Sony Unveils Consumer HD Camcorder

By Ed Oswald | Published May 17, 2005, 12:46 PM

With high-definition television becoming more pervasive in American households, it was only a matter of time before affordable consumer high-definition camcorders appeared on the market. Sony announced late Monday a consumer HDTV camera for under $2,000.

"It is a natural progression to want to create personal content in high definition," said Linda Vuolo, director for camcorder products at Sony Electronics. "This introduction is a key step in bringing high-definition video recording to a broad cross-section of consumers. For about $2,000, there is now an easy-to-use solution."

Weighing only 1.5 pounds, the camera is also the smallest consumer HD camera to date. Although the camera and the battery are smaller, through power management enhancements Sony was able to allow for 90 minutes of recording time on a single charge.

Users will be able to select whether they would like to record in either a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio, or switch to still picture mode as the camcorder includes a 2.8-megapixel camera.

The Sony HD camcorder will be available starting in July. The company says a "full line" of accessories including lights, lenses and cases should be available at the time of release.

Comments

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We have ipods w/ 80 gb HDD's, and batteries that last 10 hours. What excuse does Sony have for producing something that the battery can only last for 90 mins. Then they want to charge 2000 bucks?! Preposterous. They need to focus on improving features before they start shrinking itmes down. If DVD's can store aprox. 2 hours, I want a HD Cam that can store atleast 10 hours of video and record for at least 3 hours on one charge. If they want to score brownie points, I should be able to hook it up to my pc and transfer my library of music to itand listen to mp3's when im not recording, and the battery shouldn't waste as much as it does when recording. Since SOny has a bunch of products that can do this stuff already, it shouldn't be that hard to converge these features, Oh ya, and i want it at a price that is well below $2000.

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I don't know what planet mhguy15 comes from, but there's not much rational thinking going on there!

Very good price for what it promises. Finally a small Sony High-Def camera. Although quality is likely not as good as the HDR-FX1, still it may be close. Hopefully the same codec is used as is in the 3CCD cam.

I'm eagerly awaiting some sample footage!

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MHguy15, nice spoof.

I want IMAX camera for $2000 with 24 hours recording time. ROFL, good one.

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