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In a further attempt to satisfy the current demands of consumers for high quality camcorders to fully exploit the features of the large screen HD TV’s that continue to capture the consumer dollars, Panasonic has announced the HDC - SD5.

The HDC-SD5, which records video onto SDHC/SD Memory Cards, debuts as the world’s smallest palm-style 3CCD full-HD camcorder. It also features a new USB Host function, significantly improving data storage and ease of playback.

The HDC-SX5 can record full-HD motion images onto both SDHC/SD Memory Cards and DVD discs. It can record up to 180 minutes of video on an 8GBSDHC Memory Card (available September 2007), and up to 60 minutes on a 3-inch DVD-R dual-layer disc.

Taking advantage of the AVCHD format, which “made history in the diffusion of HD”, the resulting full-HD video provides a 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, which is enhanced by the Advanced Optical Image Stabalizer employed by Panasonic, to make the most of your captured video.

Of all the many features that are packed into the camcorder I really like the ability to Pre Record, where three seconds of images are recorded onto an internal buffer memory.

With a suggested price of $999.95 for the Sd5 and $899.95 for the SX5 these aren’t at the cheap end of the market, but you have until September to save your money.

Via [Panasonic]