Say Buh-Bye To Videotape

By Wilson Rothman

Pleased with its performance in still cameras and MP3 players, Panasonic is taking its SD memory card to the brave, relatively new world of digital video. The SVAV100 ($999.95) is the first DVD-quality camcorder to rely solely on flash memory to store footage. The decision allowed Panasonic to drop the bulkier moving parts required to write to DVD or MiniDV cassettes. The result: a full-featured camcorder with a 10x optical zoom and a 2.5in. LCD monitor that really will fit into a pocket of your jeans. Unfortunately, also shrinking is the amount of footage you can store. The 512-MB SD card that comes with the camcorder can hold only 10 minutes of video at the highest quality and 20 minutes at "good enough." A 1-GB card will hit stores this spring. --By Wilson Rothman