With the HC3 being a downgrade of the HC1, and Panasonic downgrading the entire GS line, and Canon not exactly wowing us these days, does anyone else get the feeling that 2006 is shaping up to be a dismal year for low-end cams? Things are really exciting at the top-end prosumer level, but its getting depressing for the rest of the market.

HD XM, Everio, maybe even Panasonic and Samsung are expected. With Mpeg4 Sanyo out, and H264 cameras to be announced next month or so.

HD looks pretty damn good no matter how cheap it is, it seems. Currently they are eyeballing it suspiciously because they don't want people to choose cheaper cameras over the more expensive ones.

Well bring 'em on, but please let them have manual controls and focus rings or they won't be much use.

I think it is pretty amazing actually. The consummer level of camcorder market has been dead stale for years. Change is good!

Actually I think the HC3 is a better match for me with my FX1. It is top loading so that there is no problem changing tapes on a tripod, has better low light performance, has manual controls just not a focus ring ( I always use spot focus anyway on my TRV50), has 12sec slo motion feature--- seems like a much better camera!!! Smaller and cheaper too.

Ron Evans

You sure about those manual controls? Camcorderinfo says that you can't control the shutter speed and the camcorder has no mic input.

The lack of a mic input is a HUGE "WTF?"-twitch for me. Don't their additional microphones sell? What exactly are we to do when we need better sound? Buy another camera? May wanna price this at $850, that "sounds" better.

But, if there's some alternative way for better audio that Sony hasn't said yet, I hope they announce it soon because I may just wait to get an HC1 off of eBay or go for a Sanyo HD1 instead.

For me the HC3 will be a second camera so I don't need a mic input or many controls other than focus and exposure which it has. Any more elaborate and I will use the FX1. For me size, top load, low light performance and lanc control are the most important. This gives me the option of a second camera to the FX1 and a camera for casual use. As far as I can tell from the information I have it fits these needs much better than the HC1.

Ron Evans

Well the industry certainly has decided to add a bit of sepeation between consumer and Pro.

Consumers are obviously too stupid to deal with tape and thus the DVD-R based cameras are going to be hyped.

Prosumers and Pro's will have HDD based and Flash and HDV tape of course.

I'm excited about the HC3 though and I can't wait for JVC and Canon to hit this market.

The lack of a mic input is a HUGE "WTF?"-twitch for me. Don't their additional microphones sell? What exactly are we to do when we need better sound? Buy another camera?

Actually, I think you can buy Sony's microphones that interact with the hotshoe. Hope everyone with the HC3 really likes Sony mics...

By the way, I think 2006 WILL be exciting. I just know that Canon has to bring an Optura HDV out to combat the Sony HC1/3. And I bet the FX1 is slaughtering the other 3K camcorders. Now if we don't see some exciting products from the other manufacturers, 2006 will be a bland year for consumers indeed.. but a very profitable one for Sony.

www.philipwilliams.com

Ah, at least that's a slight relief. Thanks Philip!

I've got no problem with the Sony mics, at least for a consumer camera like that. If there's an adapter for XLR mics, that'd be great, but I'd use this mostly as a director's eyepiece sort of thing for scouting locations and checking scenes.

I'm curious to see how the slo-mo function on the HC3 works. If it's as cool as it sounds I may pick one up.