For those who own the HC7...

[edthesped]

Are you satisfied with it and would you purchase again? Does the overall performance of the camera live up to its price tag?

I'm really on the fence about this purchase. I was stung pretty bad on an underperforming DHC-S75 camera a few years ago and am now afraid of Sony's latest and greatest.

Thanks

[pgw38]

Hello,
I own an HC7 since a couple of days now and I am truly happy with the camera. It's pretty small and the delivered picture quality is great. Way above standard DV. Indoor shooting under tight light condition is a bit noisy but still acceptable against lots of single chip dv.
Wiithin the HD cam i think the HC7 is top notch, optical stab, enough manual controls (at least for me), mic in plug, headset plug and HDV is only found in the HC7 in that price range.
The real question is do you want to get into HD with what it means in terms of editing and storage. It's a bit more complex than with DV. I have an imac corde duo 2g and 2 g of ram as well and that's enough for editing from what I have seen from now.
I hope it helps
pgw

[videobuff]

Originally Posted by pgw38

Hello,
I own an HC7 since a couple of days now and I am truly happy with the camera. It's pretty small and the delivered picture quality is great. pgw

Will we see some footage uploaded. Just press "Upload Video" and you are on with uploading, or else
www.listvideo.com/cgi-bin/filechucker.cgi

Thanks

[pgw38]

I will in a couple of days, until now I have been shooting mainly my newborn kid and I keep him for us
pgw

[edthesped]

Originally Posted by pgw38

Hello,
I own an HC7 since a couple of days now and I am truly happy with the camera. It's pretty small and the delivered picture quality is great. Way above standard DV. Indoor shooting under tight light condition is a bit noisy but still acceptable against lots of single chip dv.
Wiithin the HD cam i think the HC7 is top notch, optical stab, enough manual controls (at least for me), mic in plug, headset plug and HDV is only found in the HC7 in that price range.
The real question is do you want to get into HD with what it means in terms of editing and storage. It's a bit more complex than with DV. I have an imac corde duo 2g and 2 g of ram as well and that's enough for editing from what I have seen from now.
I hope it helps
pgw

I really hate to edit tapes but will do what it takes to get lasting video.

In any event I pulled the trigger today and hopefully will have the unit in hand for my son's birthday this weekend. I'll try to take some clips and upload them before Mon.

[mguy18]

When you are using this for Stills, what is the Shutter Lag like on it? Do you think this camcorder could replace the need for a Digital Camera?

Simon

[PyRo]

Originally Posted by mguy18

When you are using this for Stills, what is the Shutter Lag like on it? Do you think this camcorder could replace the need for a Digital Camera?

Simon

Well I just got mine yesterday.... First time I had seen a HC7 in person... Suprise at the small size... Felt good in my hands.... I use the Merlin Steadicam so the smallness was a plus for me...

Not sure what you mean by shutter lag.... I took 3 stills while taking video. When I played back the video it was just fine... No indication as far as the video quality I had taken the photos. It stores the stills in internal memory. Then writes the pictures to the mem stick when you stop shooting video...

[edthesped]

Originally Posted by PyRo

Well I just got mine yesterday.... First time I had seen a HC7 in person... Suprise at the small size... Felt good in my hands.... I use the Merlin Steadicam so the smallness was a plus for me...

Not sure what you mean by shutter lag.... I took 3 stills while taking video. When I played back the video it was just fine... No indication as far as the video quality I had taken the photos. It stores the stills in internal memory. Then writes the pictures to the mem stick when you stop shooting video...

Initial impressions of build and image quality??

Mine is due in tomorrow, UPS says it's in Dallas as I type.

[PyRo]

Originally Posted by edthesped

Initial impressions of build and image quality??

Mine is due in tomorrow, UPS says it's in Dallas as I type.

I did the same thing tracking it as it made its trek from Chicago area.... I feel your pain....

I'm tickled pink with the purchase..... My old camera is a Sony DV tape type. Do not have the model number with me but it is about 2.5 years old. So some of the features maybe old hat to some......

There are now on screen tutorials on how to do some things... Example: There is one on using digital effects..... It walks you thru on the cameras monitor how to add the effects all from the touch screen... pretty cool...

I also liked the wide/zoom available on the swing out monitor screen. The tape is inserted on the side of the camera.... Old camera was on the bottom... Real pain because I had to take it off the steadicam to replace the tape....

I have not shot very much video yet..... Last night I hooked it up to my 65" DLP TV with the firewire cable..... Worked great. My wife was impressed with the picture.... The macro feature was a nice feature...

One thing to keep in mine..... Being in-focus is now manditory.... There is hardly anything as bad as HD that is even slightly out of focus. On previous video formats a little out of focus was a little problem..... Now it is a big problem....

[edthesped]

How well does it focus?