CES: Panasonic announces high-end hard drive camcorders

The new HDC-HS300 and HDC-HS250 both have 120GB hard drives for up to 50 hours of footage. The HS300 targeted to release in April with a price tag of $1400 offers manual controls, external mic support and electronic viewfinder.

Main features:

• Full HD 1920x1080 Recording
• 3MOS camcorder System
• 120GB HDD and SD card slot
• Manual Ring, Electrical Viewfinder and Cold Shoe
• Intelligent Auto Mode and AF Tracking
• 10.6 Megapixel Still Images

• Lens Brand	Leica Dicomar Lens
  F Value	F1.8(WIDE)/2.8(TELE)
  Optical Zoom	12x
  Digital Zoom	30x- 700x
  Focal Length	4-48mm
  Filter Diameter	43mm
  35mm Film camera Equivalent	44.9-539mm (16:9) [Motion Image] / 41.3-496mm (3:2), 40.8-490mm (16:9), 45.0-540mm (4:3) [Still Image]

The HDC-HS300 is a hybrid camcorder that records Full HD images either on an SD (or SDHC) Memory Card or the built-in 120GB hard disk drive. A 32-GB SDHC Memory Card can hold around 12 hours of recorded video clips (in HE mode). The HDC-HS300 camcorder can copy recorded video images from the SD Memory Card to the hard disk, or vice versa, with easy operation.

Buy Panasonic HDC-SD9 AVCHD 3CCD Flash Memory High Definition Camcorder with 10x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom w/8 GB SD Card

The HDC-HS300 camcorder features the Full HD 3MOS sensor, developed by Panasonic based on its proven 3CCD technology. The Panasonic 3MOS sensor system captures more vibrant, true-to-life colours, greater detail and richer gradation.

Recording Format	MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (AVCHD standard compliant)
Recording Mode	HA (17Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HG (13Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HX (9Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HE (6Mbps / VBR) , (1440 x 1080)
Playback Mode	HA (17Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HG (13Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HX (9Mbps / VBR) , (1920 x 1080) / HE (6Mbps / VBR) , (1440 x 1080)
Audio Recording System	Dolby Digital (5.1ch)
Microphone	5.1ch Surround, Zoom and Focus Microphone

Also new to Panasonic's HD camcorder line are the new entry-level models: the HDC-HS20 ($800), which records to both an 80GB hard drive and an SD/SDHC card; the HDC-TM20 ($650) records to a 16GB solid-state drive and SD/SDHC card; and the HDC-SD20 ($600), which records to SD/SDHC cards only. All three models will be available in April.

Via Panasonic, networkworld, camcorderinfo