A review of the Sony Handycam HDR-HC3 HDV digital camcorder

The Sony Handycam HDR-HC3E Camcorder is one of many in the 1080i range that Sony has the pleasure of introducing to us. It has many exciting features including HDV/DV switch ability, a ClearVid CMOS sensor and Enhanced Imaging Processor to name but a few. The compact and lightweight body encases these features very neatly and certainly impressed us in the looks department let alone the specifications.

Design

The Sony HDR-HC3E is a lightweight digital camcorder weighing in at only 500g and compact dimensions of 139mm (d) x 78mm (h) x 82mm (w). Sony have created a gorgeous camcorder with the main body a very smooth and sleek cylindrical shape with the 2.7” LCD screen on the left side and the tape compartment on the right. With the hand strap fitted to the right side of the camcorder it sits very comfortably in your palm and all the functions and buttons that you need to use whilst in action are in easy reach to you. The start/stop button, on/off and mode dial, and still photo button can all be used with your thumb only whilst filming with this Handycam, but all other buttons and dials need to be used when filming is stopped as you will need to move the camera. The tape compartment works automatically by moving a switch it will slowly, and almost elegantly, separate from the camera body enabling you to easily remove and insert the tapes. On the left side is the LCD display which sits very snug with the Sony Camcorder body when closed and moves out very easily with a tilting action to ensure the user can see the screen in all lighting conditions. When the screen is out the Sony Memory Stick Duo Pro slot and USB jack can be accessed and there are three shortcut buttons situated just above, which are backlight, display/battery info and Easy. There is also a handy switch on the front barrel of the Sony HDR-HC3 which allows the camera to work manually or automatically and a switch for Night shots.

We mentioned in the Design section that there is an ‘Easy’ button on the side of the Sony HDR-HC3E camcorder. The Easy Handycam Mode will hide all of the advanced setting and allow the HC3E camcorder to operate in automatic mode, even the font is displayed larger on the LCD screen enabling first time user’s to operate the camcorder easily without a worry. The 2.7” LCD screen has 211,200 pixels which make it crystal clear and amazingly bright; we found that whether we used the Sony HDR-HC3E in dark or very bright conditions, the LCD was still very visible and reliable. There are useful buttons down the side of the LCD screen that make life so much easier whilst filming as they reduce the need to stop filming and access the menu or work as an alternative to the buttons used by your right thumb. These buttons are zooming in and out and start and stop. After filming for some time, we connected the HC3E to our HD ready widescreen TV, which was very easy to do, only to view some spectacular results. The images were extremely sharp and Sony’s SteadyShot image stabilisation feature does a good job of minimising camera shake. Images that were zoomed in on did appear rather blurry and out of focus until you zoomed back out. Photo quality on still images was particularly good, taking into consideration that images were taken at 2-megapixels and although not as good as a dedicated digital stills camera images, were good enough to print at 6x4” with lots of detail and good accurate colours. Another great performing feature of the Sony HDR HC3E is the Smooth Slow Record option which slows down footage to create a slow motion film, which would be useful for golfers for example as they could capture their swing in Smooth Slow Record and watch it back in slow motion to see where they need to improve things, however the playback that we witnessed did appear to be pretty grainy and fuzzy. We found the battery life to be pretty good lasting around one and half hours, depending on how often the filming was started, stopped and reviewed, but the remaining battery life is displayed on screen.