Along with the very first AVCHD digital camcorders, Sony has yet another first to bring to us, the Sony HDR-SR1, which is the first consumer-end HD digital camcorder to record to a hard drive. The Sony HDR-SR1 will be using the AVCHD format to record HD footage. The HDR-SR1 marks a major milestone in the tapeless camcorder market because finally consumers will be able to record hours of HD footage straight to HDD.

The Sony HDR-SR1 features a 30GB hard drive, which should will be enough for over 2.5 4 hours of HD footage at the highest quality. The CMOS chip will record stills at up to 4 megapixels in photo mode or 2.3 megapixels while shooting. A flash is also built-in.

The LCD screen is huge at 3.5″. It is obviously widescreen and will use the same touch-screen as is standard now with Sony camcorders. Footage is recorded in glorious 1080i resolution, and in-camcorder editing of some sort will be possible.

Prosumers will rejoice at the fact that Sony has included a microphone and headphone jack on the HDR-SR1. HDMI output, component output, and a LANC connection are also featured. The Slow Record feature introduced in the HDR-HC3 will also be available on the SR1. And finally, Sony has brought back the ever popular manual focus ring.

The HDR-SR1 will be priced at $1,500 and will be released this October.

Press release [ via CCInfo ]