UPDATE: Richard has posted a frame-grab comparison showing the reduced quality of the burst mode.

Richard Baguley has posted examples of the Sony HC3’s slow motion burst feature. This is a feature that I’ve been able to find very little information on, thanks to Richard for posting the footage.

The HC3 allows you to capture up to 3-seconds of footage in a high-frame-rate burst (and yes, it does it in HDV mode too). The burst is captured, then writes to tape in realtime. So I assume that the camera is unavailable for recording anything post-burst in the 12 seconds that it is writing to tape?

The final result when played back at 29.97fps is 12-seconds of super slow motion footage. Take a gander for yourself, it really looks like a handy feature in a very inexpensive camcorder.

I wonder how long it will take for a feature like this to make it into the FX1 and Z1U lines?