Hitachi Blu-Ray Camcorders | Canon and Panasonic's new AVCHD camcorders

Hitachi has been aggressive in the camcorder market, obtaining bragging rights for being the first manufacturer to have a "hybrid" camcorder that has a both a hard disk and a DVD recorder. And now they're flexing their muscles again, bringing the first Blu-ray Disc camcorders to the Japanese and US markets. Their Hybrid camcorder move was timed well, but we have to wonder if a Blu-ray camcorder is a little premature. We understand the value of being first to do something, but we also understand that there is still a format war going on between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. We also can't imagine the financial pain one might experience paying a high price for 8cm Blu-ray media at around $20 a pop. Fortunately, Hitachi has taken the best of both their achievements and made a Hybrid Blu-ray Disc camcorder, helping shooters avoid or at least minimize the need for Blu-ray Disc media.

The Hitachi DZ-BD7HA Hybrid Blu-ray Disc camcorder sports a 30GB hard disk drive and a Blu-ray read/write drive. This model is capable of dubbing from its hard drive to an 8cm Blu-ray disc (both BD-R writeable and BD-RE re-writable discs) or standard 8cm DVDs. For standard DVD media, the Hitachi DZ-BD7HA will either record in SD or downconvert from HD resolution to SD resolution upon dubbing from the hard drive. The other model Hitachi is introducing, the DZ-BD70A, does not have a hard disk drive, but only a Blu-ray read/write drive. Both the Hitachi DZ-BD7HA Hybrid and the DZ-BD70A have 1/2.8" CMOS progressive sensors that record 1920x1080 pixels in the 1080i video format. At the highest recording quality mode, using the DZ-BD7HA's hard disk, one could record up to 4 hours, or up to a single hour on a single-sided 8cm Blu-ray disc for either camcorder. The Hitachi DZ-BD7HA Hybrid Blu-ray camcorder and the DZ-BD70A Blu-ray Disc camcorder will be on sale early October for $1,499 and $1,299 respectively.

The HG10 AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) camcorder marks the first hard disk drive camcorder for Canon and rounds out a variety of recording formats that Canon has adopted after the successful HV20 HDV camcorder came to market.

The HG10 has many similarities to the HV20, including Instant AF (auto focus), Cine Mode, HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) out, a mic input and more. The HG10 can shoot in 24p mode to mimic the temporal motion of film. The HG10 stores AVCHD video and 3-megapixel still photos on its 40GB hard disk drive. It can also capture 2-megapixel still photos while the camcorder is recording video.

One of the standout features, as far as AVCHD camcorders go, is the 15Mbps maximum recording bitrate, which is one of the highest we've seen from a camcorder that utilizes AVCHD (or any other MPEG-4-based camcorder we've seen to date, for that matter). At this bitrate, we suspect the quality of the video could be stunning. We'll have to wait to find out. In the meantime, we're left to simply admire from a distance. And, we must say that the HG10 looks to be one of Canon's more attractively-designed camcorders. The Canon HG10 should be available now for $1,299.

Panasonic is continuing its AVCHD support as well as continuing to be a leader in the market with 3-CCD consumer camcorders. The Panasonic HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 both record video at 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels in their "HG" shooting mode at 13Mbps. Both, as well, record to SDHC memory cards, which gives the shooter high-capacity record times. It's no mistake that Panasonic also announced its new 8GB SDHC memory card.

The Panasonic HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 are nearly identical AVCHD camcorders, the main difference being the additional DVD recording drive featured on the HDC-SX5. The HDC-SX5 AVCHD camcorder also records in standard definition, while the smaller, lighter HDC-SD5 records only in high definition. The most significant advantage the HDC-SD5 has over the HDC-SX5 is that, with the absence of the DVD medium, the camcorder consumes much less power, extending the battery life. Both camcorders feature three 1/6" CCDs, 10x optical zoom and advanced optical image stabilizer. The Panasonic HDC-SD5 and HDC-SX5 are now available at $999 and $899 respectively.

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