Hitachi has released a new Blu-ray compatible camcorder on Monday that promise to improve on last years model.

Supposedly a step above from its predecessor announced last year, the new DZ-BD10HA from Hitachi boasts several new features and improvements.

The first is a newly developed 7 megapixel CMOS image sensor, which can record up to 4 hours 20 minutes of 1920x1080 video or 8 hours 40 minutes of 1440x1080 video onto the built-in 30 GB HDD as well as snapping still images at FullHD (1980x1080).

The new DZ-BD10HA also offers a dubbing function that allows Full HD video to be transferred with the single push of a button from either the HDD or SDHC card to the BD drive, all within the camcorder, without having to connect to a PC.

Editing functions such as split, splice, delete, merge, and transitions can also be performed within the camcorder before dubbing for additional functionality, while the Transcoding feature allows for the camcorder to transfer full HD videos off the HDD or SDHC card to standard definition DVD discs for the sharing of videos with friends and family who may not own a Blu-ray player yet.

The company has also added face detection, which automatically detects and focuses on faces.

The new model will cost $999 when it launches in the US in September.