Hitachi intros smaller Blu-ray vidcam to US

Hitachi today fulfilled expectations for an international release and updated its Blu-ray camcorders to include the BD10HA, the North American version of a new model already introduced in Japan. The new camera is about 20 percent smaller but includes a newer seven-megapixel sensor that improves light sensitivity, adds face detection, and captures 6.2-megapixel still photos in addition to 1920x1080 video.

Most other features of the camera remain the same as for the top-end BD7 and BD9 models, including a three-way storage system that lets videographers record either directly to mini recordable Blu-ray discs, to a 30GB hard drive, or to SDHC cards. The HD optical format gives owners the option of burning a playable Blu-ray movie directly from footage already stored on the hard drive, while offloaded footage can be transcoded into a DVD-friendly format. A 10X stabilized zoom lens and a mini-HDMI-to-HDMI video output are passed on from earlier cameras.

The BD10HA will start shipping in September and uses advances in technology since the BD7 to drop the price to $999, putting it in competition with hard drive- or flash-only HD video cameras.