HD For Indies

HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 - Sony Unveils AVCHD Camcorders - News, Guides and Tips - Consumer Camcorders - Camcorderinfo.com

Camcorderinfo is the first source I've found with details on the first AVCHD camcorders:
-HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 are the first two models (see linked article above for pic of the UX1)
-records to 8cm rewriteable DVD
-HDR-UX1 due September, $1400 MSRP
-records to dual layer discs, 1 hour recording time - 1.4 GB is normal 8cm DVD capacity, so if 2.8 GB capacity for dual layer, then 1 hour is recording at 6.3 megabits (815 kilobytes/sec or so)
-HDR-SR1 is hard drive based, $1500 MSRP, September as well
-in "long play" up to 10 hours recording time (implies lower bitrate) - but what's the drive capacity? Built in drive? Replaceable?
-CMOS sensor based
-HDR-UX1 and HDR-SR1 AVCHD Camcorders - The Digital Video Information Network is a thread on the new cameras, and includes a link to a folder of images of the cameras, which are clearly straight consumer cameras.

-Panasonic will have an AVCHD camcorder later this year

Mike's Analysis: My ultimate takeaway - at this point in time, this is a CONSUMER format. While the specs include 24p and higher bitrate support, none of that is happening at this point in time. The other big issue - hello, how/where are you going to edit this format? Much like the other DVD recording cameras that record MPEG-2 to 8cm DVDs, there's no clear and easy path to edit this stuff. At this time, Adobe is the only of the Big Three NLEs to take interest in the format publicly/formally - Avid and Apple haven't officially signed up yet.

So I say it'll take several things before I'd consider using this format for anything even remotely serious:

1.) Much better quality cameras than what has been announced to date - better chips, glass, controls, etc.
2.) Higher bitrates, almost certainly recording to hard drives or solid state memory, for better quality video
3.) Native NLE support - there's ZERO native NLE support at this time as far as I can tell (anyone feel free to correct me)

...and even when native NLE comes, H.264 is a very efficient but very processor intensive format - you'll need a FAST, RECENT, POWERFUL computer to have enough huevos to edit this stuff in real time.

So interesting, but not for a while yet.

Also, I've seen no mention of 24p support for these cameras (although the format allows it) - so indie moviemakers, stay away from these cameras!

-mike