Customer Reviews

Sony HDR-HC9 6MP MiniDV High Definition Handycam Camcorder 10x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After looking at the specs to this new HDR-HC9, I noticed that Sony's HDR-HC7 (last year's model) was almost identical to Sony`s latest in MiniDV technology. I began digging in the specs department for awhile on both Sony's website and here on Amazon. I was able to determine the following differences between the two:

- The Sony HDR-HD9 boasts on it's Amazon specs that it has upgraded to a 2.0 USB connector leaving the old 1.1 design behind, however the specs sheet on Sony's homepage seem to dispute this, claiming the HDR-HC9 is still plagued with the old technology. I rarely use any sort of camcorder for still pictures, I do have a 512MB Memory Stick installed in my unit for that "just-in-case" moment we've all been in. Even in the rare occasion I do snap a couple experimental stills while on vacation, I always use a card reader to transfer the pictures to my PC, not the USB interface.

- The supplied software is obviously upgraded. The Sony HDR-HC9 comes with Picture Motion Browser version 2.0.17

- If you really care about stills (and take a lot of them...I mean a lot of them) the Sony HDR-HC9 can now handle an 8GB Memory Stick compared to the HDR-HC7's 4GB.

- The general color of the new HC9 is black (which I prefer over the cheap space-age looking silver of the HC7) but this is just a consumer's preference, no reason to upgrade.

- It has been posted on other websites that the HDR-HC9's manual focus has been improved over the HC7's.

I've been trying my best to come up with something more but honestly, this is all I could find. This camcorder is basically the HDR-HC7 with a new paint job and a few minor modifications. Not to say this is a bad camera...far from it. I shoot exclusively with Sony camcorders and this one is by far the best I've ever owned.

If you happen to own the HDR-HC7 don't be swindled into upgrading. As the few minor spec differences above point out, you already own the new HDR-HC9 minus the 8GB Memory Stick storage capacity and the onyx color scheme. Compare the specs for yourself, if you find anything that differs between these two models feel free to list them in the comments section under this review. I searched for 30 minutes and this is the best I could do.

As far as the camera performance itself...what can I say? It's a Sony, top of the line. If you want to shoot quality HD movies but don't want to break your bank account, the Sony HDR-HC9 or HDR-HC7 is probably the right fit for most people's budgets.

I also prefer shooting with this camcorder because of the MiniDV tapes it uses as opposed to all the other media platforms such as DVDs, Hard Drives, Flash Memory...etc.. This format (MiniDV) is an industry standard and if you are planning on editing your videos with computer software (Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Studio) this is the ONLY way to go.

DVDs and Hard Drive camcorders require a lot of MPEG-2 video compression and when the video itself is transferred to your PC and edited into files the quality of the video is compressed again. Finally, when burning your finished film to DVD the files are degraded once more, leaving the footage pixilated and grotesque...like someone ran it through a garbage disposal. Something to think about.

Product Highlights:

- MiniDV (my format of choice)

- HDMI hook-up (for a quick plug-n-view of your footage in beautiful high def)

- Switchable HDV/DV formats (just in case you don't need to shoot in HD)

- Professional quality Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens

- Widescreen display

- Compact size (for an HD camera this is VERY convenient )

Product Down-points:

- I really wish Sony would have given us a 25x optical zoom...it would have put this little guy over the top as far as camcorders in this price range

- The touch screen interface is a bit cumbersome (sometimes feels like a rat maze when just trying to find a single button) plus it leaves annoying fingerprints

- The supplied battery is a joke, definitely need an upgrade

Recommended Accessories:

- Sony NPFH100 H Battery (This thing goes through juice quick)

- Sony VF37CPKS Filter Kit (Protect that lens)

- Sony LCSVA31 Soft Carrying Case

The Sony HDR-HC9 is a great camera in a small package. The HDV footage is stunning in clarity. The Super SteadyShot really works well as long as fast zooms and pans aren't in the plan. The NightShot is super fun to use at dimly lit parties and events. Smooth Slow Record is a blast! Tape something with lots of motion (volleyball serve, trampoline flip) and dissect it. Coonectivity is great with component video, AV, and HDMI outputs. All this functionality in a camera that fits in your pocket (almost) is awesome! most of the time...

Some of the buttons are too small and hard to reach if the LCD screen is out. Also, the manual focus control is difficult to use. It is a scroll wheel which is hard to control. A focus ring would have made this camera much better.

Overall, I would recommend this camera for anyone who wants to shoot HD footage of family events or even use professionally as a 2nd or 3rd camera as a stand alone on a shoot of an event.

This is our first HD camera, so we didn't really know what to expect. (Note that for video review, we played the output via HDMI to our Sony Bravia 46" HD TV.) In full light, the picture is fantastic; you get some blur and artifacts during movement or in shadows, but I don't know if that is normal or not for an HD camera, so I'll take that at face value. Night shooting without the IR light (Nightshot) is pretty grainy, even with an add-on light. The Nightshot IR functionality works great and is a lot of fun to play with. The built-in IR light seems to work well up to 7 or 8 feet and then drops off.

Still shots are pretty poor; even in picture mode, they look like video captures; the contrast and color balance are bad compared to a dedicated still camera, but that seems to be common with most if not all dual use cameras so, again, take it at face value. Note that it does have a built-in flash (I couldn't find that documented anywhere).

It is small and light; you can almost stick it in your pocket, even with an extended life battery. Contrary to the CNET review, I didn't have any issues with the touch screen functionality.

Video and still import work fine; I had to buy a different firewire cable (the one included has the small end on each side, my PC has a large firewire connection). The Picture Motion Browser did not work; it crashed with an error when trying to open on Vista. Sony were absolutely no help; they just kept sending me to knowledge base articles that were of no use, and refused to make any effort to help (given that I just dropped $1500 on camera and accessories, you'd think there would be more love there).

On the whole, I'm pretty happy with the camera, although I'm disappointed that I have to carry two devices to get quality stills, and I'm very frustrated with Sony's support for their worthless software. But, at the end of the day, I paid for an HD video camera, not a still camera or software...so, four stars for the video functionality.

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.

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.

EDIT: About 1.5 years since review, still love this camcorder and highly recommend it. I've since gotten used to the zoom, no problems with it at all. Have also taken lots of pictures and have been really happy with the quality. At one of my sons football games this last season, I saw a guy using this camera at the top of a very tall and expensive looking tripod setup (really was more like a tower, he hand-cranked and it rose about 25'). He had quite a bit of money invested in his equipment and he sold the game videos (for league fundraiser). I figure this is also a good sign that it's a pretty good camcorder, as I'm sure he knows a lot more about it than I do.

I had a Sony standard-definition camcorder for many years that worked very well, and I decided it was time to get a high-def one. After reading the various reviews, I decided to get this one. While it works well otherwise, I've been very disappointed in the SteadyShot feature. As far as I can tell, it doesn't work. I have to be very careful to hold the camera extremely still, or else the resulting video is unpleasant to watch. I can tell no difference between the resulting video with SS turned on vs. with SS turned off. I didn't discover this until I first viewed a video on my TV more than 30 days after I bought the camera -- which was too late for J&R Music World to take it back. I contacted Sony support via Internet chat -- worthless. I then contacted Sony support via phone, and they agreed for me to send it to their repair facility. The repair facility then sent it back, saying nothing was wrong with it. It's possible that all high-def camcorders are this way, but I'm skeptical. It's also possible that my camera is indeed defective, and Sony warranty service is worthless. All I can say is that I'm very disappointed with the results, and I wouldn't buy this camcorder again...

I have owned one other Sony MiniDV camera that I purchased 9 years or so ago. I decided to replace it because I was having a recording issue. Its at least 9 years old and when you think about the abuse, I am most pleased with the long term life of that product.

I reviewed many products and decided on this one because of its high ratings on CNET and other sites. The picture quality is amazing and it is as expected lightweight and very functional. I would recommend this camera for someone who is looking for a high quality HD camera. You can simplfy the recording options or you can be your own high tech junkie leveraging the different options and settings.

My sense is that media storage on disk or flash drives will be an evolution and a flash unto itself. Tapes have a longer storage shelf life when you consider where are you going to put all of that digital media and when you consider that hard drives fail, tapes do not, you are in a much better place long term. You can convert the tapes to the current media of the day. Right now I am having the tapes turned into DVD, eventually two to 5 years, we will convert them to BlueRay. Then it will be something else, but digital storage long term becomes a nightmare. That is why I highly recommend the MiniDV as a long term solution. This camera does a great job of a high quality HD tape solution.

The best reason to buy this camcorder is if you don't want to fuss too much with it but want to get the best picture you can. This camera takes great video, and really lives up to the name of "Handycam." It's easy to use, and even if you set it on automatic (or "Easy") you are going to get good picture.

I picked this up as a backup camera on a small documentary shoot, and it worked very well for me. My only complaint was that the battery that comes with this only lasts a couple of hours. I had a shoot where I needed to be fairly unobtrusive, and so I used this camera which is much smaller and more inconspicuous than the bulkier professional camera I had. Unfortunately, the situation went on for about 3 hours, and I was disappointed that I couldn't capture it all, since I ran out of juice. Next time I'll know to have an extra, or a longer lasting, battery on hand.

One thing to note is that I decided to bring this along (on loan from my school) at the last minute, and it turned out to be very easy to figure out how to do things. I plugged in an external mike, I set it to shoot HDV, I adjusted the white balance -- and none of these features took me more than a few moments to figure out. I am not a professional videographer -- I'm very much an amateur -- and it was refreshing to have this camera be a no-brainer. (That was not the case with the other camera I brought along.)

With the HDV video I shot, the images were startlingly clear and the colors were very rich, very obviously better than the performance of my older Canon miniDV camera and pretty comparable to the look of the images I got from the much more expensive JVC GYHD110U that I'd brought with me. What is very nice is that it all shoots on miniDV tape -- even though I know that there are hard drive camcorders available, I still like the security that comes from being able to have a tape backup even after I've uploaded my footage to a harddrive. As harddrive costs go down and it becomes cost effective to keep multiple copies of all video footage in memory, that may change. For now I like to be able to hold the tape in my hand.

I'd definitely recommend this camera to someone who is willing to pay a little more for quality, but doesn't want to sacrifice the ease of more low end consumer miniDV cameras. (If you do pick this one up, be sure to get an external microphone - since the quality of the built-in sound definitely does not match the quality of the picture.)

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.

There's a lot to love about the HC9, at least while it works. Others have gone over its good points, but I particularly liked the quality for the size and the ability to take flash pictures (though the flash often cast a shadow thanks to its weird positioning). The bad news: After about a year of use, my HC9 developed "double vision." The video usually looks fine when I first turn it on, but after several minutes, the jittery double vision begins, creating a fuzzy image that makes the video completely unusable. I have not been able to fix this by tinkering with auto/manual focus or Steadyshot.

UPDATE: I have sent this camera to a reliable repair shop and was told the problem is with the delicate motors failing in the lens. Usually this kind of failure is caused by some kind of shock, and even a small bump will do it, apparently. The repair person has seen these types of lenses fail multiple times in the past. Essentially, if you plan to treat the camera with anything but delicate handling, then it might not be for you. I was using it as a dashboard camera. The repair is about half the cost of the camera.