First HDTV Model in the Popular, Affordable Z-Series Product Line

WOODBURY, NEW YORK, March 18, 2009 – Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd., a leading provider of affordable, high performance HDTV cameras, today announced it will unveil the new Hitachi Z-HD5000 portable, dockable HDTV studio and EFP camera, with native scan in 1080/59.94i or 1080/50i, at the 2009 NAB show April 20-23, 2009 in Las Vegas. The Z-HD5000 is the first HDTV model camera in the company’s popular, affordable Z Series product line.

A fully functional, pre-production Z-HD5000 camera will be displayed at Hitachi’s booth #C4310 at the 2009 NAB show, and deliveries will begin in August 2009.

“Leveraging the company’s extensive digital signal processing expertise, Hitachi developed the new Z-HD5000 to offer customers superior price performance—with uncompromised quality and functionality at a great value,� said Sean Moran, Hitachi’s National Sales Manager for Broadcast and Professional Products. “The Z-HD5000 offers a satisfying compromise between the superior performance and functionality of high-priced HDTV cameras and the limited functionality of inexpensive, low-end HD camcorders. It’s designed to appeal to Z Series customers who want to move up to HDTV without sacrificing quality and reliability or breaking the budget.�

Targeting a diverse customer base—spanning TV stations, educational institutions, corporations, religious and cable facilities—the Z-HD5000 is a two-piece dockable camera offering the versatility and flexibility necessary for multipurpose applications including studio, field, and mobile video production. The camera can be docked to an optical fiber, triax, or RF wireless adapter, or a P2 HD recorder for standalone recording.

Offering high light sensitivity coupled with low vertical smear, the Z-HD5000’s three 2/3-inch native 1080i CCD sensors produce 800 TVL of resolution, F10@2000 Lux, and HD Signal to Noise (SNR) level of 58db for a sharp, clean HD picture. These specifications compare favorably with Hitachi’s high-end SK-HD1000’s 2/3-inch progressive CCDs producing 1100 TVL resolution, F11@2000 Lux, and 60db SNR. While the SK-HD1000 has a motorized filter wheel, the Z-HD5000 has a manual filter wheel. But both camera models utilize the same 14-bit A/D converters and accessories.

Lightweight for on-shoulder portability, the Z-HD5000 features: a versatile CCD shutter with five preset speeds; Automatic Exposure System (AES) that maintains the video level with a fixed lens F-stop; and the ability to lock scan the camera video to images from asynchronous computer monitors, video walls, or projectors without flicker. It also offers a wide range of set-up features, including: 12-Vector and Linear Matrix masking for hue and saturation levels, Skin Tone masking and automatic skin tone detail circuits, Quick Focus, Knee Saturation and Auto Knee, Gray Scale and Automatic Shading, user-programmable switches, and a choice of black/white or color viewfinder displays.

About Hitachi

Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. designs, manufacturers and markets video cameras, digital transmission, processing and recording devices for the broadcast television, cable, video production, and industrial vision markets. For more information, please call (516) 921-7200 or visit Hitachi’s web site at http://www.hitachikokusai.us. Hitachi Kokusai Electric, Inc., is a Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) group company.