Hitachi will add to its dual storage HDD (hard disk drive) and DVD camcorder next month with a 30GB version, capable of holding around 22 hours of footage.

The Ultravision DZHS500A can also record straight to DVD-R, -RW, -Ram, +RW and SD card. The company already has an 8GB version of the camcorder, and said it hopes people will use the hard discs to store a recording before transferring it to a PC or DVD and then recording over the hard disk. It is not designed to be permanent storage, a spokesman said.

Initially, I think people will record to DVD until they become comfortable with filming straight to the hard disk. Hitachi’s spokesman believed many consumers are already comfortable with filming to HDD and will prefer that medium to DVD.

It will cost $799 in the US and around £400 in the UK once out a little later, in April.

Also on Hitachi’s stand were three concept designs for high definition camcorders. It included a Blu-ray camcorder (front right  in the picture), which is likely to come out this year, most probably before Hitachi ships its Blu-ray player.