It’s not everything about 3D for Panasonic these days. The company today announced the HDC-HS700 and HDC-TM700 [press release in English], which are the world’s first 1080/60p camcorders. Strangely enough, said press release mentions neither this bit of information nor release dates (the Japanese one does).
The biggest difference between both models is the 240GB HDD in the HS700 and the 32GB of built-in flash memory in the TM700. However, it seems the US will get a trimmed down TM700: The English press release linked to above speaks of 32GB of internal memory, while Japanese buyers will get 96GB (pictured). And to add confusion, the HS700 has not been announced by Panasonic Japan today.
The US-bound camcorders, according to Panasonic, use an advanced 3MOS technology “that produces vivid, true-to-life colors and excels in darkly-lit environments”. In addition to the built-in storage, both models feature a slot that supports SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards, which in the case of an SDXC card means a plus of up to 64GB of memory.
The HDC-HS700 stores 102 hours of recording (in HE mode) on its HDD, while the 32GB built into the HDC-TM700 are enough for 13 hours and 40 minutes of video recording (in HE mode).
Other specs include 12x optical zoom, 5.1 surround sound (five microphones are built into both models), a 3-inch touch screen, “Wind Noise Canceler”, and 35mm wide-angle Leica lenses.
Panasonic doesn’t say when and for how much the camcorders will hit American stores, but in Japan, the TM700 (with 96GB flash) will go on sale on March 10 for $1,680.