JVC announces Everio GZ-HM400, full 1080p HD camcorder

Though it's been available in Japan for a couple months already, JVC has just introduced the U.S. version of its new top-of-the-line, flash-based consumer camcorder, the JVC Everio GZ-HM400.  Poised to compete with the popular Sony HDR-CX500V and the Canon Vixia HF S10 (which has recently been bumped down a notch in Canon's camcorder lineup by the Vixia HF S11), the GZ-HM400 shoots full 1920x1080 HD video as well as 9-megapixel stills.

In addition to the ability to simultaneously shoot full HD video and 5.3-megapixel stills, the camcorder also includes high-speed recording up to 600fps (for slow-motion playback) in its bag of tricks.

The GZ-HM400, which sells for $999.95, sports a 10x optical zoom, 32GB of built-in flash memory and an SDHC card slot, Face Detection for up to 16 faces, and in a nod to lower-end uses for the high-end camera, provides "one touch" upload to YouTube as well as one-touch export of both video and stills to iTunes.