CES 2008: Panasonic Announces Underwater Cam and the World's Smallest SD HD Model

With all the rush surrounding the first CES 2008 days, we missed Panasonic's four new consumer-oriented camcorders.

Unlike previous reports on camcorders from Sony and Canon, we'll start off with the standard definition ones, the SW20 and SDR-S7. The most impressive of them is the SW20, which can go underwater up to five feet (about 1.5 meters) and is also able to resists drops from up to four meters (1.2 meters). Moreover, it features a dust-proof design that "shuts out airborne dust particles that can lead to malfunction", as Panasonic puts its. This model will surely go against Sanyo's Xacti E1, which is also able to go underwater and has similar recording capabilities.

The second standard definition model is not so impressive, but is without a doubt among the tiniest of the bunch.

Both of them boast a 10x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD screens and record to SD and SDHC cards. Speaking of storage, a 16 GB memory card is able to store 13 hours and 20 minutes of recording.

The Panasonic SDR-SW20 will be available in February 2008 with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $399.95 and the SDR-S7 will be available in May 2008 with a MSRP of $299.95. Quite affordable, especially the underwater SW20 model.

Now, back to the more technologically advanced HD models, the HDC-HS9 and HDC-SD9, it's worth noting that these give you full HD capabilities (1920 x 1080 with (24 frames per second) in a small size footprint.

The two models use a 3-CCD imaging units and use Face Detection and Intelligent Shooting Guide technologies. The HDC-HS9 is a hybrid model that can record to either an SD (or SDHC) Memory Card or its built-in 60-GB hard disk, while the HDC-SD9 is touted as the world's smallest and lightest SD card High Definition camcorder, weighing in at just 0.606 pounds. They will be displayed at the 2008 International CES in Las Vegas from January 7-10 at the Panasonic booth #9405.

A 16-GB SDHC Memory Card can hold approximately six hours of video, and the 60-GB hard disk can hold around 23 hours (both in HE mode). This gives the HS9 a total capacity of approximately 29 hours of full-HD recording. In addition, the HS9 can copy recorded video images from the SD Memory Card to the hard disk, or vice versa.

Both models will be available in March 2008 with manufacturer suggested retail prices of $799.95 for the HDC-SD9 and $1099.95 for the HDC-SH9.