my hc-1e has been used for pc work most lately but today i took it out for a bit of filming,and i must say i still prefer the countryside greens with it than my fx-7 the hc-1 has a natural vibrancy that the fx-7 whatever setting can not quite match.the hc-1 is a solid cam and as far as i am concerned gives as good a picture as any make or model and i have seen them all on these threads.[i could have had a factory tweeked one though]why use the fx-7 i do like bigger cams longer zoms more controls thats all.chris

Hi Chris -
No doubt that the HC1 still holds up well against the "new" cameras out there - picture quality is still right up there. Sometimes a bigger camera isn't all it's cracked up to be, but yes the extra controls can be nice, and the FX7 is a very nice cam control wise. You learn what each cam can and can't do and go with it, depending on the shoot. The HC1 kicked down the door to affordable HD shooting for the masses, and now that it's "old and obsolete" you can find them fairly cheap - it's a heckuva bargain! I'd equate the HC1 to the venerable old TRV900 - sort of a breakthrough camera that never really got "improved" in later generations, just replaced...

I'm just waiting for the breakthrough 3D holographic cam myself... 'til then I'll probably hang on to the HC1 at least for a backup!

Hi Chris -
No doubt that the HC1 still holds up well against the "new" cameras out there - picture quality is still right up there. Sometimes a bigger camera isn't all it's cracked up to be, but yes the extra controls can be nice, and the FX7 is a very nice cam control wise. You learn what each cam can and can't do and go with it, depending on the shoot. The HC1 kicked down the door to affordable HD shooting for the masses, and now that it's "old and obsolete" you can find them fairly cheap - it's a heckuva bargain! I'd equate the HC1 to the venerable old TRV900 - sort of a breakthrough camera that never really got "improved" in later generations, just replaced...

I'm just waiting for the breakthrough 3D holographic cam myself... 'til then I'll probably hang on to the HC1 at least for a backup!

dead right dave

Still loving my HC1. I intercut it with my Canon XH-A1 footage no problem thanks to magic bullet. The small size/good weight distribution of the cam allows you to push crazy non-body mounted steadicam shots to it's limits IMO; something that is defaintely much more difficult to do with 3 chip 5 lbs cameras (and I sure have tried!).

Yep - that's one BIG plus to the small cams - you actually can fly them on a steady unit that won't kill your back or arm after 5 minutes!

Still loving my HC1. I intercut it with my Canon XH-A1 footage no problem thanks to magic bullet. The small size/good weight distribution of the cam allows you to push crazy non-body mounted steadicam shots to it's limits IMO; something that is defaintely much more difficult to do with 3 chip 5 lbs cameras (and I sure have tried!).

HC1 owner here... My friend is selling his HC1 and getting a Canon HV20. When we both had HC1s, I was looking forward to working with him on some short films or something since we both had the same camera.

Now that I found out that he was trading (up?) for a HV20, I'm wondering how easy it'll be to marry footage from both of our cams.

But this "magic bullet" will help? what exactly is it?

"magic bullet" is film look plug-ins for Vegas (and others?).

In general, you'll find the HV20 and HC1 to have different "looks" - while you can intercut footage, you'll want to spend some time before shooting trying to match the two.

Just FYI, I ended up selling an HV20 and keeping the old HC1 as backup to the HC7 - the HC1 is just more solid, and I guess I'm used to its easy to remember controls. PQ is still pretty good even against later cams.

I did a lot of looking, reading -- research -- when I decided to upgrade from my TRV900 to an HDV camera. After all this research, including going to a Sony store to check out the HC7 and Best Buy to check the HV20, I bought a used HC1 on ebay. Much better controls, you can manually focus it (the "wheel" on the HC7 is a joke), it feels more solid and I love the picture. It has it's limitations as far as manual controls, but it has worked out well.

duane