Sony Japan Announced DCR-IP55 with MiniDV Announcements, Yet to Appear in US

by Robin Liss

Published on Mar 10, 2002 12:00 AM
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Sony Japan announced the DCR-IP55 when it announced the Japanese versions of the TRV-50, TRV18, and TRV27 on February 12th. The DCR-IP55 can only be described as a handle camcorder, a style that has not been seen since the years of old 8mm film camcorders. The IP55 is the third camcorder in the Sony MicroMV IP line, with the IP5 and IP7 being announced in 2001.

The IP camcorders record MPEG2 video on MicroMV cassettes. The camcorder has a MegaPixel CCD, as well as a Memory Stick slot for saving digital stills. The IP-55 is quite small and designed to be held with one hand. The lens and the tape recording portion of the camcorder make a typical horizontal camcorder, while a portion of the camcorder which holds the battery pack swivels down to become a handle. The handle allows the user to hold the camcorder as you would a hand gun. The camcorder has a 10x optical, 120x digital zoom.

The camcorder apparently has a touch screen 2.5 in. LCD which you can use to navigate the features of the camcorder using a stylus, similar to how one would use a hand held computer. The camcorder has Bluetooth wireless networking technology built in. Sony's press release says that similar to the other Bluetooth camcorders, the IP55 can interface wirelessly with a landline telephone (using an adapter, which we don't know if it's included or not like it is with the DCR-PC120BT) or a Bluetooth enabled cell phone. Through the wireless Bluetooth connection the camcorder can send email, with pictures or video attachments or it can browse the web. Hopefully the touch screen LCD will make it easier to use the communication functions, and make the communication functions more practical than they were on previous camcorders.

The camcorder has a FireWire port and a USB port for transferring video and digital stills to the computer. The IP55 is 5.06 x 2.36 x 2.87 in. Sony did not release a price with the IP55 but said that the camcorder will be available in Japan on April 25th. Sony released the camcorder with the TRV50 and other new MiniDV camcorders, which Sony released last week in the US. However, with the release of the new MiniDV camcorders in the US, Sony did not release a US version of the DCR-IP55. This camcorder, which might just be the first "useful" implementation of Bluetooth in a camcorder, might not ever see the light of day in the US.