Sony has announced a new camcorder that breaks its traditional Handycam mold and ushers in a new Net-Sharing CAM product line. The Sony NSC-GC1 Net-Sharing CAM is built more like a compact digital still camera than a palm-sized video camcorder, measuring 1-1/2" wide by 4-1/8" high by 2-1/4" deep and weighing 5 ounces. It's tiny enough to fit in most pockets, making it easy to take on the go.

With the new Net-Sharing CAM, Sony hopes to give young shooters the tools to shoot and share video in a way that's never been easier. The NSC-GC1 records video clips at small file sizes with a widely-adopted format (MPEG-4) and has a unique Share Mark button to flag video clips and still images for immediate upload to the Internet. The software used to transfer and upload files to the Internet is embedded in the camcorder itself, making it possible to share your video wherever a USB-equipped, Internet-enabled computer is found. The software can also be installed on your local machine and, more importantly, can remotely access your Web accounts to automatically upload video and still photo content you've flagged during import. Sony's Net-Sharing CAM and recent acquisition of the online video community, Grouper (now Crackle), illustrates its intention to be a major advocate for online video content creators. The NSC-GC1 goes for $200 and should be available now.

In the September 2007 issue of Videomaker, we reviewed JVC's latest and greatest high-definition Everio camcorder from the consumer division, the GZ-HD7. Well, they've done it again, and now we have the GZ-HD3 high-definition Everio camcorder. The JVC GZ-HD3 has basically the same components as the GZ-HD7, except that there is no native 1920x1080-pixel recording format. Instead, the GZ-HD3 records 1440x1080 pixels (including the HDV editing-friendly CBR mode), using its three progressive CCD sensors. The GZ-HD3 is palm-sized and poised to be an everyday, casual shooter. It's also sporting a 2.8" 16:9 LCD, iLink connection, HDMI output and a 60GB hard drive. The JVC HD Everio GZ-HD3 is available now for $1,300.