: Toshiba Gigashot R camcorder with 30 to 60GB HDD

Toshiba has announced the release of two new toys, the Gigashot R30 and R60. These devices have a 1.8" HDD with a capacity of either 30 or 60GB. These pocket camcorders shoot videos in Mpeg-2 and in LP mode, you can fit almost 55 hours of video on the 60GB version. Too bad it's not HD... only Sanyo and Sony seem to believe in that at this moment. the resolution will thus be the good old 720x480 (DVD format) and you can even record sound in Dolby Digital with a BR of 192/384kbps. The devices also have an SD slot (up to 2GB cards) to store pictures shot with the Gigashot. The 2.5" screen has a 864x240 resolution. The sensor is a CCD 1/36 with a 2.12MP resolution (1.25MP for the pictures). The R60 measures 50.7x70.5x119mm and weighs in at 410g. The high-end model will cost about 850 EUR, which seems very high to me since you don't get HD. The same amount of money could get you a Xacti HD1 or a Sony HDR-HC1 (the camera I'm using for Akiba TV and HDTV). You don't get 30 or 60GB on those other models, but using an SD card (for the Xacti) or a MiniDV (for the Sony) is very easy nowadays.