From Wikiboom, the official Rocketboom wiki

[edit] Sony HDR-HC1 Mini DV / HDV Camcorder

10x Optical/120x Digital Zoom

Color Viewfinder 2.7" Touch Panel LCD Screen

http://www.rocketboom.org/wiki/images/sony_hdv_hc1.jpg

In February of 2006, Rocketboom bought and began to use the Sony HDV HC-1 camera for most of the in-studio shooting and most of the local, NYC field reports.

The camera records at "near" HD quality, but is not true HD and can not compete with professional cameras in the HD class.

Introduced into the US late in 2005, the HC-1 is amongst the first widely distributed quality HDV camera of this sort to enter the consumer market.

Rocketboom purchased the HC-1 from B&H for about $1500 including a few accessories.

[edit] Review from Drew:

Awesome camera, quality picture, excellent conguration/settings control down to the most detailed preferences, small, easy.

The two big inconveniences that most people note are 1) not great in low lighting, 2) bottom feeder (must remove from tripod mount to change tapes).

Regarding the low light, it still works in low lighting like other cameras, however, the image gets very pixilated and grainy when the light is poor. This camera seems to be a bit more extreme in the graininess than whatever is typical. On the contrary when the lighting is good, the picture is exceptionally more brilliant.

One of my favorite features is the ability to record in HD and then export to the computer as either HD or DV after the fact. This is great flexibility in case your computer is not capable of editing HD which requires contemporary processing power. Therefore, you can keep an HD master and edit in DV if desired.