Pros Easy to use in auto mode, excellent video performance, features
Cons Difficult to access and use manual controls
The Bottom Line If you want an easy-to-use camcorder with excellent video quality and features, the HC40 is a good choice.
As time goes by, consumer electronic products get smaller, lighter and cheaper while adding features at the same time. Unfortunately, nothing is free.
The Sony DCR-HC40 is a digital camcorder that uses MiniDV tapes as media and features a 1-Megapixel CCD imaging sensor, 2.5-inch touch-panel LCD screen, color viewfinder and can take digital still pictures.
Looks
The camcorder is quite compact, although not as small as the most miniature models. It is convenient to hold and the main controls are within easy reach. Notice that I say “main controls”.
LCD
The camcorder has a 2.5-inch LCD (a pretty standard size for a camcorder) as well as a color viewfinder. You will probably have to use the LCD almost exclusively, as the viewfinder does not tilt from its position, it can only extend slightly. That’s right – the viewfinder is fixed and this fact prevents you from using it in many situations. No matter, since its use instead of the LCD doesn’t help energy conservation much.
The LCD can be very bright (if you need it to), works well in sunlight and lets you control the camcorder’s many functions by tapping the choices that appear on it. Although it makes it somewhat easier to navigate the menus, this method has a couple of drawbacks.
The functions like manual focus, spot light metering and focus, white balance, exposure control and others are buried in the menu system and are not easily and quickly accessible.
I remember how easy it once was to access important or semi-important functions like manual focus or exposure on the older cameras. On the TRV120, you could quickly push the button on the back of the camera and rotate the wheel to adjust manual exposure. Or move the switch in front of the LCD and rotate the ring around the lens to adjust the manual focus when the auto focus decides to focus on a wire fence instead of the object behind it.
With this camcorder, you have to either tap on the screen to let camera know where you want it to focus, or tap on “+” and “-“ in the manual focus mode – a slow and error prone process.
I am sure that it is cheaper to use a touch-sensitive screen than have a bunch of buttons, switches etcetera. And it will work well for majority of people majority of time. But if you intend to use manual controls a lot, the HC40 is probably not for you.
The target audience for this camcorder is epitomized by the prominent “Easy” button, which, when engaged, switches the camcorder to full auto mode and even increases the font size on the screen to make operation easier.
Zoom and Resolution
The camcorder has 10x optical zoom and digital zoom of up to 120x. The lens is Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar and is multi-coated to reduce glare and improve contrast. It is worth mentioning that the camcorder uses a 1/5-inch CCD sensor with 1,070,000 pixels, of which 1,000,000 (1 Megapixel) is used for still pictures and only 690,000 pixels are used for video.
Either way, 690,000 pixels is more than enough for video and here’s why. The digital video in standard definition (virtually all consumer-level digital camcorders) is recorded in 480i format, which means 480 lines of vertical resolution. With up to 520 lines of horizontal resolution, we need only 249,600 pixels. As such, 690,000 pixels is more than enough. Unless digital zoom is used, that is.
The optical zoom if 10x is normally good enough for many situations and the mild digital zoom does not produce poor image quality either, due to the CCD’s resolution.
Performance
The overall picture quality of the video this camcorder produces is excellent. The colors are vivid, images sharp and edges of objects are well-defined. The sound is adequate for travel and “people” events. The camcorder has digital image stabilization, which works very well and is useful at the lower end of the zoom let alone at the high zoom levels. The camcorder has no problem keeping many objects in focus at the same time (it has a wide depth of field) due to the small size of its CCD and use of wide angle lens.
The digital still images can be taken at 1152x864 (1 Megapixel) as well as at 640x480 (VGA) resolutions. They may be good enough for emailing or posting on the web site. Obviously, the resolution is not high enough to produce excellent-looking prints. The 6x4 print would have resolution of about 200 dpi, which would have been acceptable. You will be better served by a dedicated digital still camera.
Formats
The camcorder records video on the MiniDV tape and can store digital still pictures on a Memory Stick Duo (in JPEG format). No MiniDV tape is included, but an 8-Megabyte Memory Stick Duo is provided. The standard-sized Memory Stick cannot be used.
You can use standard SP speed with MiniDV tape or LP speed, which lets you record 50% more on the same tape with no loss of quality. The drawbacks are lack of ability to perform audio dubbing (but who uses it anyway?) and the warning in the manual that the LP-recorded tapes might not play well in other MiniDV camcorders.
Connectivity
The camcorder has i.Link (FireWire) high-speed digital connection for transferring video in digital format to your computer or standalone DVD recorder with no loss in quality. Also present are USB 1.1 (for picture download and video streaming) and A/V/S-Video connections (both in and out).
The A/V input can be used to convert analog video to digital format and either record it on MiniDV tape or stream it to your computer. This is very useful for archiving (you can create DVDs of your older footage).
The camcorder has an Intelligent Accessory Shoe. If you are a complete geek, you can even attach a portable printer to it.
A microphone input is present (as I mentioned, the camcorder’s stereo microphone is adequate for most tasks, but if you want to connect a better one or the one that is closer to the action, you can use this input).
Also present a LANC editing controller interface.
Battery
The NP-FP50 battery is supplied and lasts about 40-80 minutes, depending on usage. If you record continuously with LCD off, you may get up to 90 minutes. If you use LCD with backlight and turn the camcorder on and off, don’t expect more than 40-50 minutes.
The battery is of “InfoLithium” kind – you can see the remaining battery power in minutes.
Remote Control
The remote control lets you control not only the playback, but the recording as well. It has zoom and recording control.
Bottom Line
If you want an easy-to-use camcorder with excellent video quality and features, the HC40 is a good choice. But if you want more easily accessible manual control or good still picture performance, look elsewhere.
