HC3 is official
 

Camcorderinfo is saying sony officially announced hc3 at $1700 . Seems high - maybe a street price of ??? Kurth

Yea, that does seem high. 200 dollars more for HVR-A1U w/xlr...? no brainer for me...

Found the specs page hidden away on sonystyle.com:

http://tinyurl.com/jsyxg

And for those that can read Japanese:

http://tinyurl.com/hue7s

Japanese price is close to USD $1300

You were able to find a HVR-A1U for only $200 more than the purported $1,700 of the HC3? Please tell where. The best I've been able to find for a A1 is $2,000, not $1,900 from a reputable retailer.

re
 

I bouhgt the HC1 for 1700 euros in a fisical shop in Spain , in internet you can by it aroun 1600 or 1500, I think the HC3 will cost in some mouths around 1100-1400, If it will cost that, I think the HC1 is a better option.

Is the HC3 really replacing the HC1?

http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Sony-Officially-Announces-$1700-HC3-High-Definition-Camcorder-.htm

Alex Sony is offering a $500 rebate on the A1's currently from authorized dealeras, like B & H.

After the $500 rebate, the price of the A1 will be around $1900.

If they are replacing the HC1 they would've taken it off their list over HDV-camcorders. Which they haven't. And since A1 and HC1 is almost the same I bet that they take those off the market at the same time since production-wise these two are near identical i e cheaper to produce. And finally it would be pretty stupid and waste of money to release a product of this kind and kill it in less than a year.

HC3 is going to replace HC1.

HC1 will continue for sale for a little while i'd think - it will take a little while for volume units of HC3 to get through.
They're obvoiusly not going to take it off their lists just yet. But it is being dropped.

Stu, what's your source? I can't find any logical reason behind it except that HC3 is a higher number...

Maybe I missed it, but even with the "Email Me A Better Price" and after the $500 rebate, it is only a few cents cheaper than $2,000, not $1,900.

Also, I doubt the HC3 will replace the HC1. I don't think the HC3 even has a focus ring. Although supposedly the HC3 has a rating of 5 lux, I would still take the HC1.

getting closer to heaven
 

the C3 is 2" shorter than its predecesor, consumes less power, has a sharper LCD screen, is 1/2 pound lighter--I like it!!!

In the section about the HC3 slow-motion feature on this Sony website, it refers to recording of 240 fields in 3 seconds and then playing it back over 12 seconds for the slo-mo effect. This must mean that the 240 fields are reduced down to 1/4th of their bit-size during encoding to M-PEG2 and then squeezed onto the 3 seconds of tape. Then, this tape would be played back over a 12-second period at 1/4 the normal speed, to give 4X slow-motion. This would account for the poor slow-motion quality that has been reported for this model. It would also mean that there was no caching of the slow-motion segment before recording, as I and others have previously been speculating.

On another forum, someone who watched the slow-motion on a trade-show HC3 model, swore that the playback was only about 2X slower. I don't know what to make of that. But, I figure that with all the incomplete details we've heard about this feature, that this latest theory I've got, is as good as any.

I noticed that nowhere on this Sony HC3 website page, is the HDMI output mentioned. Is this perhaps a feature they're throwing into the model at the last minute and hadn't added when this webpage was compiled?