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Sony has introduced its latest offering in the high definition camcorder market with the HDR-CX12. What’s so special about this new camcorder according to Sony is its Smile Shutter technology which according to Sony is unique to this product. This technology allows users to capture smiling photos and record video at the same time. That means that when you are capturing videos, the camcorder can detect when your subject is smiling and before you know it, you have already taken a photo of the subject without even switching to photo mode or pressing the photo shutter button. Sony also said that this camcorder can also detect and capture smiling subjects even when in standby mode. Now, ain’t that fun?

Aside from automatically taking photos of your smiling subject, this camcorder also records video at full 1920 x 1080 HD video and take photos at 10-megapixel resolution. Like most of Sony’s products, it supports the Sony Memory Stick PRO Duo media as well as any Memory Stick PRO duo (Mark2) media products.

Perhaps, one of the best quality of this camcorder is the fact that it is ultra-compact. And when we say ultra-compact we mean as small as a soda can. In addition, this camcorder allows easy transferring of videos and stills from the memory stick to your PC.

Other features of the Sony HDR-CX12 include ClearVid CMOS sensor with Exmor, BIONZ imaging processor, Carl Zeiss Vario Sonnar T 12x optical zoon lens, Super SteadyShot optical image stabilization, a 2.7-inch Clear Photo LCD Plus screen, Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound recording and a built-in zoom microphone.

The HDR-CX12 camcorder will be available for retail sometime in August for around $900 with 4GB Memory Stick PRO Duo, Handycam station cradle and a bundled Picture motion Browser.

Via [Akihabara News] Product [Sony]