What to Expect at this years Consumer Electronics Show

by News Editor
Published on May 17, 2004 12:00 AM



The Consumer Electronics Show starts Wednesday and Camcorderinfo.com will be covering it live, from Las Vegas. It is typically the show where the largest number of camcorders are announced in one place during one time. We can expect announcements from every camcorder manufacturer. Here is what we expect from different companies, and why we expect it.

Sony We're 99.9% sure they will be releasing new Digital8 models, only the DCR-TRV250 and DCR-TRV350 (Review, Specs, $360.8) though this time, no higher end Digital8s. We know this because of the internal Sony document that was leaked to Camcorderinfo.com a few weeks back that said that the camcorders would be announced around the date of CES and considering that Sony has always announced new Digital8 camcorders at CES. We are pretty confident that these are the only Digital8 camcorders they will be announcing, because the internal document said they are moving away from the line and making more cheap MiniDV camcorders.

I have a suspicion that Sony will also possibly be announcing some low end MiniDV camcorders at CES, for a few reasons. Although the internal document said they wouldn't be announced for a couple of months, Sony is replacing the DCR-TRV18 (their lowest MiniDV model) with three camcorders, to compensate for fewer Digital8s. I would think they may announce these at CES, because typically most manufacturers announce 6-8 new camcorders at CES and if Sony only announces 2 Digital8s it might make the whole event anti-climactic. I would think Sony doesn't want to only have 2 models to compete with the 6 or 8 that the other Manufacturers are announcing.

My prediction of low end MiniDVs being released is totally contradicting internal information we have, but I still think it might happen - or at least believe it would be in Sony's best interest. We can also expect some Hi8 updates, or maybe they'll drop the Hi8 line altogether?

One last Sony note. They might announce MicroMV changes because last year the DCR-IP5 and the DCR-IP7BT were announced at CES, however about six months ago they came out with the DCR-IP55 and DCR-IP220. We don't know if those were replacement's for the IP5 and IP7BT or just add-ons to the MicroMV line. It's possible they may announce a new IP5 and new IP7BT, or maybe they killed those already? We don't really know.

Canon We're pretty sure they will be replacing their existing three ZR camcorders with guess what? Three new ZR camcorders. They do this every year at CES so it's no big news. I'll even go so far (based on no internal info) that the model numbers will be ZR60, ZR65MC (Review, Specs, $259.99) and ZR70MC. Hopefully they'll provide some excitement and come out with maybe another ZR or a new XL1, but I have no info pointing that way. I would also expect to see some new ES (Hi8) camcorders based on past history.

JVC Based on past history they will be updating most of their lower end line. With maybe 5-9 new camcorders. We don't have any internal info on JVC so I can't give you much, but expect those camcorders to be the lower 5 to 9 in the line.

Panasonic They should re-do most of their consumer line. That has been their history in the past. I bet we'll see a PV-DV203 (Review, Specs, $199.99), PV-DV403, PV-DV703, you get the idea, up to a PV-DV953 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $899.88). Plus they'll update those tiny cute two little PV-DC252 and PV-DC-352 camcorders.

RCA and Samsung Basically they buy their camcorders from Panasonic and re-brand them, so don't expect anything exciting from them.

Hitachi I consider Hitachi the mad scientist of the camcorder world, in a way they are always coming out with these ''kooky'' camcorders that don't work too well and don't sell well but are pushing the barriers of technology. They are certainly the one manufacturer who we can't predict. Maybe they'll announce a solid state camcorder (which they did do about 5 years ago, but it was a total flop) that actually works!

Of course, I could totally be wrong about all this. Who knows. My one suggestion is don't buy a camcorder until January 12th. Because We know that new camcorders we'll be coming out and we don't want you to regret your decision.