Sony Goes Slim, Greedy with HandyCam HDR-TG1

When you are talking about just 1.3" wide for a camcorder, that's slim and that's what you can expect from Sony's new HandyCam HDR-TG1. The compact size Full HD camcorder, measuring at just 4.7" by 1.3" by 2.5", can record 2 hours of video in 1920x1080i video at 16Mbps or about 6 hours in 1440x1080i at 5Mbps on none other than Memory Stick Pro Duo. You'll actually need Pro Duo Mark2, which is the new format to match the speed of AVCHD recordings. Couple with Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens, the HDR-TG1 can also take photos at a max. res of 4 megapixels on the bundled 4GB Mark2 stick.

The chassis is made of primarily titanium that is proven to be highly resistant to scratches and smudge. The HDR-TG1's 10x zoom can be adjusted with its jog dial. There isn't much else except for the camera's face detection, which can identify up to 8 faces; the rotating 2.7" touch panel LCD; and built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound recording system. Like it? Put down $900 when Sony accepts pre-orders on April 4th. For one third of the price, you can get yourself a Sanyo Xacti CG9 with native iMovie '08 support.