The G8 meeting of the world's industrial powers got underway in Italy this week. As part of the international diplomacy, Japan's Prime Minister gave the Pope a gift: a Sony HDR-XR500V camcorder.

No word on whether other Japanese camcorder titans like Panasonic and Canon are feeling slighted. See a video of the camcorder gifting here.

All of this raises an important question, what camcorder would you give the Pope?

From Engadget and CamcorderInfo comes word of a new hard disk drive-based camcorder from Panasonic: the HDC-HS350. The news is initially out of Japan, so no word yet on U.S. availability and price, but from the specs it looks like a top-of-the-line high definition model. You're looking at a 1920 x 1080 HD recording in the AVCHD format, a 240GB hard drive, and 12x optical zoom.

In addition to the two new flash memory camcorders, Sony will update its DVDirect DVD burner. This standalone burner connects to camcorders to transfer footage (both standard and high definition) to DVD discs without a computer.

The new model (VRD-MC6, $229) sports a 2.7-inch LCD, FireWire, Composite Video and USB inputs as well slots for Memory Stick, SD/SDHC, and xD flash memory cards. It's also due in September.

Sony pulled back the curtain on a pair of high-end flash memory based camcorders: the HDR-CX520V and HDR-CX500V. Both pack a generous serving of internal memory. The CX520V ($1,300) offers 64GB while the CX500V ($1,100) has 32GB worth of internal memory. Both camcorders also accept Sony's Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo HX memory cards for boosting recording capacity.

Additional features include:

*1920 x 1080 video recording

*built-in GPS (like the HDR-XR520V)

*60p output when connected to an HDTV

*optical image stabilization

There are a few new technological tricks in these camcorders. Sony is introducing what it dubs Face Touch. A variant of face detection, Face Touch lets the consumer choose a face in the scene by touching it on the camcorders' LCD display. Once touched, that face becomes the focusing priority.

Also new is the ability to down-convert AVCHD format high definition video to MPEG-2 format standard definition video when either camcorder is connected to Sony's DVDirect Express DVD writer (sold separately). The DVD could then be played back any standard DVD player. This is ostensibly aimed at consumers who don't yet own an HDTV but who would nonetheless shell out a decent chunk of change to buy an HD camcorder (would anyone do that?), but it's probably more useful for burning standard definition videos for friends and family who don't own an HDTV.

Look for the CX520V and CX500V to hit retail shelves in September.

Pictured above, the HDR-CX500. Image courtesy Sony.