I've always held out on bothering with a monitor, but I thinking for stuff you may want to be in video, it could be indespendisble, thing is, do all camcorders have ability to shoot while a cord goes to an external monitor you can see what you are getting? and is this available to the HDR-HC3? just AV line out? this is Firewire core?

Any good recommendation (links) for monitors? thanks.

(ps probably wont work, camcorder live to a laptop, correct?)

Sure, just use component or composite out, whichever your monitor has. Works fine.

You could probably also go HDMI out to PC Capture but I don't know if that setup would work with a laptop. Don't see why not, though, with the right software. Check out Adobe OnLocation.

thanks AC, so the cord is from the AV from camera, and goes to composite on back of monitor?

For computer, I was told there is no way to monitor live with that there is no software to do it.

What monitors recommend? or just use a TV?

I found a bunch of Polaroid (yes, that Polaroid) 15" HDTVs on sale at my local Circuit City and bought four of them. They're not great but they help immeasurably in terms of focus and exposure. They have component in so I use that.

I'm not an expert at live PC capture via FW or HDMI but I'm pretty sure it can be done. Did you check out OnLocation from Adobe? I think that's the whole point of that software. Also Google Blackmagic; they may have a solution.

Thats a good idea, just get tiny TVs. Why are field monitors so expensive anyway, and what the upshot of them?