Sony seems intent on dominating the High Definition camcorder market before any other 
company has even joined in. Although Canon has released a competitor to Sony’s top-of-the-range professional HVR-Z1 (the Canon XL-H1), there’s nothing at all to compete with Sony’s offerings below that in the UK. We thought Sony’s first attempt at consumer HD was pretty stunning (see HDR-HC1E review ). But scarcely six months later, Sony is upping the ante once again, this time breaking below the magical £1,000 barrier – well below. So what has been removed to get the new HDR-HC3E’s price nearly £300 lower than its predecessor?
The HDR-HC3E is considerably different in appearance to the HC1E. It’s a lot more compact, and weighs 600g, which is 180g less. The image sensor at its core is different too. Although it’s still a 1/3in CMOS rather than the more usual CCD found in camcorders, the gross pixel count has dropped from the 2.97Mpixels in the HC1E to 2.1Mpixels. That’s still more than enough for full-resolution HDV, which has a resolution of 1,440 x 1,080 so only requires about 1.56Mpixels. Despite the lower-resolution CMOS, Sony is actually claiming 4Mpixel stills quality, which clearly uses a hefty amount of interpolation. These stills are captured to MemoryStick Duo, although none is supplied in the box. But more on that later….
Verdict
If you’ve used the HDR-HC1E or Sony’s more professional HDV models for any length of time, you can’t help feeling disappointed by the HDR-HC3E’s lack of prosumer features. All that video quality, with so little user control. But then there’s the price. With some e-tailers already listing this model for £800, HDV has clearly arrived in the mainstream, albeit the high-end thereof. We can’t recommend the HDR-HC3E to semi-professional filmmakers – the much more expensive HVR-A1E based on the HC1E is the most cost effective choice here, or grab the latter while you still can. But if you’re an early-adopting consumer looking to capture family moments and holidays in stunning HD video, the HDR-HC3E’s superb image quality, price and portability make it the ultimate point-and-shoot camcorder. TrustedReviews - Sony HDR-HC3E - HD Camcorder