Steve, I haven't seen the shipping cam nor owners manual. When this came up on another forum, I sent an email to one of the camera designers, and also to the Sony USA product manager. Both indicated it was a typo, one in mail, one over the phone.
Could be they're wrong, and since I don't have a shipping cam in front of me as you do, I'm not in a position to be adamant. I have an owners guide, but it doesn't have the addendum sheet in it.
I've forwarded your post to both of them; it'll be interesting to hear what they say.
I won't have my production model for a few more days, or so I'm told.

>>post a picture

Good idea, Tony.

See the attached pics of both menu selection (Camera Set -> Prog. Scan) and on-screen display indicators.

On the menu selection screen, note upper right annotation of currently selected menu item. On the OSD indicator, note, well, the indicator icon showing current 24p mode.

Steve R

Well now. I think that settles it.

I assume the "scnA" mode is the one that does the complete GOP thingamabob/whatchamacallit. Although I can see how there was some confusion to begin with. The progressive frame settings are labeled differently than what is displayed in the corner. 24 = 24p scan and 24A =24p scnA (Which obviously means "Scan A")

They could have made this easier and clearer for everyone by just going with "24p" and "24pA" everywhere (including the OSD indicator).

Also - if you look at the bitmap shown in the documentation and on screen for 24pSCNA - it's a distinctly and deliberately different icon (with a larger "A").

Lastly, this would have to be a "typo" in all languages of the doc, and at more importantly, at many different points throughout the firmware code and development (including by the person who created/painted the bitmap "icon" for "24pSCNA").

You are right -- why on earth choose 24A which is so close to 24PA thus causing major confusion.

And, as I've posted before -- I just used Vegas with 24p from my prototype and it worked fine. Assuming this is 24pSCAN -- why is 24pSCNA needed?

Maybe the big "A" stands for Apple or Avid or Adobe. My guess Apple or Avid wanted to use TC not subcode to identify the judder frames. And, 24A provides a way to use TC with 100% realiability. (Using subcode would require far more programming, something Apple/Avid would not want to do.)

But, will folks really accept the pauses when playing tapes? IMHO, whichever NLE requires 24A is going to be at a disadvantage -- unless there is some really huge benefit to the user. Vegas already proves 24A is not necessary.

This may mean Vegas supports the original 24pSCAN (24p) using subcode and thus by definition it also works with 24pSCNA (24A).

See the attached pics of both menu selection (Camera Set -> Prog. Scan) and on-screen display indicators.

Can you check the Tele Macro mode. On my prototype, an indicator appears telling you it is OFF.

This makes no sense since TM is like Backlight -- one doesn't need to know it's OFF, only that it's ON.

I'm wondering if Sony fixed this.

Can you take a pix in 24p and 30p mode?

Steve -> FOCUS MACRO still works as on your prototype: No indicator when it's ON, indicator when it's OFF.

May seem backwards, but here's the manual's explanation:

"Since the default setting is [ON], you can focus on a subject within 80 cm (about 2 5/8 feet). When FOCUS MACRO is set to [OFF], you cannot focus on a subject within 80 cm (about 2 5/8 feet) but you can easily find the focal point of a subject at 80 cm or further regardless of the zoom position."

Seems that they configured it the way they did because it's the default, and the expected most to leave it on. (Any downside to leaving it on?)

BTW - When they say "you can easily find..." - do they mean "Auto-focus can more easily find" ('cause I don't seem to have any trouble with either setting).

Used Liquid to capture the three clips and pulled snapshots as you advised. Here they are. There's an extra #3 because toward the end of the clip there was a brightness increase. (Didn't see this with Vegas.)

Steve thanks for the images. Did you try changing the properties to non interlaced for the 24p and 30p samples? Also I was really hoping the pulldown would get removed. Did it? I know with Liquid a 24p DVD will come in as 24p with it removing the pulldown on import. This only works with mpeg-2 with the flags set correctly which I had hope 24p from the V1 would have worked as.

>>post a picture

Good idea, Tony.

See the attached pics of both menu selection (Camera Set -> Prog. Scan) and on-screen display indicators.

On the menu selection screen, note upper right annotation of currently selected menu item. On the OSD indicator, note, well, the indicator icon showing current 24p mode.

Steve R

Well now that looks like two different 24p modes to me.

I wasn't aware it has been suggested that there are *not* two 24p modes on the camcorder; quite the contrary. Re-read above and you'll see wherein I mention the two modes a couple days back.

I'm embarassed, but also surprised, that the designer of the camcorder and the US product manager (nor myself) picked up that "SCNA" is the same as "Scan-A." No one else seems to have caught that either, but that's no excuse on my part.
The reason it appears as scnA is that there is a 7 character limit on that menu, and therefore "Scan-A" wasn't an option. The truncated version is therefore "24pscnA"
My apologies to Steve Rolufs.

As mentioned earlier, Sony Vegas manages both modes, as it correctly reads the subcode from the standard mode, or can work with the assured 3:2 cadence mode, either one, from either the camcorder or the DR60.

24p=A recorded segment may end where the 3:2 cadence may not be properly picked up by next segment. At the moment, only Sony Vegas correctly reads this.
24pScan-A=Forces the start frame of a recorded segment to a 3:2 cadence. Any NLE supporting HDV 24p should read this correctly.

Seems that they configured it the way they did because it's the default, and the expected most to leave it on. (Any downside to leaving it on?)

You just asked the question that's been worrying me. I got so tired of being told something was OFF, that I decided to go with the default and turn it ON.

I think Sony is saying: "When the FOCUS MACRO default setting is [ON], you can focus on a subject closer than 2 5/8 feet in full Telephoto. When FOCUS MACRO is set to [OFF], you cannot focus on a subject closer than 2 5/8 feet in full Telephoto."

Thus, one would turn FOCUS MACRO [OFF] when was shooting through a screen door, for example.

But what is the minimum focusing distance when FOCUS MACRO is [ON]?

In the ZOOM section of the manual -- it says you can focus down to almost 1/2-inch in Wide. Which means, I think, FOCUS MACRO only applies to Telephoto, which is why it really should be called FOCUS TELE MACRO.

Thanks for the help.

Can you describe the "pause" when shooting 24A.