Photos: Canon's HD camcorders

The XH A1, due out in October, will retail for about $4,000. Both the XH A1 and the pricier XH G1 feature a Canon 20x zoom lens and image stabilization. The cameras record in the 16:9 height-to-width format at 1,440-by-1,080-pixel resolution, capturing HD video images at professional-quality 1080i resolution.

In addition to sharing the same features offered on the less-expensive XH A1, the XH G1 features HD-SDI output (SDI stands for serial digital interface, a digitized video interface for broadcast-quality video) with embedded audio and time code, generator-lock synchronization for easy switching among multiple cameras, and an "In/Out" feature to synchronize the time codes of those cameras. The XH G1 will be released in November and cost about $7,000.