my new Sony HDR HC9E turned up today, what an awesome bit of kit! i cant believe how good the HD video looks on my widescreen sony TV.



the quality is amazing shooting straight out of the box with the fully auto 'dummy' setting.

it has a really 'film' look to the footage.

i managed to pick it up for $870 which i was pretty happy about.

what sites do MTAU's recommend for sharing HD video?

Wow! That looks bloody cool. Keep us posted on how much awesome stuff you get up to with it.

Can I ask where you ordered it from? I am licking my lips at at thought of getting one next month (or maybe a hv30)....

i did a lot of research before going with the HC9 rather than the HV30, there is not much between them at all, the sony can be picked up a couple of hundred cheaper which was a factor when there was so little difference otherwise. the other was the reports of better build quality with the HC9 and slightly friendlier user controls.

i got mine thru an online mob called expertinfotech
but they have removed them from their site so they may not be able to get anymore - initially they said they were unable to source one for me and offered me my money back or an alternative product - i said i only wanted the HC9 or my money back and after a few days they managed to find me one in HK and shipped it to me direct.

it would be worth checking with them as they had the best price I could find anywhere - with a lot of research! try emailing this guy, he was the one that helped me out - Max@einfotech.com.au

Had used Stage6 but I don't think its still around?

If you get an underwater housing for it a good site is www.hdvundersea.com - Share Your Videos

Um.... sharing HD content...? You mean, like 2 seconds of material? I can't imagine any sites that would offer enough space/bandwidth to let you share HD content?!

Even a 5 minute HD short film I did last year came out at 1GB...

there are sites that do it, Vimeo, Video Sharing For You is the one i know best.

Congrats, looks like a great piece of tech! What's the RRP on one of these babies out of interest?

And a good video sharing site. I would recommend Veoh which doesn't have any file size or length limits, which I assume would be useful for HD video, providing you've got good internet. Vimeo's pretty good too.

HDV is slightly smaller than DV in file size due to the compression used in the image, not larger as many would think.

If it were a different image format with less attack on the image than yes it would be a lot larger, but HDV really pushes the file compression thus this technology working on standard DV cassettes - good for consumers.

Drool worthy, Galumay. And a good price too. Best I can find tonight is about $100AUD more than that!

We're going away for a long'ish trip in a little while and I'd love to have a decent camcorder along for the ride. Can I ask about battery life?

i think the RRP is about $1700.

will let you know when i have it a bit longer!

What made you get that Sony over a Canon HV30?

from my research, better build quality, better controls some better features (focus assist stuff mainly) and very similar video quality for $200 less.

some reviewers claim a slightly more "film" look for the canon, didnt seem to be much in it at all, i looked at quite a few videos made with both and couldnt pick the difference.

The "film" look is just pretty much de-interlacing processing in camera, which is super lame.

Edit: In other words, I wouldn't base your decision around such a feature. Galumay twas smart.