TOKYO — Victor Company of Japan Ltd. (JVC) has created a pocket-sized digital video camera that it plans to offer in Japan and the United States early this month.
Nicknamed the "microPocket DV," the movie camera can shoot and record moving images on tape, use an encoder chip to convert video footage into MPEG-4 data, and store it on a Multimedia or SD card.
The 340-gram GR-DVP3 camera measures 43 x 115 x 80 mm, or about 10 percent lower in volume and weight compared to existing compact digital cameras.
JVC used its M-VIL eight-layer printed-circuit board in the device, which contributed to its "shirt pocket" size, a JVC spokesman said.
Images taken by the camera's 1/4-inch, 680,000-pixel CCD image sensor can be processed by the camera's high-band processor to achieve 520-line horizontal resolution. XGA and VGA still images also can be shot using a high-speed mechanical shutter.
The worldwide digital video camera market will reach 4.4 million units in the current fiscal year, which closes at the end of March, and will grow to 6 million units in the next fiscal year, according to JVC projections. JVC said it holds about a 30 percent stake in the market this year and intends to expand its share to 35 percent next year.
