Small cameras deliver big on high-definition video

— -- Camera makers are looking to high-definition video to revive point-and-shoot camera sales hit hard by the recession.

Digital cameras — on an upswing for a decade — finally hit a wall at the end of 2008. Unit sales rose 7% for the year but tumbled in the fourth quarter, when the industry sees 40% of its annual volume, says Chris Chute, an analyst at market tracker IDC.

IDC projects a sales decline of 10% for 2009, to 36.3 million cameras.

The photo industry meets in Las Vegas next week for the annual Photo Marketing Association trade show, where new cameras are introduced for late spring sales aimed at graduations and Father's Day. Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Casio and other manufacturers will tout new point-and-shoots that are more full-featured and lower-priced than last year — with greatly improved video features.

Canon lit up the blogosphere in November with the release of its $2,700 5D Mark II — a digital SLR (single lens reflex) camera that can shoot full 1080p high-def. Now it is bringing that feature to a point-and-shoot, the compact $599 PowerShot SX1.

Sony, Panasonic and Casio have new compacts that can shoot high-def video in the slightly lower 720p resolution.

High-def video can provide a boost for compact camera sales by permitting people to travel with just one camera, Chute says. "If I'm going to go on vacation, I don't want to carry a camcorder with me, too," he says.

The SX1 is Canon's first 1080p video/compact in the best-selling PowerShot line.

Canon technical manager Chuck Westfall says the growth of high-def TV sets encouraged the company to offer the feature. "Consumers can watch their videos directly on the TV easily," he says. Cameras plug directly into most modern TVs, many of which also have memory card or USB slots.

The SX1 can shoot about 24 minutes of 1080p video on an 8-gigabyte memory card. An 8 GB card can often be found on sale now for $20 to $40, down from $150 to $200 a year ago. An 8 GB card can capture about an hour of 720p video.