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Sony HDR-HC3  

post #1 of 12
9/18/06 at 2:50pm
Thread Starter 
Just purchased my first HDV camcorder, the Sony HDR-HC3 last week. Had a chance to try it at a wedding this past weekend and am very pleased with the results.Previouslyy watching my home videos on my Panny AE700 and 92" 16x9 screen was not very pleasant as there was a lack of definition with my regular DV tapes. Wow! There is now a world of difference.The picture is almost as good as broadcast HDTV. This from a one cmos chip cam is quite good. Outdoor shots are the best due to available light. Low light condition inside the church made me quite aprehensive as my regular dv cam did a poor job under similar conditions. Well, this one did a superb job. The clips are much brighter and more noise free than i anticipated. The only flaw is that telephoto shots are not as good. I suspect it has to do with the lens auto sensors. The picture is blurier and the automatic focus is not as steady. But overall, I am quite pleased so far.As the novelty wears off, I will probably have a more critical view later on. I have been using the HDV tapes, not the regular DV.
Lookin forward hearing comments from other users on this forum.
Mériadec

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post #2 of 12
9/22/06 at 5:53am
I'm looking at this camera but don't know how it stacks up against the Canon HV10. One of the other posts in this forum wrote that the HV10 was much better in outdoor lighting than the HC3 and a little lacking indoor... I'm going to have to make a decision very soon one or the other... did you look into the Canon at all before you bought the Sony?
post #3 of 12
9/22/06 at 7:27am
Thread Starter 
Hi dstrack
No I was not aware that Canon just came out with a similar product. It was a rushed decision as I wanted HDV material real quick for the wedding. I always preferred the lenses of the Canon to Sony's Carl Zeiss. Also, my previous camcorders were both Sony Handycam 8 second generation an Sony DV and I never encountered problems with them apart from low color saturation but that has been fixed by them a few years back. I also edit a lot of family videos (some dating back many many years) with Mac's Final Cut HD software and Sony products work with it flawlessly. The same cannot be said of Canon camecorders. I do have a Canon Rebel camera so you can see that I have no grudge against Canon. I'm sure it is a fine cam.I can only compare with my regular Sony DV cam and what striked me most with this new HC3 is the incredible image quality when shooting in low light conditions. However quality decreases progressively when zooming. I will have a chance to test it again next week under different conditions. There is something unpleasant tough: I had attached a Zoom Microphone ECM-HGZ1 to it and the resulting sound varies greatly. At wide angle, the sound is rich and has normal bass. However at telephoto (with zoom) the bass disapears and the treble is increased. I will have to find a way to correct it when editing. Would appreciate knowing if others have encountered the same problem.
Mériadec
post #4 of 12
9/27/06 at 10:03am
Does the HC3 have the ability to lock the focus and not use the Autofocus? Like many camcorders, the autofocus becomes a problem the darker it gets. I know the HC1 has a ring, but the HC3 has that little mouse-wheel kind of thing...does that allow you to manual focus with the little ring, and if so is it effective?

PS: I have the same shotgun mic and I too have noticed the tinny sound, I believe it is simply a byproduct of the way the microphone sensitivity works when in zoom-mode.
Dropping off the lower frequeuencies since those aren't as easy to hear at distance, and focusing on the higher trebly-sounds, which are easier to hear. Kinda like you hear whispers, you only hear the higher-pitched sounds.....
post #5 of 12
9/27/06 at 7:30pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, the HC3 has the ability to lock the focus. Press the MANUAL button. Rotate the CAM CTRL dial (the little mouse-wheel) and adjust the setting. I'm just quoting what is in the operating guide as I have not had time to test it yet.
Thank you for the feedback regarding the shotgun mic. Your theory makes a lot of sense. This is my third shotgun mic. Manufacturers make sure that they will no fit your latest cam. The same goes for batteries. They make a lot of dough this way.
Mériadec
post #6 of 12
11/21/06 at 5:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by meriadec
Just purchased my first HDV camcorder, the Sony HDR-HC3 last week. Had a chance to try it at a wedding this past weekend and am very pleased with the results.Previouslyy watching my home videos on my Panny AE700 and 92" 16x9 screen was not very pleasant as there was a lack of definition with my regular DV tapes. Wow! There is now a world of difference.The picture is almost as good as broadcast HDTV. This from a one cmos chip cam is quite good. Outdoor shots are the best due to available light. Low light condition inside the church made me quite aprehensive as my regular dv cam did a poor job under similar conditions. Well, this one did a superb job. The clips are much brighter and more noise free than i anticipated. The only flaw is that telephoto shots are not as good. I suspect it has to do with the lens auto sensors. The picture is blurier and the automatic focus is not as steady. But overall, I am quite pleased so far.As the novelty wears off, I will probably have a more critical view later on. I have been using the HDV tapes, not the regular DV.
Lookin forward hearing comments from other users on this forum.
Mériadec
Hi from Sydney. I have a Panny AE300 and a HC3 ( just bought it).
How are you connecting to the AE700? Component?
post #7 of 12
11/21/06 at 7:23am
Thread Starter 
I have only used component with my HC3 altough it also has a HDMI output. My Denon DVD player is plugged to my projector with a DVI-HDMI cable. I would have to purchase a new cable but have found out that they are still expensive. So I am waiting for Apple to come up with a Blu-ray drive to burn my HD content on disk and will purchase a new HDMI cable if it will not be supplied with the HD disk player I intend to purchase as soon as this "disk war" is over.
post #8 of 12
12/5/06 at 9:04am
You can burn your footage to a standard DVD and play it in a Toshiba HD-DVD player. A dual layer DVD will get about an hours worth of footage on it.
post #9 of 12
12/6/06 at 12:31pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadRusch
You can burn your footage to a standard DVD and play it in a Toshiba HD-DVD player. A dual layer DVD will get about an hours worth of footage on it.
Thanks for the tip. From reading your other posts, I believe that you are using Pinnacle software. Having left the PC platform some years ago, I do not have any desire to return to it. It was DOS hell! I am patiently waiting for Apple to come up with an upgrade to their hardware and editing programs as they make everything so much easier. I avoid burning on double layer disks as they are 8 times more expensive than single layer ones. As for HD-DVD, from what I've read so far, there is only one (Toshiba plus the RCA clone) hardware manufacturer and their player seems to be clunky, slow, freezes and sometime crashes Ã* la PC. No way,,, I'll wait for the dust to settle.
BTW, I enjoy your posts very much. They are always informative.
Regards,
Mériadec
post #10 of 12
12/6/06 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by meriadec
Thanks for the tip. From reading your other posts, I believe that you are using Pinnacle software.
Thats correct

Quote:
Having left the PC platform some years ago, I do not have any desire to return to it. It was DOS hell!
Then you certainly left it AWHILE ago :)

Quote:
I am patiently waiting for Apple to come up with an upgrade to their hardware and editing programs as they make everything so much easier. I avoid burning on double layer disks as they are 8 times more expensive than single layer ones. As for HD-DVD, from what I've read so far, there is only one (Toshiba plus the RCA clone) hardware manufacturer and their player seems to be clunky, slow, freezes and sometime crashes Ã* la PC. No way,,, I'll wait for the dust to settle.
BTW, I enjoy your posts very much. They are always informative.
Regards,
Mériadec
Well thanks for the kind words, I appreciate it. This forum is a treasure-trove of intelligent people, I consider myself lucky just to be able to glean a little bit of knowledge from the people who really *do* know what they're talking about.

You'e assessment of the Toshiba HD-DVD player is, sadly, correct...but mine hasn't given me too many fits, and I enjoy the format. The 2nd generation players are due out (if not out already) and they don't share most of the hiccups that the 1st generation players did.

Of course, DVD suffered the same set of issues for many years, so this is just par for the course if you ask me.

Eventually the cost of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray burners will come down, but if you are waiting for a sure-fire market "winner or loser", you may be in for a long wait.
The HD-DVD format seems to have some legs.......particularly in the choices of films they are releasing on the format.
post #11 of 12
12/6/06 at 8:03pm
DOS :)

Isn't that part of the fossil record in computerland?
post #12 of 12
12/7/06 at 7:44am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by c.kingsley
DOS :)

Isn't that part of the fossil record in computerland?

Very funny! :D :D :D

Mériadec (Dinosauros)
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