Canon launches tiny new Legria HD camcorders

Canon ups the stakes by dialling down the size for its new High Definition flash camcorders, under a new Legria brand.

The new Legria 20 and Legria 200 both offer Full HD 1920x1080-pixel recording to flash memory, weighing just 340g and promising 'pocket friendly' dimensions.

Both have user-friendly shooting features like Face Detection, Pre REC and Video Snapshot, all powered by a new 3.3MP Full HD CMOS sensor and next generation processor, DIGIC DV III.

In front, you'll find a 15x lens with optical image stabilisation, using Canon's much-vaunted Instant AF system.

The HF20 stores video and stills to 32GB of internal memory or SDHC card, while the HF200 relies on the SDHC card alone.

Flagship Flash cams

Also pre-announced today were the Legria HF S10 and HF S100. These Full HD cameras share the above features, but add a new 8MP Full HD CMOS chip, in front of a 10x stablised zoom lens. You also get a Control Dial, colour key and HDMI port.

Prices and extra spec (such as screen sizes and dimensions) as we get them...

The Legria brand include Canon's new hard drive and Flash camcorders - and also the HV40, a new Full HD tape camcorder.

The HV40 has a 2.96MP CMOS sensor, 10x zoom, 25p progressive shooting, a new Custom Key for improved manual control, 2.7-inch screen, flash and LED video light.

Mark Harris is Senior Research Director at Gartner.