Is the HC3 sharper than the A1u?
 

From the footage ive seen , the HC3 seems to be sharper than the A1u, speciffically Jung's 24p footage he posted.

I dont know if they are different chips or what, can someone clarify if they should look different, or are they actually the same resolution-wise? thank you.

Nevermind, im retarded. the footage Jung shot was with the hc1, not HC3. So that leaves another question,

IS the HC1 sharper than the A1U. or should they be the same?

when you shoot in the 24 mode on the HC1, you loose a lot of resolution so you can't compare the two by that footage. The HC1 and A1u will be the same as far as sharpness and resolution goes. I believe there was a previous post where we agreed that the HC1 looked slightly (barely noticable) sharper then the HC3.

The HC3 takes off under low-lit situations. However, under ideal lighting situations, the HC1/A1 will provide slightly sharper images than the HC3. To be quite honest, it'll be unoticeable unless you're freezing frames and scrutinizing each frame. I wouldn't worry too much about the difference.

In theory they are very similar cameras, based on the same core, so the results should be identical. If they are different, then I suspect the Sony engineers might have cranked up the "sharpness" setting a little bit or something, but as far as I know, teh A1U and HC1 are identical in terms of the imager and resolution. The differences lie in audio interface features and image settings (e.g. A1U offers black stretch).

HC1 and A1 are to all intents and purposes, same video.

Slight difference with thigns like Black Stretch switched-on in A1, but that doesn't affect sharpness.

HC3 vs HC1 - well this has been 'done to death' really i think on several DV sites, and i agree with Alexnder Karol that really there's little appreciable difference when watching video footage on a big screen.

There IS more of a difference when it comes to color balance, tone, color saturation and things like that.

ya, from what ive seen, the HC3 does a way better job than the HC1 for red color reproduction. i wonder, does the A1u have a good red color reproduction? or does it lack that just as the HC1 did.

Reds on the A1 seem to have the same issue as the Hc1.

The A1 and HC1 are similar, like the Z1 and FX1. And shooting in CF24 does indeed cut down on vertical resolution.

heath

Yes it does, and if you care about the details, check out Adam Wilt's excellent description and discussion of Cineframe 30 and Cineframe 25 on his web site at: http://www.adamwilt.com/HDV/cineframe.html

Adam rocks.

hwm

The HC3 does not have cinemode right?

My A1 doesn't seem to present the red color problem some are talking about. I'm not the only one without this problem neither.