Credit-Card MPEG2 video camera

Saturday September 27, 2003

Panasonic have announced the upcoming Japanese release of the World's Smallest MPEG2 video camera. The "credit-card sized" SV-AV100 "D-snap" ultra-compact video camera measures just 33.2 x 89.8 x 64.9mm and weighs 156 grams (without battery and SD Memory Card). The device has no moving recording mechanism and is the first video to record in the MPEG2 format onto SD Memory Cards. Panasonic has raised SD Memory Card capacity in-line with the increased level necessary for DVD-quality playback.

The SV-AV100 can be switched between MPEG2 (the same format as DVD video) for high quality recording and MPEG4 for video e-mail and other applications that benefit from a high compression rate.

The SV-AV100 uses only solid-state memory (SD Memory Card) and has no tapes or discs and no moving parts apart from its lens. It comes with a 512MB SD Memory Card that can store up to 20 minutes of video in normal mode (352 x 480 pixels) and 10 minutes in fine mode (704 x 480 pixels), both in MPEG2 format.

Panasonic expects to release a one-gigabyte memory card next year that will double the recording time.

Features include a 10x optical zoom with high-quality lens technology first developed for use in the Panasonic NV-GS50K digital video camera. The 2.5-inch free-angle LCD monitor can be swiveled for comfortable playback viewing and to facilitate shooting from a variety of angles. JPEG still picture recording capability is also provided - a handy feature for casual "memo-style" snapshots.

An AV cradle enables direct connection to a TV and the SV-AV100 can play back TV programs or other video recorded onto SD Memory Cards via a Panasonic DVD video recorder.

Along with the SV-AV100, Panasonic is releasing two other "D-snap" SD video camera models (the SV-AV50 and SV-AV35) with MPEG4 video capture and the SV-AS10 with MotionJPEG capability. All three models also incorporate still picture capture, voice recording, and music playback capability.