Samsung hard disk camcorder – due January

Samsung’s IT Cam – the first ever hard disk-based camcorder which premiered at CES – has been given a UK launch date. Apparently the IT Cam 7 which stores video, still images, music and pretty much anything else you want on a 1.5Gigabyte hard disk will debut in January 2004 retailing for between £600-700.

As each chunk of footage is saved as a separate file it is very simple to find scenes and edit them. The camera is pretty small, sports an LCD screen and comes with a USB 2.0 connector for fast downloads. Video is rated at 30 frames per second and it shoots at VGA resolution in MPEG4.

Unlike Panasonic, whose SV-AV100 shoots MPEG2 (DV standard) video on to an Secure Digital card, Samsung believes that MPEG4 is ‘good enough for most consumers and ‘fine for viewing on a TV.’ Would have liked to have the option to shoot in MPEG2 though.