Panasonic HDC-SD10 and HDC-TM10 Full-HD camcorders

Panasonic have taken the wraps off of two Full-HD AVCHD camcorders, which it claims are the lightest of their kind. The Panasonic HDC-SD10 and HDC-TM10 each have 16x optical zooms, optical image stabilization (OIS) and touchscreen controls, and record to SD/SDHC memory cards. The Panasonic HDC-TM10 also has 8GB of its own internal storage.

Both can record Full-HD 1920 x 1080 footage with Panasonic’s iA (”Intelligent Auto”) function, which automatically selects between scene modes and OIS settings, exposure and face detection, and Intelligent Contrast Control to suit the shooting environment. There’s also AF/AE Tracking, which can ensure a moving subject is kept in focus.

Up to 32GB SDHC cards are supported, which in the case of the TM10 gives a total of 40GB capacity. Each camcorder supports pre-recording (where three seconds of footage are buffered before the record button is actually pressed) and one-connection burning with Panasonic’s USB DVD burner. The Panasonic HDC-SD10 and HDC-TM10 will be available in the UK in June, priced at £499.99 ($774) and £529.99 ($820) respectively.

Genius G-Shot HD520

Over the last few years camcorders have changed drastically from devices that recorded to tapes of different types to machines that use internal flash or hard drives to store video. With the move to flash storage and HDDs the cameras were also able to shrink to more portable sizes.

Genius has announced its first camcorder called the G-Shot HD520. The little camcorder weight less than six ounces and records video in 720p resolution. Video is encoded and compressed using MPEG-4/H.264 formats. In addition to recording video the camera can also take still images at 11-megapixels.

Video is stored to 32MB of internal memory and expansion up to 8GB with SDHC cards is possible. The camera has 5x digital zoom and features face tracking and electronic image stabilization. The screen for the camera is a 2.5-inch LCD that can rotate 270-degrees. The little camera sells for $149.