Japan: Panasonic Again Upgrades HD Cameras

Although its newest HD camcorders came to market barely four months ago, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) is already issuing a couple of even newer camcorder models with higher resolution. Improving on one's product is routine among major CE manufacturers; doing it so quickly is not.

Panasonic said this week its new camcorders (models HDC-SD3 and DVD-based HDC-DX3) will be 1920x1080 pixels optimally--compared to 1,440x1080 on the two cameras it ramped up in December (models SD1 and DX1), according to IDG News Service.

Yet by increasing compression, Panasonic said users will still be able to store the same amount of video content on SD cards or DVDs as with the lower resolution models, with 4 GB card storing about 40 minutes of HD video. The units, using the AVCHD format, will only be available in Japan for now, starting April 25.