DXG, manufacturer of budget digital imaging products, announced today the release of the DXG-572V camcorder, giving Sony’s new NSC-GC1 Net Sharing Cam and their ilk some measure of competition. Both these models, along with most other Web-oriented camcorders, record MPEG-4 video to flash memory at a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 at 30 fps, intended for upload to sites like YouTube and MySpace.
The DXG-572V features a 1/1.8-inch, 5.13 megapixel CMOS sensor, 4x digital zoom, 2-inch LCD screen, and fixed focus lens with an f/2.8 aperture. Though the DXG-572V is equipped with such a massive imager, it can only record video in 640 x 480 at 30 fps or 320 x 240 at 30 fps. The camcorder has a 32MB internal storage capacity and records video and stills on removable SD/MMC cards up to 2GB. The DXG-572V is equipped with EV compensation from -2.0EV to +2.0EV, has a shutter speed range of 1/10-1/500, and includes Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, and Fluorescent white balance modes.

Canon has been hitting home runs this year with its high definition camcorders. The HV20, a tape-based HDV model, is perhaps the best overall consumer HD camcorder available right now. There was some question as to whether Canon could repeat the success when forced to use the AVCHD compression for anything using non-tape media. The HG10 , a hard disk drive model, proved they could. Now Canon is out with the HR10 ($1,199 MSRP), which is virtually identical to the HG10 but records to DVD. Will Canon make it a trifecta, or will the frustrations of the DVD medium upset the applecart?


The HR10 is modeled after the standard definition DVD camcorder, the DC50. Both camcorders have the same components on the front of the body, with the addition of the HR10’s Instant AF sensor (explained more thoroughly in Manual Controls). The HR10 sports a 10x optical zoom lens with a focal length of 6.1-61mm and the following 35mm equivalents:

-43.6-436mm (16:9 Movies)
-53.0-530mm (4:3 Movies)
-43.6-436mm (LW Still Images)
-40.0-400mm (L, M, S Still Images)