Cameras
Canon Updates HD Palmcorders With HF11, HG21 Versions
Posted by Kit Eaton at 6:03 PM on July 22, 2008
Canon's AVCHD HF10 camcorder got an excellent reception earlier this year, and now Canon have tweaked it slightly into the upcoming HF11 version. The most important tweaks are doubling the internal storage from 16GB to 32GB and the addition of a 24Mbps high quality MXP imaging mode. Otherwise, most features of the camera remain the same. Similar tweaks have been made to last year's HG10 HDD camera, adding in the 24Mbps shooting mode, a 120GB drive and now allowing movies to be saved onto SD card whereas before it was limited to still imagery. Both cameras will be available in August for US$1,300. [AVWatch]

Sony has upgraded its HDR-CX7 flash-based camcorder to include face-recognition technology and Smile Shutter, which automatically takes a still picture as soon as the subject switches to full beam. The camera records in full HD at a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels, and has a 10-megapixel camera for still shots. There's image stabilisation, and you control the camcorder merely by tapping the 2.7-inch LCD screen. Full press release for the US$900 camera, available in August, plus a bonus shot, is after the jump.
Back in January we showed the Panasonic
Earlier this year, JVC fired out the first HDD palmcorder to 





According to Camcorder Info, Sony's
If you have been waiting for a camcorder that gets AVCHD right, the folks at Camcorder Info have some good news. According to their recent review, The Canon 
Steve Jobs announced an updated version of the video editing application iMovie to go along with iLife '08. Calling it "a completely new way of editing video," the Apple CEO called it "startlingly better." Jobs says it's designed to be able to put together a movie in 30 minutes. It has a completely new user interface, too.
It first shows up with a new star icon. It holds all of your video applications in one library, working very much like iPhoto. It now supports the newest HD camcorders that use the AVCHD codec, as well as HDV and DV cams. It offers easier scrubbing of clips, as well as as one-click sharing to YouTube. iMovie is included as part of the iLife '08 package, selling for $79 or included free with each new Mac.
Canon jumped into the hard disk camcorder market today with its HG10, the company's first high-definition hard drive camcorder and the world's smallest, weighing 19.92 ounces with the battery inside. That 40GB hard disk gives you 5.5 hours of AVCHD recording at its highest quality setting, compressing the video at 15Mbps. If our sneak preview of this camcorder is any indication, that's going to result in some sweet-looking high definition footage. Here are our impressions.
The Canon iVIS HG10 3CCD can record five-and-a-half hours of top banana quality video action on its 40GB hard drive. Unfortunately, the format is limited to a sad 1,440 x 1,080, (1080i) according to Canon's own specifications page, and the included battery will only give you one hour of actual recording time without using the LCD screen. And there is even more bad news.