HDR-HC1 opinions would be appreciated

The Machinist

The Machinist

Respected Member
I did a quick search and found some old opinions on the HDR-HC1 but am curious if anyone can give me updates on long term impressions on this camera.

I'm planning on buying it as a belated birthday present for my father.

He's a long time amateur videographer who's Sony TRV series camcorder was recently stolen.

I was looking to get him the HDR-HC1 as a replacement and figured it'd be nice for him to have a camcorder that can maybe take advantage of his Panasonic TH-42PX50U plasma monitor.

If anyone can shed some clarity into its ease of use, color handling, reliability, manual controls, and anything else that comes to mind.

Much appreciated. And I'm sure my father will appreciate it too.
 
My understanding is that the camera is as advanced as you want it to be. So, it would probably be perfect for your father.

Initially, he could use the auto features and then move into the manual settings at his own pace. You don't get that option with the HC3, however, as everything is pretty much auto on that device.
 
Ok, This is what I've found FWIW.
The footage looks good in both SD and HDV, much cleaner than our PDX 10 P.
It's much easier to rack focus on the HC1, the chip is larger and the focus wheel is more responsive at all focal lengths.
HOWEVER, the menues near did my head in. On the PDX 10, it's easy to change from auto to manual exposure or change shutter speed with buttons and a wheel, on the HC1 you have to wade through menues with the LCD open (Difficult to see in sunlight, even London sunlight) to do the same.
It's also a bottom loader, but your Father may be able to live with that.
If it seems that I'm rubbushing the cam, I'M NOT, I love it, just pointing up any -ve points.
Regards to all, Dave
 
I have one so I can answer any questions you have. I personally love it. It looks great in good light. It definitely struggles in low light.

I think it does a more than acceptable job in auto mode, and you can go full manual if you want to take it to the next level. It has a lot of "prosumer" features, including a mic input (unbalanced), zebra stripes, manual shutter speed and white balance, etc.

I just used mine as a lock-down wide shot in a wedding video. I downconverted the HD footage to SD during input into my Mac (the camera will do it internally, which is handy), and it was still sharper than my 3-chip SD camera.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.
 
Thanks alot everyone.

I think i'm zeroing in on a purchase this week. I'm going to give it a B+H test run and if i have any more questions/concerns i'll be sure to post em in the coming days.
 
you might wanna look up its red problem. That is the reason i had to return mine to b&h. I loved that camera and if it could see the color red correctly i would still have it. Also if your father is a manual fanatic im not sure how he will like its features (the touch screen, no direct control of iris/gain, which got to me after a while) Also hdv editing is a little more involved than sd.
 
I haven't heard of the red problem.....hmm i'll look into that.

Also i'll research the other points before getting into it but the manual controls issue probably won't bother him too much.
 
I haven't been too bothered by the reds on the Sony. Sony cameras are usually a little warm through the reds. We are getting Sony HD studio cameras at work and I watched over one of the engineer's shoulder while the camera was on a chart and vectorscope. Even the crazy expensive Sony HD cameras are warm in the reds. After an hour of making adjustments he could never get a true red out of it. It was a little magenta.
 
True, I’ve used the vx1000 for years. Love that camera too. The Sony red was a bit magenta. But it didn’t bother me. But with the hc1 (in specific) people have reported extreme problems with the red (magenta). Also they say it varies from camera to camera. One will be normal; another will be (time to return u) bad. The one I had was bad, but i've seen footage from other people who own the hc1 and I was great. Even with the best CC in the world, the camera I return couldn’t give the same results. So it was my camera in specific. After reading up, I found out there where allot of people with my problem and allot without. So u just have to hope u get a good one:)

Some people don’t care, some people don’t have the problem, and some people are red fanatics. Up to u:)

http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=3818

http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=5374&highlight=magenta
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top