Sony launches seven new camcorders, starting from Rs. 14,990 to 59,990

Sony launched seven new camcorders in India today, the low end ones are Flash based, SDHC compatible, even. The mid to high end ones have hard drives, and for 29,000 and up, you can get camcorders capable of full HD recording.

DCR-SX44E (8GB) and DCR-SX63E (16 GB) These are lightweight and compact flash based camcorders, both can take 720 x 480 resolution video (MPEG-2) and stills (JPEG) with 60x/ 2000x optical/digital zoom. The SX44E, priced at 14,990 has 8GB of storage to shoot videos and pics with: 4 GB internal memory + a 4GB MS Duo card. The SX63E, priced at 16,990, has 16 GB of internal memory. According to the product release, you can record 183 hours of standard definition video on a 240 GB drive. So the DCR-SX44E should be able to shoot 6 hours of standard definition video, while the DCR-SX63E should be able to shoot 12 hours of video before you need to transfer the data or swap a memory card.

Key features:

1/8-inch Advanced HAD CCD image sensor

Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens

SteadyShot image stabilisation

Face Detection

Digital Zoom Interpolation for extreme digital zooming with less distortion

2.7-inch touch panel Clear Photo LCD

Built-in Zoom Mic with Dolby Digital stereo recording

Memory Stick and SD/SDHC Memory Card compatible

LED video light

DCR-SR68E (80 GB) and DCR-SR88E (120 GB)

These two camcorders are similar in specs to the SX44E and SX6EE, have hard drives, and weigh a hundred grams more, approx. 280g. The SR68E is costs 19,990, while the SR88E costs 23,990.

HDR-CX150E (32 GB) and XR150E (120 GB)

The CX150, priced at Rs 29,990 uses a 1/4"Exmor R" CMOS Sensor with a a 25x optical zoom lens. The HDR range, as you might have guessed, can directly record 1080p HD video (MPEG4-AVC/H.264) and 3.1 megapixel stills (interpolated to 2048 x 1536, effective still resolution is 1.57 megapixels) Both HDR-CX150E and XR150E have HDMI connectivity.

Key features:

25x optical zoom

Back-illuminated EXMOR R low-light image sensor

3.0-megapixel still photos

16GB built-in flash memory

HD playback up to 395 minutes

Dolby Digital 2-channel sound recording

Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens

9 scene modes

Lastly we have the HDR-XR550E, priced at Rs 59,990. It as a 1/2.9'' Exmor CMOS sensor, and can capture 1920 x 1080 pixel AVCHD at 24 Mbps. This camcorder has a wide-angle lens, a larger 3.5-inch touch LCD, and a 240 GB hard drive.

Key features:

240GB HDD "Exmor R" CMOS Sensor

Wide-angle "G" Lens with 10x Optical Zoom

Optical SteadyShot (Active Mode)

3.5" Xtra Fine LCD with TruBlack technology

iAuto and Quick AF 

For more information on these camcorders, visit Sony India's Camcorder page.