CES 2009: Digital camcorders continue to evolve

At this year's CES, there's a cavalcade of new camcorder models, priced from $150 to as much as $1500. There are HD and SD camcorders in a wide variety of recording formats—miniDV tape, miniDVD disc, memory card, hard-disk, and combinations of those. Many are available in a variety of colors.

Here are some of the latest trends:

Pocket-cam approval. Whether it's the harsh economic climate, intense competition, YouTube, the need for super simple interfaces, or the combination of all of these, one trend is obvious: pocket camcorders, or Flip-style cams, remain popular. And camcorder companies are cranking them out.

They've been around for a few years, but the real tipping point may be this year, with Sony, the company with the largest camcorder market share, announcing not one, but two pocket models: the MHS-CM1 (click on the image above for a closer look), $200, and the MHS-PM1 Webbie HD MP4, $170. For me, the more expensive CM1 is more appealing, with its 5x optical zoom and 2.5-inch LCD that swivels. It also has a small amount of on-board memory, but requires Sony Memory Stick cards to expand capacity.

The "MP4" in the camcorder name indicates that it records HD video in a format different from the more widely used AVCHD, which is found on most of Sony's other HD camcorders. According to Sony, the MP4 format isn't as high in quality as Sony's AVCHD format. But this type of camcorder, Sony says, is more about convenience than quality. And it's meant to go head-to-head with other types of HD pocket camcorders, like the Flip MinoHD and the Kodak Zi6, introduced in the middle of last year. The variety of video formats can sometimes be confusing. For example, Sony now produces two types of HD camcorders--an AVCHD type and a MP4 (or Webbie) type.

More storage space and types. Many camcorders with on-board storage are offering larger capacities for longer recording time than in previous years. Sony's HDR-XR520V, $1500, an HD hard-drive camcorder with a 240GB hard drive, gives you more than 29 hours of recording time in its highest quality mode, twice the capacity of last year's highest-capacity model. It also includes a 12x optical zoom len, built-in GPS feature for geotagging, smile shutter technology (like on the Cyber-shot DSC-T70 digital still camera), and can shoot 12-megapixel still images.

Flash memory or solid-state is quickly becoming the most popular format. Samsung has a new H-series camcorder (Click on image above for a closer look), HMX-H106 (no price yet), which includes 64GB of on-board memory, the largest so far. According to Samsung, internal flash memory allows camcorders to be smaller, reduces the number of moving parts and, they claim, boots up more quickly.

More zoom at very affordable prices. Although you may prefer an HD camcorder, standard definition models still have their advantages, which is why the major companies still offer new SD models. Panasonic has three new SD camcorders (Click on the image at right for a closer look), each with a whopping 70x optical zoom lens! Obviously, it has image stabilization. The trio are: the SDR-H80 ($450), SDR-H90 ($500), and SDR-S26 ($330).

—Terry Sullivan

Comments

[Melissa]

I need to know which of these pocket HD camcorders would be best for shooting fireworks at night. Any suggestions?

[Brandon]

When will the new 2009 model camcorders like the Sony HDR-XR520v be reviewed by CR? I'm in the market and would like to see some reviews soon!