Hitachi Shrinks Blu-ray Camcorder

Hitachi has announced that will release their next generation Blu-ray camcorder, the Hitachi DZ-BD10H, this August in Japan. The camcorder takes the same core design from its predecessor, the BD9H, and put it in a smaller frame. While the camcorder maintains its 30GB hard drive from the last generation, the sensor has been upgraded to 7MP.

Also new to the line is the ability to write to SD cards, a welcome addition since the price of these cards keeps getting cheaper as capacity keeps getting larger.

Shooting in Full 1080p HD at 15Mbps, the camera can fit roughly 3.5 hours on its hard drive or one hour on the 8cm Blu-ray disc. Of course, with the battery lasting only 80 minutes, you best pack extras if you plan on using the hard drive.