Product Reviews

High-definition (HD) camcorders first became available last year, with Sony's £2,500 HDR-FX1 leading the field. Sony has now introduced the first HD consumer camcorder, the HDR-HC1E.

It's a lot cheaper than the FX1, as it's based around CMOS rather than CCD sensor technology. CMOS sensors are cheaper, but performance in low light is not as good. Give the HDR-HC1E enough light, though, and it produces stunning video. There is a lifelike quality to the video, with fantastic detail. Colour reproduction is the equal of many 3CCD models we've seen. There's some noise in the image, but less than with standard definition camcorders.

Video is captured in the 1080i HD format. This means that it is an interlaced signal, with alternate lines captured on alternate frames. This makes the camcorder less suitable for recording high-speed motion. Playback to an LCD TV is done through a component output. The TV then has

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to translate the interlaced signal to a progressive one for display, as well as resize it to fit the more common 720p resolution. Cheaper HD displays may struggle with this process.

All this video is captured to a standard MiniDV tape. This has been made possible by improvements in compression technology. One downside to this is the need to use better-quality MiniDV tapes. Footage on our old test tapes showed a number of artefacts where video data had been lost.

HD footage can also cause headaches when it comes to editing. The HC1E does not come with any capturing or editing software, so we would not recommend it to novice users. Some editing packages offer HD-compatible software, although you will usually need the expensive version. For example, Adobe Premiere supports HD, while Adobe Premiere Elements does not.

The design and usability of the camcorder are excellent. It has an image stabiliser and a 10x optical zoom with excellent controls. The large 16:9 LCD is bright and has excellent viewing angles, though it cannot live up to the HD footage being recorded. Therefore for manual focus, the viewfinder is essential. Other manual controls include exposure, backlight and nightshot mode.

Camcorders are in a transitional period, with HD and hard disk storage appearing for the first time. Unfortunately, that once-in-a-lifetime event isn't going to wait for camcorder technology to settle down. If you want the best-quality video today, the HDR-HC1E is the only consumer choice.