Is A1 XLR Removable?
 

Can the XLR box on the top of the A1 be removed? If so, does it have the 1/8 mic input that the HC1 has?

This sounds stupid, but I am thinking of situations where one needs a smaller form factor and doesn't care much about sound.

Buddy

Hey Buddy,

The XLR box can be removed and the A1U has a 1/8" mic input and headphone out.

You can grab the brochure (PDF) from Sony's DVCAM site.

http://bssc.sel.sony.com/Broadcastan...ra1u_broch.pdf

moreover, the sound quality of the duel on-board mics is quite acceptable, when a smaller form factor is desired.

That is one of the things I love about my A1: take off the XLR box and it looks like a regular home video camera.

With the XLR box removed, are there any differences between the A1U and the HC1?

Yes quite a few functionality differences. Most of them in the firm-ware, but there are small physical differences too like the A1 has a physical button on the body that is assignable to change different functions etc. But most of the differences are contained in the features avaialble via the menu system.