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Sony shows off tiny HD camera

3 April 2008 19:08 by James "Dela" Delahunty | 9 comments

Sony Corp. has unveiled a small video camera capable of recording high-definition (HD) video to a flash memory card. The company claims that the video camera is the world's smallest and latest HD camera to be made available to consumers. It is set to go on sale in the Japanese market this month.

The device, which weighs a mere 300 grams (or 10.6 ounces), measures 32 mm x 119 mm x 63 mm (1.3 inches x 4.7 inches x 2.5 inches). It is advertised as being able to record up to 55 minutes of digital video with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels on an 8GB memory card.

Sony camcorders and its Cyber-shot digital cameras continue to be Sony's top profit earner. The new world's smallest HD camera will go on sale on April 20 in Japan, comes with a high price tag of 130,000 yen ($1,271). It will be made available in other regions later.

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Permalink to this article | Topics: Gadgets HDTV

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DXR88 (Member) 3 April 2008 20:38
yea.. if i touch that my sasuage Sized Fingers Will Smother it in grease. no thanks i have large hand's. i had to have a custom Keyboard Made For My hands. and with a price tag like that, you can keep it. I'll just ask my cuz over sea's in iraq to grab me one of those worm Cams. [ + quote]
chaos_zzz (Junior Member) 3 April 2008 23:23
nice toy for faster movie releases >.< [ + quote]
H0bbes (Junior Member) 4 April 2008 0:48
Whoop de flipping doo... [ + quote]
7thsinger (Senior Member) 4 April 2008 10:43
I'm thinking...No. Too small and too pricey. I'll pass. [ + quote]
A_Klingon (Moderator) 4 April 2008 18:04
*Originally posted by DXR88:* yea.. if i touch that my sasuage Sized Fingers Will Smother it in grease. -- no thanks i have large hand's. i had to have a custom Keyboard Made For My hands. -- and with a price tag like that, you can keep it. Absolutely, I agree on all counts, DXR88. TOO small, and TOO expensive. Sony likes to specialize in this kind of stuff. My (older) eyes are not the best either, and I need to have buttons and switches I can SEE and reliably use while squinting through a micro-screen viewfinder. When shooting video - which can often be a once-in-a-lifetime event at any given time - you don't need 3 buttons all being depressed at the same time with a single finger press. It's a neat idea though (especially with the use of a flash card), but the retail price is, alas, ..... (well)......... Nutz. [ + quote]
pcaddict (Junior Member) 4 April 2008 19:38
It probably won't come with the 8BG memory card which means more $ to be spent. 55 minutes on a 8GB memory card in HD mode; its not really worth it. For its size, it may have a high error rate as everything is cramped inside. Today, Sony is more of a name than quality. [ + quote]
Gnawnivek (Newbie) 7 April 2008 12:27
i think you guys missing the point... i have a Sony HD camcorder (the 40 gb hdd model). I have to say, the size is small enough, but if it can be smaller w/o the hdd (i.e. use memory card), it's fair game. The buttons are quite useless really. All you really need to do is to turn the thing on and record. The LCD allows to manage the files on the hdd. Obviously, the cost of this smaller HD camcorder doesn't justify what you gonna get. What i want to see is some kind of IS in those HD camcorders... Even though the damn thing is small, but over time (imagine a 15 minutes speech) your hands gonna get tired and they will shake a little (tripods are not available or not allowed). Fix that and i think the price is justified. [ + quote]
pcaddict (Junior Member) 8 April 2008 5:36
Gnawnivek may have a point there. [ + quote]
zorb43 (Newbie) 11 April 2008 23:10
*Originally posted by Gnawnivek:* i think you guys missing the point... i have a Sony HD camcorder (the 40 gb hdd model). I have to say, the size is small enough, but if it can be smaller w/o the hdd (i.e. use memory card), it's fair game. The buttons are quite useless really. All you really need to do is to turn the thing on and record. The LCD allows to manage the files on the hdd. Obviously, the cost of this smaller HD camcorder doesn't justify what you gonna get. What i want to see is some kind of IS in those HD camcorders... Even though the damn thing is small, but over time (imagine a 15 minutes speech) your hands gonna get tired and they will shake a little (tripods are not available or not allowed). Fix that and i think the price is justified. I agree and the WEIGHT is something to be happy about as well as my hands shake after a few minutes or seconds depending on how heavy the thing is. I would like to see it get to have a much longer recording time ... 55 minutes is not much time at all and switching out a card right in the middle of an important record would kill it for me. The price as always will be insane at the outset ... and be expensive later on as always is the case with SONY. Not sure what it would cost the average Japanese customer with prices adjusted for their rates of pay etc. [ + quote]