So it is my wife's birthday and she really wants a HD camcorder to film land shots and our 20 month old daughter growing up. I have been holding out b/c I spent all our money on my UW video set up! Well, she won't wait any longer and wants a cam now.
I am thinking, well this could make a good back-up camcorder and good for land shots. In addition, in the future it could be a good UW cam for short trips (I won't mention any of this to my wife). But...the A1 cost about a grand more than the HC3.
So, what should I do?
a) Lower cost HC-1
B) Higer cost A1
How much better for land footage will the A1 be than the HC-3? Should I conside the A1 with hopes of dunking in the water some day for lighter weight short trips?
Phone are open...
I would choose the HC-3 for the described use. It's not worth a grand on top of the considerable investment for the use you describe. That's talking with my finance capabilities.
My HC-1 has been great for above water.
I did have some problems white balancing my HC-1 underwater (it would just blink the WB icon unless it was pretty light; more investigation to be done). Otherwise the camera was great.
If I was considering an underwater camera I would think hard on the A1 since others reported no problems WBing.
On a recent trip to Bali, I had a lot of trouble white balancing my A1 below about 30 feet (10 Meters).
--Mark
Hey Shawn,
Just thought I would let you know that Sony has a $500.00 rebate on the A1U's right now, so that might drop the price difference between the HC3 and A1U quite a bit.
Has anyone been in contact with Sony concerning the WB issue for the A1-U? It makes no sence that there would be a problem just because of low light. Perhaps this is a design issue.
Steve B)
Thanks guys.
I went with the A-1 as it will afford more options for "professional" type shoots above water. Will let you know if I ever consider getting it wet.
Shawn
Hi all,
I had no probs with white balancing the A1 at 20 metres in the dank cold murky waters of a quarry.
Even though it was shite it still W/B fine. I'm hopefully hitting the Canaries soon so I'll report from there.
Dive safe
DeanB
Maybe I had too much light
--Mark
It won't WB unless you point it at something "white". Something gray won't work and it will continue to flash.
What do people think about using the HC-3 strictly as a downloading deck saving wear and tear on their higher end cams?
Steve <;^--> B)
It won't WB unless you point it at something "white". Something gray won't work and it will continue to flash.
I used both a warm card (1), and the white back of my slate. No go. I was trying a number of manual tricks to get it to work, but didn't try everything. One I didn't think of was to set the exposure way up while white ballancing.
--Mark
Steve,
I have been considering the same idea. I plan to use my the A1 as the capture deck but this is still expensive! Anyone know of any cheap, relaible capture decks for hdv?
