Hello,

I would like to buy a digital camcorder in the near future and I have a question concerning panning on digital cameras. I don't know a lot about them, but I have heard that a lot of digital cameras have problems while panning. It is not smooth. The best way I can describe the problem is that there is ghosting of the images while moving the camera around even very slowly. I understand that it is a bigger problem in low light situations.
Update: I wanted to make sure it was clear that you can see the panning problem in the camera filmed footage before you even transfer it to TV or to a computer and apply any filtering whatsoever.

A friend of mine has tried out several Canon models (Elura 65, Elura 70, Optura 20, and the Optura 40). The only one that didn't have problems with panning was the Optura 20. The only problem it had was that it didn't have the best image quality and color reproduction. He told me that the problem seems to be that the part of the image stays in the CCD for a few frames so you end up with the ghosting effect, but you have better image quality and color reproduction as long as the camera is stationary.

I have noticed similar problems on DVD's and movies in the theater. I noticed a similar panning problem in American Splendor (on the menus only), Supersize Me, and even the new version of Manchurian Candidate. I also want to say the same about Sky Captain when I saw it in the theater. I didn't exactly see the ghosting effect on any of these, but the panning was not smooth during certain scenes. I'm starting to see this more and more now days. I only pointed these out since these were probably filmed with high end digital cameras. However, I don't know if the effect is intentional or just a limitation with the equipment they used. I just wanted to update this part to mention that I am talking about the official store bought DVD's and not copied DVD bootlegs. The problem seems to be in the original source.

Is there a happy medium between panning, image quality, and reproduction on digital camcoders? While analog camcorders do not have the same level of image quality but I have never seen problems while panning unless you were trying to do something insane like jerking the camera around. I will admit that I am partial to Canon, but I would be willing to give other brands of digital camcorders a try.

If anyone could shed some light on what causes this and could recommend a good digital camcorder, I would appreciate it.


Thanks.

Mythos