Since Blu-ray has officially won the format war earlier this year and camcorders capable of recording onto optical media are not exactly a great novelty, Hitachi has decided to put two and two together and launched its DZ-BD10HA Blu-ray Disc Hybrid Camcorder, a device capable of recording high-quality videos directly onto BD discs.

Built on the platform of a previous model, launched last year, the device brings some pretty impressive improvements to the table. For example, the new model has been equipped with a 7-mega pixel CMOS image sensor, which captures rich and vibrant videos and stills in Full HD (1920 x 1080).

The new DZ-BD10HA can also record up to 4 hours 20 minutes of 1920x1080 video or 8 hours 40 minutes of 1440x1080 video onto the built-in 30 GB HDD. Additionally, the device also sports a built-in SDHC card slot, which offers added flexibility by allowing for Full HD video and still recordings.

Furthermore, users can also edit videos directly on the camera, since the hybrid camcorder packs a couple of very interesting functions, such as split, splice, delete, merge, and transitions. Another attractive feature offered by this camcorder is face detection, since the DZ-BD10HA can automatically detect and focus on faces to provide a high level of image accuracy and clarity. Moreover, the device also offers users a dubbing function, enabling them to transfer Full HD videos from either the HDD or SDHC card to the BD drive, all within the camcorder, without having to connect to a PC.

Unfortunately, the DZ-BD10HA Blu-ray hybrid camcorder will arrive a little too late for the summer holidays, and will also be quite an expensive product. The device has a Manufacturers Advertised Price (MAP) of 999 US dollars and will be released in the US at some point in September, as the manufacturers inform us. The Japanese will get the camcorder starting with August 9th, while the Europeans... they're still in the dark (no info about a release date for the old continent).


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