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The Handycam HDR-HC9 is the upgrade to Sony's 2007 miniDV camcorder, the HC7. With this 2008 offering Sony provides minor improvements over the award winning HC7. The camera retains its barrel-shaped form factor that houses the Carl Zeiss lens with 10x optical zoom. HDV footage with a resolution of 1440x1080 is recorded onto the miniDV tapes, standard definition DV footage can also be captured through the menu settings. The HC9 retains the same touch-screen menu based interface and offers a host of manual controls from white balance and infinity focus, to peaking functionality and colored outlining.

Pros & Cons

Pros:
3 people have already voted. Do you agree?

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HDV is a standard format that all video software recognizes
+3agreedisagree

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Plenty of manual controls
+2agreedisagree

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Good selection of outputs including USB2.0, Firewire, Component, HDMI
+2agreedisagree

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Great video capture quality
+1agreedisagree

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Internal, automatic lens cover
+1agreedisagree

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Black design is better than silver
+1agreedisagree

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Better quality compression for MiniDV over solid-state media formats
+1agreedisagree

Cons:
Do you agree?

•
Still limited to proprietary Sony accessories
+2agreedisagree

Competing products

Sony Handycam HDR-HC9 is ranked 1st.  See the top picks in Camcorders

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More information

Specs

  • 10x optical zoom Carl Zeiss lens
  • 3.2MP CMOS sensor
  • up to 1080i video recording
  • miniDV tapes for storage
  • 2.7" LCD touch screen monitor, 211K pixels
  • Internal lens cover mechanism
  • Records video with x.v.Color (need a compatible TV to view)
  • Data ports: USB2.0, Firewire
  • Video ports: Component, S-Video, HDMI

Differences between HC7 and HC9

Body - the HC9 comes in a black color while the HC7 is silver.

Memory stick support - The HC9 supports a memory stick duo capacity of 8GB while the HC7 is limited to 4GB.

USB support - for transferring data the HC9 uses a USB2.0 interface which is significantly faster than the HC7's USB1.1 interface.

Related products

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1 comment about Sony Handycam HDR HC 9

1.  avatar Erik  Feb 07, 2008 2:22pm

I'm going to tentatively cast my vote for the HDR-HC9 over the Canon HV30, because of 1) the better manual controls, and 2) my fantastic experience with my older miniDV Sony camcorder.

If you are a quality nut, and plan on doing any editing with video software, I would say go for the MiniDV format over the solid-state cameras. Sure, the non-linear format with no moving parts is cool, but it comes at the expense of compression quality. Annoying compression artifacts and incorrect color reproduction is a deal-breaker for me. I'll stick with the MiniDV until mfgrs can sort out that mess.

If anyone can point me (and the community) to some sample footage of the HDR-HC9 vs. the Canon HV30, I would be very interested in seeing it.
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    Key Features:

    Manufacturer Sony
    MSRP $1,099.00
    Product Line Handycam
    Release Date Feb. 6, 2008

    Sponsors

    Product page stats

    4228 views and 36 edits (see all)
    5 contributors -  Omar, sandman, Erik, tyguyone, jojojohehe
    Created: 01/21/2008 - 11:54
    Modified: 03/15/2008 - 14:09
    Model # variations:

    HDR, HC, 9, HDRHC, HC9, HDRHC9