Camera is an HD AVC Cam. So they are both able to record in High Definition already... so why move?

The pixels and resolution equal better picture quality.

There is actually better zoom on the Canon than the Panasonic, yet zoom is not the most important thing.

They have the same amount of megapixels (3.05)
The Panasonic has full HD images
The Canon has HD but not full HD, as it doesn't have many pixels (230,000 dots)

The Canon CCD: 1/4.85 type CMOS

Mite features on Panasonic.

Panasonic:

• Has Zebra - puts lines on a person's face so it is correctly exposed to light
• Different recording features; different speeds
• Focus assists: zooms in very quickly, focuses on the face, then zooms out again (to look for crosshairs)
• Manual focus (manually turn the ring and do a focus pull
• Longer battery life
• Has an XLR Cable to connect with Sennheiser K6 (shotgun microphone) - the microphone is unidirectional, which means beautifully recorded dialogue (shotgun = targeted at the lips); this all equates to good sound quality.
• You cannot use this with the Canon and get the same quality, as the Canon doesn't have an input for that microphone; there is no on-board microphone.
• When you synchronise an XLR to an XLR, you don't loose the sound, it preserves it, whereas you do loose the sound if you synchronise an XLR to a minijack.
• We have an IRIS control, which allows us to control the intensity of light in the camera.
• The Panasonic is 1920x1080 Full HD.
• 3mos is a newer technology than CMOS.

In conclusion:

1) There is much more manual control over the Panasonic.
2) There is better overall picture and sound quality.