Once you give it enough light, the Canon does very well for an inexpensive standard-definition camcorder, while the Sony is really only mediocre at best, about the same as the JVC GZ-MS100 I used back in 2009. The Canon also favors a noticeably warmer color temperature than the Sony and seems to stand up better to YouTube's re-compression, while the Sony tends to blow out the highlights (bright white areas) and boosts the color saturation too much. Sony's Active SteadyShot (new for 2011) does help reduce camera shake while walking, but the Dynamic Image Stabilizer which Canon added to the FS300 and FS400 should help improve upon the FS200's performance in that regard (at the expense of no longer having the external mic and headphone jacks in the newer models). Otherwise, the Canon FS300, FS30, FS31, FS400, and FS40 should all perform similarly to the FS200, while the Sony DCR-SX45, DCR-SX65, and DCR-SX85 are all identical except for the amount of built-in flash memory offered (none, 4 GB, and 16 GB, respectively).

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