New Camcorders at CES Washington DC

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Originally published at Internet.com

Several new camcorders were announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, bringing higher resolutions and lower prices to the prosumer market.

Sanyo announced the Xacti HD-2, a follow-up to the original HD-1 announced the year before. The HD-2 offers the same pistol grip and thumb operation, proving that camcorders don't need to follow a traditional shape, but improves upon the original with a 7.38-megapixel CCD image sensor, and vastly improved light sensitivity. The original model was widely criticized for not being able to shoot below 50 lux, but the HD-2 can shoot as low at 12.5 lux.

The HD-2 offers 720p high-definition output and can store 21 minutes of high-def video per 1GB of memory, using an SD or high-capacity SDHC card (not included with the camera). That means an 8GB SDHC card can store nearly 3 hours of high-def video.

Sanyo bills the HD-2 as the world's smallest and lightest HD digital video camera. It weighs 8.3 ounces (including the battery and memory card), and measures 3.1- by 4.7- by 1.4-inches.

"Increased low-light sensitivity is just one example of how the HD2 has been engineered to provide a more satisfying user experience than ever before," said John Lamb, Senior Marketing Manager for SANYO Fisher Company's Audio Video Division.

The Sanyo Xacti HD-2 will be available in March for a suggested price of $699.

Also announced was the JVC Everio GZ-HD7, the company's first high-def, three CCD, hard drive-based camcorder. The Everio can shoot 1920 x 1080i video and save it to a built-in 60GB hard drive, for five hours of total shooting time. The camera also offers a Fujinon lens, 10x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, and full manual controls.

The Everio GZ-HD7 will be available in August for a list price of $1,799.