Two new "gigashot" digital video cameras from Toshiba. The R30 has a 30GB capacity, and the R60 a 60Gb capacity.

Toshiba announced the "gigashot R60" and "gigashot R30," two new products in their "gigashot" line of HDD video cameras that can record high resolution MPEG-2 video to a hard drive. They will be released o­n February 25th. They are listed as Open Price, but o­n the company's "Shop1048" site, the R60 is going for 129,800 yen, and the R30 for 99,800 yen.

These new gigashots were first introduced at CES in January of this year. They use a 1.8" hard drive, where the R60 has a 60GB capacity, and the R30 has a 30GB capacity. The maximum recording time of the R60 is 55 hours and 30 minutes, and for the R30, about 27 hours and 40 minutes (LP mode for each) -- when using SHQ mode which is comparable to the image quality of DVD, the R60 gets about 13 hours and 30 minutes, and the R30 about 6 hours and 40 minutes. Toshiba stated that "60GB is the industry's largest capacity for a HDD video camera."

They feature "Diprotechs," a proprietary system that protects the hard drive from impacts if the camera is dropped. They have an internal gel-like buffer, a 3-dimensional acceleration sensor that will automatically retract the head when it is detected the camera has been dropped, and buffering processing so that recording will not be interrupted even if the hard drive's head is retracted.

A Canon-made 10x optical zoom lens is used as a lens. It has a 1/3.6 inch CCD with 2.12 total megapixels. The effective pixels for still images is 2MP, and for videos, 1.25MP. The camera also has the "Shake Estimator" stabilization function, which uses a new algorithm to predict the movements of the camera while it is recording.

On the operations front, the camera has a jog dial which allows for easy selection of menu options by simply rotating it with the thumb. There is also a dedicated shutter button that allows still images to be recorded while recording videos. Also available is "Video Zoom Playback" which can zoom in o­n specific portions of video as they are being played, and cooperation function that allows video data to be recorded losslessly to Toshiba's HDD and DVD recorders.

The size of the R60 is 50.7 x 70.5 x 119mm (W x D x H), and it weighs about 410g; the R30 is 47.7 x 70.5 x 119mm (same), and weighs about 390g.

Also, the company will begin selling the 4GB "gigashot V10" at storefronts, which uses a 0.85-inch hard drive, and was available via the web from October of last year. A package that includes two batteries, "gigashot V10(W)," will be available from late March. Its price is Open, but estimated at 69,800 yen.

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Press Release:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2006_02/pr_j0801.htm