HC3 is official

[Kurth Bousman]

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

[Jason Burkhimer]

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

[Martin Sinclair]

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

[Alex Thames]

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.

[Alex Thin]

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.

[Dionyssios Chalkias]

Is the HC3 really replacing the HC1?

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

[Michael Liebergot]

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

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.

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.

[Fredrik-Larsson]

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.

[Stu Holmes]

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.

[Fredrik-Larsson]

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

[Alex Thames]

Originally Posted by Michael Liebergot

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.

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.

[Lynne Whelden]

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

[J. Stephen McDonald]

Originally Posted by Martin Sinclair

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

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?