Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Just a quickie to say that we're just about on our way for our Great Victorian Adventure. Catch you all in the new year!

Presented in High Definition

I am back! Actually our internet connection has been back up for quite some time now, however i have been so busy at work that i've been trying to avoid "working" at home. The good news - i have received my Christmas present early! This is Kerri and i inspecting my new toy ...


I have been thinking about getting a video camera for quite some time, so Kerri suggested to Santa that i receive an entry-level cam-corder. Being the perfectionist, i couldn't find anything that was up to my high standards, so in the end we decided to go all out and buy the Sony HDR-HC1E Handycam. This baby records in 1080i HDV format, an ideal match for our 76cm Super Fine Pitch Sony CRT HDTV.

First impressions? I took my time getting through the "Getting Started" section of the manual, and by the time i was ready to record darkness had fallen, so unfortunately my first experience was going to have to be in low light conditions. Not surprisingly we couldn't tell the difference between HDV and standard DV, however as shown in the above pic, when used with the flash, the still's weren't too bad. This morning i awoke to sunny blue skies, so i was straight out on the balcony, and oh boy, the little critter didn't disappoint. I'm really looking forward to our Great Ocean Road trip after Christmas. Now i've got to work out how i'm going to edit and store all this footage!