Summary: Sony HDR-HC9 6MP MiniDV High Definition Camcorder

Comment: Had a heck of a time getting the film into my Mac, and I do this for a living, so it shouldn't have been this hard, but once I got that figured out (put the tapes into a stand-alone deck) everything else came up roses. Great picture quality. Not bad audio. I can attach a wireless lavaliere microphone, which works pretty good. Would be nice to be able to control the audio in levels of the mic. I've only dinked around with the camera so far, but I'm about to take it to India on a shoot, where it will be my backup camera, and kick around town camera. Will post again if anything significant emerges from that shoot. So far, I'd say it's a great little rig.

Summary: First HD camcorder for me

Comment: I like this a lot. Maybe it's just because it's my first HD camcorder, but I do a lot of video editing and dvd burning of youth sports videos (for my kids teams) and this is the first camcorder (including borrowed from other parents) that I've been able to actually get really good quality DVDs burned. Old VHS-C, Hi-8 and other DV camcorders (including hard drive and mini-dv) always look fine on my tv when plugged in directly from camcorder to tv, but once all the compression and burning and whatever is done and it's on DVD it never plays nearly as good. I know I'm converting the HD tapes into DV to burn but the end-result has been a much better quality DVD than the mini-DV tapes on DVD.

I like pretty much everything about this camcorder, especially all of the outputs and the placements and ease of the the battery, but the zoom is the one thing that I wish would feel a little better. It's hard for me with my big hands and fingers to do a nice, slow zoom in and out during a shot. I touch it a little and it doesn't really move, than I add a little too much pressure and it zooms in too far, too quickly. I think I'm getting a little better at it though, it just takes a bit more caution for me. Also, though it's not a big deal, I wish the eye-piece rotated up like my old hi-8 handicam does. I haven't tried taking pictures yet but I'm not that picky and I'm sure it's going to be just fine for me. As for battery time, it seems pretty typical to me, as far as the batteries that always come with the camcorders go. I always like to have two batteries so I'm covered anyway. I also prefer to shoot thru the eyepiece not looking at the LCD so that saves a ton of battery power.

Summary: Great Camera, Great Video, just one small note.

Comment: I picked up this camera back in March 2008 for a one day Amazon sale of only $[...]. Amazing price! The detailed reviews are spot on. Video is stunning to say the least. I firmly believe that HDV is THE way to go still for many reasons. Highest bit rate of all HD Camcorders, The tapes are CHEAP these days and you can use regular tapes just fine, no need for any expensive HD tapes. An 8 pack of DV tapes can be had for less than $[...] at Costco or Sams club. Tapes are easy to archive as well. They will last forever if you take care of them. If you have a hard drive based camcorder or flash based and you run out of room on your vacation in the middle of nowhere, your out of luck. The flash chips are expensive and editing software still hasn't caught up or on to either hard drive or flash based cameras. This camera worked perfectly with iMovie HD for editing. You can now burn a Blu-Ray Video disc on a regular DVD using Toast 9 and playback on your PS3. This means you can get up to 9GB of 1080i video data on regular DL DVD. Of course you can also downrez to 480P if you wish and burn to regular DVD to send to the grandparents. I wish it had a 25X optical as the 10X seems a little weak.

Here is my one major complaint about this camera. No analog passthrough! The only connections to this camera for input are digital. That means if you wanted to use this camera to passthrough any old VHS tapes so you could edit and burn to dvd on your computer your out of luck. I wish I had known this before I sold my old regular Sony DV camcorder. Other than that one problem this is a great camera. The build quality is solid, it doesn't feel cheap in your hands and the controls (at least for me as I have had 3 Sony camcorders now) are easy to learn and simple to use. Very highly recommended.

Summary: Great Camcorder

Comment: I love this camera! The image is good quality and the colors are vivid. I would recomended!! The only thing is that the battery doesnt last long, only about 1 hour so I would recommend a second battery but they are expensive.

Summary: HIGHLY AGREE >>> Justin Paxton "CLOWNZ IN MY HEAD" - A Barely Upgraded HDR-HC7...But Still A Great Camera

Comment: Justin Paxton's review is right on the money. I couldn't have done better. If you want a miniDV tape format camera (for all the right reasons such as image quality, editing capability, shelf storage) then read his review carefully. I also agree, that this camera needs a 20x-25x optical zoom lens. I've been holding out until such a camera comes on the market at this price range. A 10x is basically useless to me.