Sony Corp will launch the HDR-TG1, an HDTV camcorder that is "small and light enough to be carried in a pocket" (Sony). The HDR-TG1 records 1920 x 1080i HD video in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format.
The camcorder weighs about 300g and measures 32 x 119 x 63mm when in use. According to Sony, it is "the smallest and lightest in the industry" for a consumer camcorder that can shoot 1080i HD video.
The camcorder supports the AVCHD recording format. It comes with an 8-Gbyte memory stick as a recording medium. It is slated for launch April 20, 2008, at an expected retail price of ¥130,000 (US$1,271).
The titanium body, with a width of only 32mm, sets it apart
The HDR-TG1 is designed to be a "camcorder that can be easily carried around by a general user." It is the same concept that underlies so-called "upright camcorders" represented by Sanyo Electric Co Ltd's Xacti, etc. Sony made two improvements to differentiate the HDR-TG1 from the existing upright camcorders.
First, the company used titanium for part of the chassis to provide "a texture that you can brag about to your friends," said Masashi Imamura, deputy president of the Sony Digital Imaging Business Group.
Titanium is used in the part covering the optical system and the back face of the LCD panel.
"Titanium becomes extremely hard when it is processed," said Keiji Osano of the Product Design 2 Dept in the Camcorder Division at the Personal Video Company of Sony's IT & Mobile Solutions Network Company. "Titanium results in a higher quality appearance compared with soft metals (such as aluminum)."
"Another advantage of titanium is its relatively low thermal conductivity, which makes it less likely for the users to feel heat when they touch the camcorder," he said.
The faces of the grip are made of plastic painted in brown except for the face made of magnesium alloy, which is adjacent to the LCD panel. Sony painted the plastic faces in brown because the company "wanted to create a texture resembling that of high quality leatherwork," Osano said.
To improve resistance to scratches, the entire surface of the chassis is covered with a hard coat, including the metal and plastic parts.
Another improvement is the chassis width, which is reduced to 32mm. For this purpose, the company modified the optical system and the boards, while employing the main LSI and the CMOS sensor equivalent to those used in the existing models (the HDR-SR11 and the SR12).
The company used a number of aspherical lenses in the optical system to reduce the lens size without sacrificing the resolution. As a result, the volume of entire optical system including the actuator is significantly reduced, namely "a 75% reduction from the existing models," according to Osano.
The mainboard is divided into three pieces and installed between the optical system and the rechargeable battery. With this layout, the chassis width can be smaller compared with the case using a single board because the battery does not have to be located next to the board.
In order to reduce the width to less than 35mm while aligning the three boards next to one another, Sony reportedly developed a new flexible board connector. Specifically, the thickness of the new connector is reduced to "be on par with that of LSI" (Osano) through the adoption a new material for a reinforcing plate used to mount the connector. The three boards have six, eight and 10 layers, respectively.
For heat dissipation, the HDR-TG1 is designed to evenly disperse heat throughout the entire chassis so as not to generate hot spots. In addition, heat automatically escapes to the upper part of the chassis by air convection. The camcorder does not have an exhaust fan.
The HDR-TG1 is equipped with a face detection system, a high-speed startup function to put the camcorder in operation in approximately one second and an electronic image stabilizer with two gyro sensors. It has a 1/5-inch ClearVid CMOS sensor with a resolution of 2.36 Mpixels and a 5x optical zoom lens.
It also has HDMI-mini and AV connectors for the output ports. The rechargeable battery provided with the product ensures the actual shooting time of about 45 minutes.
