Panasonic Shows Smallest HD Camcorder

Panasonic's tiny HDC-SD7 camcorder weighs only 12 ounces, records high-def video on a Secure Digital card.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Two days after unveiling in the U.S. what it said was the smallest high-definition video camera in the world, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) took the wraps off an even smaller camcorder on Wednesday.

The HDC-SD7 measures 52 millimeters by 110mm by 87mm, giving it a volume of 330 cubic centimeters -- that's smaller than the 375cc of the HDC-SD5 that got its international launch on Monday. It weighs 350 grams with the battery and memory card against 400 grams for the SD5.

Design-wise, the two cameras look very different: the SD7 is taller than it is wide or long so has the appearance of being held vertically while the SD5 is longer than it is tall or deep so is held horizontally.

They have almost identical technical specifications. Both pack 3CCD (charge coupled device) sensors behind a 10X zoom lens and have a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.

One of the secrets to their small size is the use of an SD memory card as a recording medium. The electronics and socket needed for a flash card takes up much less space than a DVD or hard-disk drive and thus contribute to the size and weight savings over other high-def models.

Both record full HD (1,920 pixel by 1,080 pixel) MPEG4 AVC/H.264 video at a range of quality levels. At the average 9M bps (bit per second) rate, a 4G-byte SD card can hold up to 60 minutes of video, said Panasonic.

The cameras will both cost around %140,000 (US$1,175) when they go on sale in Japan. The SD5 will launch on Aug. 25 and the SD7, which will only be available in Japan, will hit the shelves on Sept. 8.


source:pcworld.com
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Hitachi Announces Two Blu-ray Camcorders

Hitachi has launched two new camcorders - the DZ-BD7H and the DZ-BD70.

The DZ-BD7H is the world's first Blu-ray Disc (BD) Camcorder, which records one hour of 1920x1080 Full High-Definition video onto a BD (single side, single layer.)

The DZ-BD7H is a Hybrid Cam with a BD drive and a 30 gigabyte (GB) built-in hard disc drive (HDD) which can record approximately four hours of 1920x1080 full high-definition video, or up to eight hours of 1440x1080 high-definition video. It can also copy the contents from HDD to 8cm BD within the camcorder so that users do not need to use any external devices.

The DZ-BD70 is a BD single drive camcorder, which can record approximately one hour of 1920x1080 full high-definition video (two hours of 1440x1080 high definition video) on an 8cm BD.

The new BD camcorders have a system which captures, records and stores 1920x1080 full high-definition video with its newly developed full high-definition lens. It's equipped with a 5.3 mega pixel progressive CMOS image sensor with effective 2.07 megapixel for video and 4.32 megapixel for still photo. The camcorders also feature a full high definition signal processor "Picture Master Full HD," and the world's first 8cm BD drive that can record 1920x1080 full high definition video, which has 5 times more capacity than a 8cm DVD.

The new camcorders will start selling in Japan on August 30, 2007, and overseas market sequentially starting from October.

source:tech2.com

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Panasonic Shows Smallest HD Camcorder

Panasonic's tiny HDC-SD7 camcorder weighs only 12 ounces, records high-def video on a Secure Digital card.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service

Two days after unveiling in the U.S. what it said was the smallest high-definition video camera in the world, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) took the wraps off an even smaller camcorder on Wednesday.

The HDC-SD7 measures 52 millimeters by 110mm by 87mm, giving it a volume of 330 cubic centimeters -- that's smaller than the 375cc of the HDC-SD5 that got its international launch on Monday. It weighs 350 grams with the battery and memory card against 400 grams for the SD5.

Design-wise, the two cameras look very different: the SD7 is taller than it is wide or long so has the appearance of being held vertically while the SD5 is longer than it is tall or deep so is held horizontally.

They have almost identical technical specifications. Both pack 3CCD (charge coupled device) sensors behind a 10X zoom lens and have a 2.7-inch widescreen LCD (liquid crystal display) monitor.

One of the secrets to their small size is the use of an SD memory card as a recording medium. The electronics and socket needed for a flash card takes up much less space than a DVD or hard-disk drive and thus contribute to the size and weight savings over other high-def models.

Both record full HD (1,920 pixel by 1,080 pixel) MPEG4 AVC/H.264 video at a range of quality levels. At the average 9M bps (bit per second) rate, a 4G-byte SD card can hold up to 60 minutes of video, said Panasonic.

The cameras will both cost around %140,000 (US$1,175) when they go on sale in Japan. The SD5 will launch on Aug. 25 and the SD7, which will only be available in Japan, will hit the shelves on Sept. 8.


source:pcworld.com
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