Sony HDR-HC1, buy in hong-kong?

[matt5cott]

As per topic title really, my parents are off to Hong Kong in the next week or so.

Now, I want a high definition camcorder to do some amatuer (semi-pro if I had a better idea of what I was doing!) filming.

Would it be wise to get my parents to grab me this camcorder when they're out there? (they can also film the rest of the holiday on it naturally)

My worries are that I won't have any kind of guarantee/warranty to fall back on if things go pear shaped, I've heard sony do a worldwide warranty, but im guessing this won't be covered

Any help/advice greatly appreciated

[laser]

Try reading through this about warranty information (it may or may not be useful):

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowArtic...site=odw_en_GB

Bare in mind that HK is NTSC area. As you are buying a high def camcorder then I presume you have a plasma or LCD which will be multistandard. However not all video editing software will let you record in NTSC as well as PAL. It would definately be worth checking than you NLE software will handle NTSC OK. The likes of Premiere, Sony Vegas and Pinnacle/Avid Liquid have no problems with NTSC and PAL but some entry level software such as Pinnacle Studio did only allow PAL capture if you bought the European version.

HK also use a different power supply to the UK so you will need some type of converter/transformer to power the camcorder from the mains.

[redsox_mark]

I believe China (and Hong Kong) are PAL. All the references I've found say this, though I have not found a "definitive" source to confirm. but a couple of example references are below.

http://www.vidpro.org/standards.htm
http://www.ttop.com/standard.html

Power should also not be a problem - worldwide the power supply provided handles anything between 100 and 240v. You will need a plug adapter though.

One thing to consider, per UK law you are required to declare the item when you bring it into the UK, and would be liable to VAT (as it costs more than £145).
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...yType=document

Mark

[matt5cott]

Thanks for your replies so far guys.

laser - im not too bothered about displaying it on TV's at my local end, im more interested in editing stuff to distro over the internet. I'm not actually sure if there are any serious implications of using PAL/NTSC for that purpose.

Originally Posted by redsox_mark

One thing to consider, per UK law you are required to declare the item when you bring it into the UK, and would be liable to VAT (as it costs more than £145).
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsP...yType=document
Mark

Of course


I've had a butchers also and it looks like you might be able to buy the HC1E over there, which would appear to be the very same euro version we get.

However, warranty is the outstanding issue it would appear

[redsox_mark]

You should be covered by the warranty from Sony Hong Kong. It won't be the "european warranty", but it still should be covered (though it may be more "hassle").
And it is the PAL HC1E they sell in Hong Kong, so no NTSC/PAL problems.
Mark

[matt5cott]

Hmm, the best my parents are being offered at the moment is.

£960 inc 5 HD tapes, another (71, the slightly larger than standard battery) battery and a tripod (no idea what brand)


Seems a bit steep to me? what do you guys think?

[redsox_mark]

Well, the tapes cost around £8 each, and a genuine 71 battery around £60. So that's about £100 there. Obviously a tripod can cost anything between £30 and £1000 or more depending what it is....If you assume it is worth say £60, that's £160 worth of stuff, so £800 for the camera. This is consistant with on-line prices I've seen for the HC1 in Hong Kong.

Mark