Even though it looked pretty damn snazzy, Hitachi's first Blu-ray camcorder, the DZ-BD7HA, got some downright scathing reviews that generally panned its image quality. Now Hitachi's having another go at it with the DZ-BD9H, the company's second Blu-ray/HDD hybrid camcorder.

This time, Hitachi has opted to equip the DZ-BD9H with a 5.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, Picture Master Full HD processing, and 2.7-inch LCD. It can record 1920 x 1080 MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video to either an 8-cm Blu-ray disc or to its internal 60GB hard disk.

The DZ-BD9H also comes with HDMI and USB 2.0 slots. Something else that didn't change though is the steep price. This new camcorder is expected to retail in Japan for ¥180,000 (US$ 1,690). Hitachi will be launching the DZ-BD9H in Japan on February 12.