Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom

by Sony

Product Details

• Item Weight: 3.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000E0DU62
• Item model number: DCR-HC36
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,527 in Camera & Photo (See Top 100 in Camera & Photo)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 18, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The DCR-HC36 from Sony gives you a full-featured, compact MiniDV camcorder at an affordable price. Highlights include the Advanced HAD CCD imager, which captures stunning detail and clarity, and 20x optical zoom with Super SteadyShot picture stabilization, which focuses on distant subjects, providing clear close-up images with less distortion. The Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens offers less glare and increased contrast for vivid, more life-like color and tones.

Make your personal videos complete with additional customization features such as Picture and Fader effects for creative and professional looking enhancements. Picture Package software helps you easily organize and edit still images and video.

1/6-Inch Advanced HAD CCD Imager, 680K Pixels Gross
1/6-Inch Advanced HAD (Hole Accumulation Diode) CCD with 340K (effective) pixels provides stunning detail and clarity with exceptional video (up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution) and still image performance.

MiniDV Recording
Offers up to 500 lines of horizontal resolution, 3x the color bandwidth and a significantly higher signal/noise ratio, to provide spectacular video performance.

20x Optical/800x Digital Zoom
The optical zoom helps to bring the action close up from far away. In addition, the digital zoom interpolation means that extreme digital zooming is clearer, with less distortion than previous types of digital zooms.

Professional Quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar Lens
Carl Zeiss lenses have an advanced optical multi-layer coating that offers less glare and flare with increased contrast. This results in vivid image brilliance, true-to-life color saturation and perfect renditions of subtle tones.

Super SteadyShot Picture Stabilization System
Picture stabilization system that uses motion sensors to detect and compensate for camera "shake" without compromising picture quality like some other digital stabilization systems.

2.5-Inch Touch Panel SwivelScreen LCD Display (123K Pixels)
Provides excellent viewing clarity with improved resolution. The high resolution 123K pixel LCD screen rotates up to 270 degrees for multiple viewing angles providing sharp, detailed images for monitoring or playback.

USB Streaming
Stay connected to family and friends by broadcasting live video with audio over the internet using the USB interface. You can even playback your favorite recorded scene on the camcorder's tape. It's like having your own video conferencing system.

i.LINK DV Interface
A digital high-speed bi-directional interface which provides audio-video communication between two compatible devices. This connection allows for pure digital transfer between devices equipped with an IEEE1394 interface, such as camcorders, digital VTRs, capture cards, and PCs.

Digital Still Memory Mode with Memory Stick Duo Media
Capture still images at 640 x 480 resolution, directly onto Memory Stick Duo Media for easy transfer to PCs for e-mailing, printing, or sharing with other compatible Memory Stick devices.

InfoLithium Battery with AccuPower Meter System
Charge the battery at anytime because unlike NiCad (Nickel Cadmium) batteries, Sony's rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are not subject to a life shortening "memory effect." Sony's exclusive AccuPower meter displays the battery time remaining in minutes, in either the viewfinder or on the LCD screen.

Tele Macro Function
Useful for shooting close up shots, but without having the camcorder casting a shadow on the subject. Images shot in the Tele Macro Mode will have the subject properly focused with the background unfocussed so that the subject stands out.

Super NightShot Plus Infrared System
With Sony's Super NightShot Infrared System you can capture natural looking video, even when shooting in low light. Record subjects up to 20 feet away using the built-in infrared system, but without the overall monochrome color common with earlier low-light recording systems.

Manual Focus
Allows the user to manually adjust the focus of the camcorder using the touch panel. Manual focusing also allows the user to control the focus in difficult situations where either the environment or the subject does not allow the camcorder's auto focus to perform optimally, such as when shooting through a window or in a crowded environment.

On-Screen Zoom and Record Controls
For additional control of the camcorder, the DCR-HC36 features Zoom and Record buttons on the frame of the LCD screen. This allows the user more flexibility when holding the camcorder, especially in overhead or low angle shots.

Stamina Battery Power Management System
Using the optional NP-FP90 InfoLithium Battery, the DCR-HC36 can continuously record for up to 9 hours (viewfinder) or up to 7 hours (LCD) on a single full charge, providing extra long battery life.

Program AE (Auto Exposure) Modes
Program AE modes make recording easy even when filming in challenging situations. Choose from Beach and Ski, Landscape, Portrait, Sports Lesson, Spotlight or Sunset and Moon modes.

Additional features

Picture effects

Easy Handycam button

Fader effects

Battery information

Picture Package software

What's in the Box
Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV camcorder, power adapter/in-camera charger (ACL25), InfoLithium rechargeable battery (NPFP30), Remote Commander remote control (RMT-831), stereo AV cable, lens cap, USB cable, CD-ROM with USB Driver (Picture Package Software ver. 1.5 for Sony)

Product Description

CL) MU) Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

118 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sweet Spot, August 23, 2006

By 

William H III (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

After having used an old bread-loaf-sized Sony 8mm camcorder with great success for many years, I felt it was time for an upgrade. Modern feature-packed MiniDV cameras have become very reasonably priced, as the DCR-HC36's barely $300 price tag attests, so it was only a matter of which features I wanted - I prefer a powerful telephoto lens, and Sony has a curious habit of reducing zoom power the higher up the product line you go, so even though the HC36 is middle-of-the-road in the Sony camcorder lineup, its full 20x optical zoom made it a natural choice.

Modern MiniDV cameras are also very reasonably sized; occupying less than half a cubic foot, the HC36 weighs in at less than a pound even with the battery and tape. That's about large cheeseburger size, or the size of a digital camera from a few years ago. Despite toy-like dimensions, the sculpted duo-tone exterior and handsome chrome lens bezel lend to a quality look and finish.

Those of you intimidated by the arms-length list of features who "just want to hit record and go" will be glad to know that the HC36 has an Easy button. Located right next to the Sony logo on the left side of the camera is a blue button labeled - yes, really - "Easy". Pressing this button puts the camera into everything-automatic mode, and also increases the size of text on the display (very handy for the reading glasses set), allowing the old-school and I'm-not-technical school alike to record full quality video. You don't even have to know how to flip out the LCD screen, the Easy button literally makes the camcorder point-and-shoot.

The more technically inclined are accommodated with tailored personalization. Nearly all the camera's functions are controlled by the touch screen LCD's menu system, but Sony uses a clever shortcut; A personalized menu which you can set to display the features you want - any camera function, such as exposure, white balance, etc., can be set as a menu button; A single touch of the LCD brings up the menu of buttons you've set to display. No scrolling through menus to get to some deeply-buried function, just press the screen and there's the menu that you made with your functions. This system is in some cases faster than physical buttons on the camera itself!

And there's no shortage of functions to play with. The HC36 features two different levels of night vision; "Nightshot Plus" employs an infra-red lamp on the front of the camera providing a fully lit view up to about ten feet even in total darkness, while "Super Nightshot Plus" bumps up the light sensitivity by slowing the shutter speed - great for distance viewing in low light, or shots of the night sky (night vision can see stars that you can't). A Tele Macro function captures close-up sharp images from a few feet away, and the Spot Focus feature makes focusing a breeze - just touch what you want focused on the touch-screen and it focuses to that object.

There's the usual basic palette of picture effects and faders included, but the true video editor will of course want to use the computer, which is what the MiniDV format was made for. An i.LINK jack (i.LINK is Sony's name for Firewire/IEEE1394, they're one and the same) is provided for a quick and quality connection. A note to the uninitiated: *DO NOT use a USB connection to export video to your computer.* The USB format is slower and will result in poorer-quality video. Connecting by Firewire provides a better-than-TV image using the right software - I avoid using bundled software when possible, and would recommend using Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 or Sony's own Vegas DVD program, both of which offer free trials to see which you prefer.

The HC36's still picture feature is a novelty; you must purchase/provide a Memory Stick Duo for the function to work, and while 640x480 VGA size images are nothing compared to a digital camera, it can be entertaining when combined with the camcorder's other features - using the digital zoom and NightShot for example, you can capture an image from several hundred feet away in near darkness. Fun, but a real digital camera is still the way to go for photographs.

Connections are the HC36's weak point. The aforementioned Firewire jack is there, but the cable is not included. An analog video/audio jack (out only, no in) is provided along with RCA-ended cable to connect to your television or analog source, but because the jack and cable are non-standard and unique, should you lose the cable, you'll have to go to Sony to get another. And there's no mic input. The built-in stereo mic can record 16-bit high-quality audio, but a camcorder with this many features should have this one more.

Overall, the HC36 is the sweet spot in the Sony camcorder lineup, a big-quality features-heavy camcorder in a small, lightweight package, with a tiny price to match. Five stars for Sony's movie-making multi-tool.

(Addendum: Why not DVD? DVD camcorders offer similar features, however you must pay hundreds more for a DVD camera than a similarly-featured MiniDV cam. They're also noticably larger, and DVDs aren't nearly as easy to work with - You must format a DVD before using it, which requires setting the camera on a steady surface and waiting several moments. Recording at the highest quality setting, a camcorder DVD will hold only 20 minutes, and then you must "finalize" the disc before playing it in any other DVD player. Should you need to replace the DVD during an important timely event, or forget to finalize the disc before giving it to someone or storing it, you're pretty much out of luck. Because the DVD camcorder system is set up to just play the DVD as-is, editing or getting the video on computer can be a long and very complicated process. Whereas MiniDV tapes last an hour, were made for editing, and offer slap-it-in-and-go convenience. If you have the extra money and just want to play back video as you shot it, a DVD camcorder is a possibility, but at a fraction of the price and complication, the MiniDV cam is the bang-for-the-buck convenience-is-king winner.)

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars DANGER! PICTURE PACKAGE!, September 16, 2006

By 

Charles Memminger - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

The camera works great but ...Neither Sony nor Pixela, the makers of the Picture Package software that comes with some Sony camcorders with mini-disks tells you that the software IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH WINDOWS XP, SERVICE PACK 2! It will crash your computer or not work properly. DO NOT install the Picture Package software if you have run Windows XP. If you have a DVD player on your computer, you can download the photos from the mini-disk without this dangerous software. Shame on Sony and Pixela for selling the software to Windows XP users or including it with the camera without a warning.

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good camcorder for the money, February 22, 2006

By 

Patricia L. Dearing "Memorable Moments by Pat" (Annandale, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony DCR-HC36 MiniDV Digital Handycam Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Electronics)

I purchased the HC36 as a backup to a Sony VX2000. I filmed a play in low light and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the video. I was able to intermix the video from the HC36 with the VX2000 with only a slight difference in quality. The onboard mic was also excellent! more than I expected. I hadn't planned on using the audio from this camcorder, but in the end I did use about 20% of the audio for a 2-hour production.

I have owned several camcorders over the years and I'm always pleased with the quality of Sony. I will definitely use the HC36 as a backup for wedding shoots.