Sony HDR-HC3 4MP High-Definition Handycam MiniDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom

Review by D. Dwyer for Sony HDR-HC3 4MP High-Definition Handycam MiniDV Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom
Rating:
I have had this camcorder for about 2 weeks now. Overall I’m pleased. Most of my video playback has been done via a Pioneer 50″ plasma HDTV so I do have a very nice playback source to judge the recorded video quality.

Disclaimer – I am a novice photographer/videographer so people might correct my few gripes saying, “if you’d just set the flux capacitor settings to …,” but my review should be applicable to people that operate the camera in “easy” mode (all of my recordings have either been done in ‘easy mode’ or with the auto settings – not quite sure what the difference is other than ‘easy mode’ doesn’t let you adjust anything).

Pros:

- Incredible detail & pretty good color reproduction when photographing outdoors. Seriously, it is almost (but not quite) as nice as watching cable/satellite HD when hooked up to an HDTV w/HDMI and/or component video connections – (I’ve tried both, not much noticable difference between the two, although HDMI is more convenient). I don’t believe (and I’ve read the specs on the format, so I’m pretty certain), that HDV format will produce true HD quality video but in the right lighting conditions, what is reproduced is definitely better than watching an anamorphic widescreen DVD on a progressive scan player so I’d say it’s somewhere between HD and SD in quality (when the lighting is ideal).

- Easy to operate. Great menuing system and the controls are easy to use.

- Very nice LCD display & view finder

- Compact, ergonomic design that fits well in your hand

- Very sturdy, robust feel to the camcorder

Cons:

- Picture quality degrades quickly in lower light conditions including normal indoor lighting almost to the point that I’m not sure if it’s any better than standard DV quality (other than the nice widescreen format). I bought an external 3 watt Sony flash that helps at close range but even then, color reproduction is not as good as outdoors and I notice more artifacts (blurriness in certain images & patterns, pixelation, etc.). I’d probably venture to guess that if all of your videotaping is done indoors, you might be better served with a 3 CCD camcorder than this one – but outdoors, there’s no comparison.

- Images with bright sources behind them get washed out. I videotaped a sunset and everything other than the sunset, itself, was completely washed out. I imagine this is one of the things that the white balance or exposure can correct but in Easy/Auto mode, no such luck (par for the course???).

- Camera often requires two hands to hold steady to avoid jittery video. Maybe it’s just the fact that the quality with this Sony is so sharp, but even my POS JVC mini-DV camcorder from 6 years ago seemed to have a better anti-shake mechanism. Those w/steady hands, tripods, or willing to use two hands need not worry.

- Sony seems to be hiding driver/software support for the camcorder and the HDV format. There’s little to no help in the manual about how to upload video to a PC in HD format unless “it’s a Sony VAIO.” I’m pretty turned off by it. Digging around, it seems that if you’re a PC user, you need Windows XP SP2 or else you have to jump through hoops to get it to work. I hooked it up to my mother’s Mac and had no problems capturing the HDV video using iMovie. I’d love to know what some of the other reviewers are using (hardware/software) to down convert the video for standard DVD (MPEG-2) format – others have said they’ve had great results. When I down convert, the results look choppy, grainy, and there are compression artifacts everywhere (this really isn’t the camcorder’s fault, though).

- Battery life – this might be par for the course with camcorders these days, but I just got back from the zoo where I did lots of record/pause/record/pause recording for a few seconds at a time and the freshly charged battery only had about 35 minutes of recording life. I’ll probably buy a second battery.

- Some flimsy platic covers that cover the AV outputs and AC adaptor and seem destined to break off at some point in the future.

Unless you’re a ‘glass is half full’ person, it’s always easier to cite the cons of a product than its pros. Overall, I am very pleased and if it wasn’t the few complaints that I’ve listed, I would’ve given this 5 stars. My only serious gripe is the video quality drop-off in lower light settings, but my old mini-DV JVC camcorder had the same problem (it was only $500, though). If they had a 3 CCD version of this for under 2K, it’d probably be perfect. Some form of HD MPEG-4 recording format would also be nice, but for now, I can’t imagine a consumer HD camcorder in this price range being any better.

Bottomline, if you’re eager to start videotaping in HD format and aren’t a professional with at least 5K to drop, you should be pleased with this camcorder, but taylor your expectations for indoor/low-light recording and buy a nice a flash.