Just as we were about to get comfortable Panasonic has announced two new AVCHD camcorders. The Panasonic HDC-SD3 is probably the more exciting of the two as it records footage to SD/SDHC cards. This is only the second of its kind and Panasonic seems content to keep up with the format. The Panasonic HDC-DX3 will be identical but for the fact that it will record video to MiniDVD.
As is popular these days both the Panasonic HDC-SD3 and HDC-DX3 will record HD footage in full 1920×1080 pixels. This is not to say the sensors will truly record that many pixels, but there will be no pixel stretching to get from 1440×1080 to 1920×1080.
Both camcorders feature three 1/4″ CCDs and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound recording. A 12x optical zoom and 3″ LCD are carried over from the previous models as well.
So heres the bad news. Right now both camcorders have only been announced in Japan, but you can bet we’ll be hearing an announcement about them over here pretty darn soon. The Panasonic HDC-SD3 will be priced at ¥150,000 (~$1,269) and the HDC-DX3 will set you back ¥140,000 (~1,185). Japan will see these released April 25th.
