Sony launches in Asia its new Handycam HDR-GW77, a rugged pocket Full HD camcorder. The GW77 is more or less the same as its brother GW55, but adds 16GB internal memory in addition to support for Memory Stick Micro and MicroSD/SDHC memory cards. It is waterproof up to 5 meter depth, shockproof against up to 1.5 meter fall and dustproof. Like the GW55, the camcorder is equipped with a 1/3.91 type 20.4 Megapixel Exmor R CMOS sensor and a Sony G Lens lens with 10x optical zoom.
The rugged, compact Handycam is capable of Full HD 1920×1080/50p video recording in MPEG4-AVC/H.264 AVCHD format. It features Optical SteadyShot with Active Mode for smooth and stable video recording, and the Extended Zoom to push the zoom range to 17x. Users can use the Swing Panorama function to record the whole sweep of the landscape with a single press of the shutter button, and the Self Portrait Timer to shoot shoot properly framed and clear images of themselves. The Highlight Playback function will automatically edits and saves events as playback-ready short movies at the touch of a button.
The camcorder comes with a swivel 3-inch Xtra Fine LCD touchscreen display. It comes with PlayMemories Home software for editing and management of videos and images, which also let you upload you videos to social sites. The Sony Handycam HDR-GW77 will be released in June in Hong Kong for HK$5980 (US$770).
[Sony HK PDF]
