HC3 discontinued?

[Fred Foronda]

Is the hc3 going to be discontinued soon? I noticed some local retailers are either dropping the price or is no longer in stock.

[Peter Ferling]

Consumers want direct to disk, and a few brave wanna-be editors will opt for the hard drive models. So, I can see a trend to do away with tape altogether. It's serves both the quick and busy, and lazy alike. My guess it's a fair trade for slightly less quality than HDV, but still has the 'wow' factor over VHS these folks are used to seeing.

All I know is that I ain't selling my HC1.

[Fred Foronda]

better grap some more.

Is there really a difference in pq quality when it comes to capturing to tape and HD??

[Lynne Whelden]

I notice that Sonystyle doesn't even list the HC3 anymore. Wow, that was a brief lifespan. I got mine back in June. When did it come out, less than a year ago?

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Originally Posted by Lynne Whelden

I notice that Sonystyle doesn't even list the HC3 anymore. Wow, that was a brief lifespan. I got mine back in June. When did it come out, less than a year ago?

I thought it was released on March 2006.

[Lynne Whelden]

You're probably right. When I called Sony yesterday about tracking down the WA lens for the camera, she said it had been released in April. So we're talking a mere 10 months. Could that be a record? And what does that portend for a replacement? Someone else at Sony said that a replacement would come in January. Hmmm, I wonder if it will abandon tape and go with memory stick....

[Jeff DeMaagd]

Originally Posted by Lynne Whelden

You're probably right. When I called Sony yesterday about tracking down the WA lens for the camera, she said it had been released in April. So we're talking a mere 10 months. Could that be a record? And what does that portend for a replacement? Someone else at Sony said that a replacement would come in January. Hmmm, I wonder if it will abandon tape and go with memory stick....

I do think the product life cycle is too short, even shorter because of the scarcity before its replacement. The HC1 started getting hard to find a few months before the HC3 was available too. Some stores had them, but tracking them down became a community project.

They already have a couple AVCHD units right now in that price range, SR1 and UX1, I think. One goes to hard drive, the other to a DVD. Flash is still a little too expensive in my opinion. IIRC, for the very short term, they aren't sufficient because no editor that can directly import that video yet. I expect to see that fixed in six months but until then, media handling would be difficult. I'm going based on what I gleaned from the dvi forums, so if I'm wrong, please don't shoot me.

[Stu Holmes]

Originally Posted by Lynne Whelden

So we're talking a mere 10 months. Could that be a record?

I think its very similar to the HC1 life-cycle. Just seems to be the way Sony do these things. I'm sure something new will arrive in fairly short order.