I own the HDR-HC3. I bought it as a prospective father (you know, nappies, bottles, pram, camcorder). This means that i am a relative newcomer to the world of camcorders. I spent a long, long time researching which camera to get. So far I could not have been happier with it. Size is good, battery life is good and colour remains faithful in lower light areas (ie indoors). The DVDs i have created with it are top notch. My only whinges so far are that there is no external mic jack unless you pay for an expensive bluetooth mic for the intellishoe and that within a month of using it the heads needed cleaning. Probably you should consider getting a generic/post market wide angle converter instead of the sony original. It does need a wide angle converter for use indoors - depending on use eg. room video for house selling. The main thing you should look to is the software you use to edit the HD video you shoot. Sure you can down convert it to SD as you capture it, but then what is the point of owning an HD camera? I own the sony vegas platinum software (pinacle and premiere having given me a bad time years ago - when i last worked with a camcorder). I can make HD video - but i cannot produce an HD DVD with that software. So far it seems to produce an HD DVD i would need to pay a lot for the software. Luckily no one I know has an HD TV, yet. By the time they do i will have worked a way around my little problem.
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I own the HDR-HC3. I bought it as a prospective father (you know, nappies, bottles, pram, camcorder). This means that i am a relative newcomer to the world of camcorders. I spent a long, long time researching which camera to get. So far I could not have been happier with it. Size is good, battery life is good and colour remains faithful in lower light areas (ie indoors). The DVDs i have created with it are top notch. My only whinges so far are that there is no external mic jack unless you pay for an expensive bluetooth mic for the intellishoe and that within a month of using it the heads needed cleaning. Probably you should consider getting a generic/post market wide angle converter instead of the sony original. It does need a wide angle converter for use indoors - depending on use eg. room video for house selling.
The main thing you should look to is the software you use to edit the HD video you shoot. Sure you can down convert it to SD as you capture it, but then what is the point of owning an HD camera? I own the sony vegas platinum software (pinacle and premiere having given me a bad time years ago - when i last worked with a camcorder). I can make HD video - but i cannot produce an HD DVD with that software. So far it seems to produce an HD DVD i would need to pay a lot for the software. Luckily no one I know has an HD TV, yet. By the time they do i will have worked a way around my little problem.