What do you think of Sony DCR-HC40E camcorder ?

[pchan]

I am thinking of getting this camcorder. Just checking with any forum members who have own it.

1. Can it work with any firewire card ?
2. Can I use Premiere 6.5 to capture the DV ?
3. How is the video quality ?

Thanks in advance.

[joe bananas]

I just bought the hc30 last night, is very much the same as far as i know, only mine takes low resolution pics ( photos ).

The video image is awesome.

I bought the cheapest fire wire card ($35 AU) and that works fine. cable cost $25 AU.

so far no regrets.

[tecstar]

Great camera, but i have always owned sony's.

Two issues for me.

When filming in widescreen mode, you can't take any still pictures. Not vital, but you lose one feature for another.

Low-light filming isn't as good as my previous analogue sony.
I think thats another trade off for a higher resolution CCD.

Other than that, good battery, excellent touch-screen controls, light and compact.

In anwer to your questions:
1. i dont see why not.
2. ditto
3. Great, as far as I am concerned (subject to the 2nd gripe above!)

[pchan]

Thanks Joe & tecstar. OK. I am set for the HC40E.

[smoki]

i have the HC16 and i had some problems with pixelation, dirty heads after 2 weeks of usage and not even a cleaning tape fixed that...as a result i have many portions of video on tape with grey horizontal bars or weird artifacts...

In the beginning i had a Panasonic camera, i recorded to a Fuji MiniDV tape which i erased and re-used it in the new Sony...could this be a cause to my "dirty heads" problem??