JVC has officially announced the JVC GZ-HD3 that was leaked earlier this week. If you missed it here is the lowdown: the JVC GZ-HD3 is the little brother (both in size and features) to the JVC GZ-HD7. It features three 1/5″ CCDs, records on a 60GB hard drive, and can output an HDV compatible stream via Firewire.

The JVC GZ-HD3 has three recording modes: XP, SP, and 1440CBR. The XP will net you 5 hours of recording at an average of 26.6Mbps using a variable bitrate. SP gets you 7 hours at an average 19Mbps, also VBR. Finally, the 1440CBR is a constant 27Mbps and, like XP, will get you about 5 hours. The latter mode is also the mode that is HDV compatible.

The JVC GZ-HD3 also allows you to record onto a SDHC memory card, but only in the SP mode.

Optical zoom on the JVC GZ-HD3 is 10x and the screen is 2.8″ widescreen with 207K pixels. Each of the 1/5″ CCDs has a 430K effective resolution. Other features include focus-assist, zebra stripes, and a video light. There is also an accessory shoe on top and a microphone input on the front of the camcorder.

The JVC GZ-HD3 does not feature optical image stabilization, but, rather, JVC opted for a digital stabilization system.

Your video footage from the JVC-HD3 can be output a number of different ways. This includes HDMI, Component, S-Video, Composite, USB 2.0, i.LINK (Firewire), and to SD/SDHC memory cards.

The JVC GZ-HD3 will ship in September for $1299.99.