Today Panasonic announced their NV-C7 MiniDV digital video camera with a 10x optical zoom lens. This camcorder also features the ability to take 1200 x 900 (1 megapixel) stills recorded to the SD/MMC storage format flash cards (8MB - 64MB). The camera can also playback audio recorded on SD or MMC format cards.

Basic specifications: Panasonic NV-C7. 10x optical zoom, 2.5x digital zoom, 3" TFT 200,000 pixel LCD, MiniDV tape, 37mm lens filter, iLink DV I/O terminal, SD memory card storage media (still images), JPEG format either 1200 x 900 or 640 x 480. Priced at 235,000 YEN (~$2200) and available in Japan in September.

Click here for the Panasonic announcement (Japanese)