Help me select the best small HD traveling camera for video!

does it meet the quality for stock footage? i am also looking at the best option for a light weight but pro-consumer video camera. my sonny z5U is proving to be too cumbersome carrying it in a bag. i always need to carry it in its special bag which is too big for comfort in the bush. any input?

I loved my Z5U ... still have it, in fact ... mainly for its lens ... that fabulous zoom range! But I will say Steve that the quality of the video coming out of the RX100m3 and m4 far surpasses that of the Z5U ... but you might also find a happy medium in a cam like the AX100 ... which is a baby Z5u, in essence, not as long of a zoom, but a better modern codec and sensor, just in a smaller form factor. I also have the PXW-X70, which is pretty much an AX100 on steroids, has an even better codec still (which is not superb and has highlight handling issues), and a fancy "pro audio" input handle which I never use due to its size.

If you like I will shoot a very brief clip of something with each cam and post it to dropbox or something.

But I heartily recommend the RX100 series to anyone wanting a very small pocket cam with capabilities far beyond its size. (And with the mark 4 or mark 5 you can crop into the 4K a bit and get decent HD if the content requires it)

I have both the RX 10 II and the AX-100. Both shoot very good 4K/HD videos. One a dslr and the other a video camera package.

My best selling video has been taken with a RX100 mk2

There's absolutely no advantage to the RX100 m5 over RX100 m4 except it cost $100 more.

Other than front end LSI which helps compression process (I think) which "should" result in less rolling shutter, higher pixel reading for more detail, and new AF system (hybrid, not just contrast-based) with more points (I use AF to establish focus then switch to manual , unless I forget ... it's pretty fast but hunts in low light or misty situations) and above all the HFR (High Frame Rate) mode has twice the recording time in buffer, which is the main reason I'll consider one.

So no Jason, no real advantage ... none at all ... although I will say I am highly disappointed there is not 4Kp60

Seven seconds more in HFR isn't that big a deal and really isn't worth the extra $100. By the way I have the RX10 m2 and at 1:25 at 960fps you end by cutting it down to less then 15 seconds of footage.

This clip was shot 480fps

When trying to capture cool things at HFR with a buffer, a longer buffer is often a boon, as 2 seconds is a bit shy of easy to do. It' snot the clip length, it's the likelihood of getting what you want. I am still pretty irate about the 4K upgrade on the FS700 for 120fps getting cut to 4 seconds ... that's way too short, and I miss either the beginning and end of things fairly frequently (I use end trigger a lot)

So it's worth it to me, as well as the other points. Not enough to worry about now ... but if it came up that I had to replace my m4, I'd certainly be happy to spend another $100 on top of the replacement price for the m5.

Well I shoot at 24p in either 480 or 960fps which depends a lot on the weather. If the weather is to overcast 960fps requires just to high an IOS even at 2.8 to get clean video footage. Shooting 960fps @ 24p = 85 sec while 480fps @ 24p = 39 seconds. I also use end trigger haven't found a reason as of yet to use the start trigger.

Speaking of end trigger, why are we all not up in arms about DIGITAL video camera makers not giving us a cache record? Even for real-time footage ... it gets my goat ... and I begged Convergent Design to implement that in the Odyssey recorder... nope .. can't do it.