At NAB 2019, Sony announced the latest addition to its line-up of entry-level handheld camcorders – the fancy new HXR-MC88 shooting glorious 1080p aimed at non-professionals, students, schools etc offering a no-frills approach shooting video. Yep, you read that correct – Sony came all the way to Las Vegas to announce a Full HD camcorder in 2019…
   

The HXR-MC88 has the advanced BIONZ X image processing engine, a 14.2 megapixel 1.0-type stacked Exmor RS CMOS and a fixed lens. I guess, its redeeming feature is that the HXR-MC88 features the Fast Hybrid Auto Focus (AF) System, ensuring that fast-moving subjects are captured with absolute sharpness.

The HXR-MC88 comes with 12x optical zoom, which can be doubled to 24x with Clear Image Zoom while maintaining full resolution using Super Resolution Technology. Additionally, the 14.2 megapixels CMOS sensor and Sony’s Digital Extender can double this range up to 48x to satisfy the demand for wide-angle to telephoto shooting in various scenes.

The XLR audio input terminal and microphone holder adds to its operability as well as sound quality and connection reliability. With the built-in 4 Step ND Filters, the HXR-MC88 can adjust quickly to capture quality content in a multitude of environments, producing sharp, clear images without losing details anytime, anywhere.

Ideal as a sub-camera in HD program productions, the HXR-MC88 records in AVCHD… Users can remotely control the camcorder using the RM-30BP remote commander as well as livestream events through a simple and affordable production ecosystem when paired with the Sony MCX-500 multi-camera live producer.

This latest camcorder will be available worldwide from July 2019 onwards. No price yet, but according to Sony it will be cheap. Sure, there probably is a small market for something like this in 2019, but to me this looks like Sony is just recycling some older HXR bodies with the same 14 megapixel 1.0-inch Exmor RS CMOS sensor, but limiting the processing to 1080p in AVCHD (yeah, AVCHD… in 2019) to keep costs low enough hoping someone actually buys it.