Sony's new HD camcoder: The HDR-HC3

Just when you thought you knew all the ways to get HD on your computer a new one comes out. Now smaller than ever, the Sony HDR-HC3 is geared towards the consumer. It is 26% smaller than the predecessor and cheaper with an MSRP of $1700. All it needs is a hard drive to replace the HDV tape and it would be perfect.

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't wait to grab one of these. I have been waiting for a HD camcorder that looked more consumer than pro. I don't want to look like a film student when capturing all my family and friends in glorious High Definition. This combined with my new MacBook Pro (I a supposed to receive this week) will be a perfect match. I can see the story now: How to make your own HD home movies!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 8:26AM]

Wowww great gadget but expensive...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 8:27AM]

Well, hopefully this will just open up a big used market for the HC1 and lower prices for it with the increased supply. You know that whenever a company releases a product that's "the same, but different" than the earlier model, that it was almost completely a cost-cutting revision and that you can get equivalent or perhaps even better overall performance with the earlier model for a lot less money.

I've been pining for an HC1 for a while; maybe in a few months I'll actually be able to pick one up.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 8:29AM]

how can people handle using tape anymore? I can't stand 1x copying to the computer. Tape cassettes pretty much doesn't exist anymore with consumer devices, being replaced with MP3 players and PVR's. I promised myself that i will never buy another tape based video recorder. What we need is HDD camcorders that record in a normal easily editable format. And at least a 80GB HDD while they are at it.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 8:31AM]

i fully agree with andrew. Newer models must have something better than tapes. They are becoming obsolete.
Sony must consider it & also it must have great still imaging solution builtin.
At this price tag this is the bare minimum one demands.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 10:48AM]

I for one welcome our new media overlords - when they don't break everything out there.

My understanding of alternate media is that it provides no better method for importing it into Final Cut Express or iMovie on my machine, if it works at all.

I'm not sure if it's a chicken and the egg thing or something else like 'we want to own new patent so must lock in to it' type of thing.

Also the current portable media available out there is still too small compared to the raw storage of the tape...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 10:53AM]

Tom,
Do you mean to tell me that a Mini DV tape can hold more than 60GB?

Also do the Hard drive camcorders not allow you to do a file copy as if it were a normal firewire hard drive? Would the resultant file not import into iMovie?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 21st 2006 2:06PM]

MiniDV tapes hold 13GB of data which translates to 60mins of DV/HDV footage. I kind of like the archive nature of tapes. That way I have my copy on the hard drive along with a tape for backup. But then again I think having an 80GB drive in the camera would make it quite nice (and less chance of drop outs). If a hard drive goes bad from recording it's a bit more expensive to replace than a tape.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 3rd 2006 9:35AM]

I still like the use of tapes when travelling in remote area's. It's far more easier to have some tapes with you than a portable computer (including its own energy supply) to dump the harddisc on.

[(Unverified) Posted Apr 13th 2006 7:43PM]

Untill the prices come down on harddrives the Cassette Tape Recorder will rule the roost