Hitachi unveils first Blu-Ray camcorders [U]

Hitachi today revealed full details of the world's first Blu-Ray camcorders, expanding on the company's early preview from just weeks before. The handheld models are no larger than conventional DV cameras but include a special mini Blu-Ray recorder that writes to 3-inch discs of AVCHD (H.264) video playable in most Blu-Ray movie players and computer drives without requiring the conversion process of previous HD cameras. A single disc will hold about one hour of full 1080-line footage, Hitachi estimates. Every model can also record 4.3-megapixel still shots.

Two cameras will be available for the official debut. The base model, the DZ-BD70, will contain just the Blu-Ray disc recorder, while the DZ-BD7H will include a 30GB hard drive that both stores four hours of native HD and can dub video to the built-in Blu-Ray drive for creating permanent copies. All cameras sport HDMI output for live HDTV previews, a USB 2.0 connection for computers, and the ability to record lower resolutions to mini-DVDs.

The cameras first ship to Japan on August 30th at $1,348 for the BD70 and $1,601 for the BD7H. Hitachi has also planned a more general worldwide release that will see the cameras available in October, with US prices set at $1,299 and $1,499 respectively.