DSLR's may be dead in 5 years

[Chris B]

Peru/Ron,

There is a definite quantitative quality difference between the HV30 and Nex5N I have. Having said that most DSLRs have larger sensors and lenses than the HV30 so are likely to produce "better" images - even at the same video quality. The smaller depth of field of the lens means I think it is different rather than better. Different all the time - better some of the time. I understand that if you were to move to a modern AVCHD camcorder (like the Panasonic X920) there would be a significant jump in image quality from the HV30.

[momoffduty]

Cheryl, have you seen a quality improvement with DSLR vs camcorder?

Short answer is Yes. However, I think it depends on the light and the lens. I think there is more of a dynamic range with a Dslr vs the HV30 and attribute that to the sensor as Chris posted. But, as I posted earlier a little tweaking with the contrast or saturation or the white balance helps juice things up.