Four new standard definition, HDD camcorders have been announced by Sony. These are the Sony DCR-SR45, DCR-SR65, DCR-SR85, and DCR-SR220. The runt of the litter, the Sony DCR-SR45 features a 30GB hard drive and a tiny, 1/8″ CCD sensor with 680k pixels. A 40x optical zoom, 2.7″ widescreen LCD, and a hybrid recording capability round out the SR45’s features. The hybrid recording mode allows you to record to Memory Stick PRO Duo cards.

The DCR-SR65 upgrades the sensor to 1 megapixel and drops the optical zoom to 25x. The hard drive capacity increases to 40GB. The next model up, the Sony DCR-SR85 increases the HDD capacity to 60GB.

Finally, the upper-end model, the Sony DCR-SR220 features the same 60GB hard drive but, once again, upgrades the imager to a 2.3 megapixel, 1/5″ CMOS sensor. The DCR-SR220 also features Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound recording and Sony’s new face detection technology, capable of tracking up to 8 faces simultaneously.

Look for the SR45, SR65, and SR85 in February for $499, $599, and $699, respectively. The Sony DCR-SR220 will be available a month later for $849.