Hitachi is better known for gadgets other than camcorders. But the company is one of the big names behind the new data storage technology, the Blu-ray Disc.
So it's no surprise that Hitachi has released the DZ-BD70 and the DZ-BD7H camcorders, bringing the Blu-ray Disc technology to camcorders for the first time.
Both models come equipped with a Blu-ray Disc drive capable of supporting the new high-capacity discs, while the BD7H boasts an extra 30GB hard disk drive.
So what's the big deal?
With a Blu-ray Disc, you get nearly 10 times the capacity of a DVD on a disc of the same physical size.
By replacing the 'red' lasers used in conventional DVD and CD players, Blu-ray uses a laser in the 'blue' light spectrum, which has a shorter wavelength, allowing a larger capacity on a single disc surface.
The result is a disc that can hold 25GB of data on a single layer disc and 50GB on a dual layer disc.