Sony Debuts World's Smallest HD Camcorder
The HDTV, a novelty item just a few years ago, has quickly become a near necessity for any lover of television or gaming. So why, then, are so many camcorders still shooting in clunky, grainy, standard definition? Partly it's due to cost, with HD cams still costing considerably more than their SD brethren. It's also due to size, with high def internals generally requiring larger camcorders. That latter part is changing, though, as shown by Sony's latest, the HDR-TG1, which the company says is the world's smallest HD camcorder.
Sony's offering is a little over an inch thick and about five inches long -- small enough to easily fit in a bag or maybe even a pocket (if you're still into cargo pants). Despite the diminutive size, it records video in 1080i format, saving it to Sony's Memory Stick PRO Duo cards. It also boasts a 10x Carl Zeiss lens and records in 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, so that you can hear the mumblings of Dad the camera man in the rear speakers rather than the front.
However, there's still the matter of that "world's smallest" claim. Last August we reported on Panasonic's HDC-SD7, which the company was, at the time, touting as the "world's smallest." On first glance Panasonic's offering looks even smaller, and is nearly an inch shorter. However, it's also nearly twice as thick. If you do the math, you'll see that Sony's offering comes out to be less than half the total size.
Sony's new camera is also $200 cheaper, launching for $900 and including a four-gigabyte memory card, which, while far from cheap, isn't a terrible deal for a "world's" anything.
From Engadget
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