Panasonic HMC80 light sensitivity : Panasonic AF100, DVX100, HMC150

The DCR-PD170 has three 1/3" sensors.. they are going to collect more light in the same situation than the 1/4" sensors of the HMC80. And in fact, it might just be significant. Light gathering is based on pixel size. For a DV camera, the pixels could be about 6x the size -- meaning, 6x the light gathering capability, all things being equal -- versus an HD camera with the same sensor size.

That's not to suggest things are always equal. The CMOS sensors in the HMC80, while smaller than those of the PD170, are lower noise at the same gain level. So you get a little of that back. If you downrez to DV, you'll effectively average out much of the noise, so when comparing apples and apples, the PD170 will still be better in low light, but it shouldn't be critical.

Incidently, the HMC80 doesn't have "digital gain", the gain you're adding is analog, same as the gain on any camcorder. You're tweaking the gain on the ADCs that take the analog signal from the pixels and convert it to the digital signal that's ultimately recorded. It took several iterations to get CMOS sensors working well, but by the time the HMC80 came out (it has the same sensor array as my HMC40.. it's actually the first good "cheap" shoulder mount camera Panasonic made; all the previous ones were generally lower in quality than a good consumer camera of the same era), CMOS sensors were quite a bit quieter than CCD. So adding a bit of gain is not in itself a problem.

The bottom line: how does you video look?

Now, also consider that among DV camcorders, the PD170, VX2100, and other cameras based on the same tech were probably the best low-light models ever made. Sony didn't win on features, pretty much ever, but they were ahead of Canon, Panny, and JVC on low light back in that era. The HMC80 is definitely not in the same league. When I need low light video, I use my Canon 60D HDSLR, and just deal with the 10-12 minute recording window. HDSLRs are better at low light than pretty much any camcorder, though of course with many more issues, workflow-wise.

-Dave