Camcorder Review: A Blast From the Past with the Sony HDR-HC9

Sony HDR-HC9 Product Unavailable Our suggested alternatives: Editor's Choice Sony HDR-CX700 Great Detail Panasonic HDC-SD900 Perfect Stability Canon HF G10

In a market now dominated by AVCHD (Mpeg-4) camcorders, the HDR-HC9 is the Sony's only (and probably last) HD camcorder to record to MiniDV tapes. So why are we testing a model initially released in 2008, based on the outdated HDV format? Well, AVCHD footage can be a bit tricky to edit, as we recently explained in response to a reader letter, and so HDV can make a good alternative for some users.

The HDR-HC9 will interest anyone looking to edit videos with relative ease on an older computer, running Windows XP or 2000. The HDV format (Mpeg-2) can be handled with much less computer processing power, but still records quality HD footage in a resolution of 1440 x 1080 pixels. Plus, the HC9 has a full range of digital and analogue connections, as well as a microphone entry socket. It all depends whether MiniDV cassettes still float your boat ...

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