Interesting. If you buy from an approved dealer Silver Support is included free and there is no option to buy without it. As Sony will not release the firmware to anyone and normally only do the upgrades via Silver Support, I'm not sure how Provision will deal with issues such as updating the firmware to the just released version that fixes the intermittent manual focus issue some users are experiencing.

From what I have read on the EX1 postings regarding Firmware 1.11, it seems that some users are having to pay for the upgrade, others have installed it themselves.

Under the sale of goods act, any user will be covered for at least one year against any faults.

I guess I will just have to deal with any problems as they arrise.

Although, I did get an immediate response from Sony when I asked about the HD to SD conversion, they rang me back and gave the solution - which does work and I am in full flow with my next DVD production. I guess I should have looked into warranties before purchasing.

Just as a footnote, Provision do provide a two year warranty with the camera

Sony PMW EX3

"Supplied with a Vision two year warranty"

Maybe is hasn't got the Sony Silver badge, but it will do.