Sanyo VPC-HD1 Camcorder Review

Still Features (8.5)
The Sanyo VPC-HD1 has a large number of still features. Photos are saved to an SD card in five resolution options: 3680 x 2760 (10MP), 2592 x 1944 (5MP, called 5M-H, which is low compression), 2592 x 1944 (5MP, called 5M-S, which is standard compression), 1600 x 1200 (2MP), 1280 x 960 (1.2MP), and 640 x 480 (0.3MP). Only the 2592 x 1944 image has quality options. The rest of the sizes are all standard compression JPEGs.

All the manual and automatic controls available in video mode are also available in still mode: aperture, shutter speed, focus and focal options, exposure and metering options, filters, scene modes, and image quality. The shutter speed gets some additional range: while it can only go down to 1/30 of a second in video mode, it can go as long as 4 seconds in still shots. Very rarely will a camcorder offer this wide a range for stills. In order to compensate for noise in shutter speeds under 1/4, the Xacti offers a Noise-Reduction function.

The camcorder offers ISO settings of 50, 100, 200, and 400. ISO is a sensitivity rating, similar to the way gain works in video. The higher the ISO, the more the signal has been boosted. Each setting is twice as sensitive as the one before it.

A pop-up flash is located on top of the HD1's body, with a release button on the upper right. The flash has four modes: automatic, forced flash, off, and red-eye reduction mode. Switching between modes is actually done by pushing the flash release button.

The Sanyo offers a burst mode, called Sequential shots, which can be turned on and off via a button in the OLED cavity. The maximum number of shots in this mode is only three, and you cannot take 10MP shots in Sequential mode. Likewise, you can take stills while shooting video, but the maximum size is 5M-H. Auto bracketing mode also exists, and takes three stills: one at normal exposure, one at +0.9EV, and one at -0.9EV.

Finally, a timer control can set a delay of 2 seconds or 10 seconds.

The big problem in working with stills is that there is no clear still mode separate from movie mode. Maybe a seamless integration was Sanyo's goal, but the resulting confusion with manual controls (see Manual Control section above) does not seem to make it worth the trouble. Judging by the quality of the stills versus the quality of the video, we think that maybe they should have left off the video altogether.  

Still Resolution (20.1)
The Sanyo VPC-HD1’s stills were tested for resolution by shooting a standard ISO 12233 resolution chart and running the stills through Imatest imaging software. We looked at two image sizes: the 5MP image at low compression and the 10MP interpolated image.

At 5MP, or 2592 x 1944, the camcorder yielded an approximate resolution of 2009826.8. The clipping, which was overwhelming in the video resolution tests (around 50%), was comparatively subdued, but still far higher than average. It reached an average of 4.4%.

At 10MP, the camcorder yielded an approximate resolution of 1965870.8, a statistically identical number to the resolution of the 5MP image. This should make it abundantly clear that the interpolated image is merely larger than the 5MP image, not a “better picture” or one with more information. However, it is a testament to some solid in-camera computing that the interpolated image did not lose any detail.

Still Performance (9.5)
The sharpest distinction between the HD1's video and still modes is that the stills are, on first glance, rather dark. This is likely because the image is not oversaturated: color balance is very good, and the stills show none of the noise or sharpness issues found in the video.  This should not surprise anyone, of course; the maximum still size, 3680 x 2760, is much larger than the video’s 1280 x 720.

The type of noise has also changed: while the video had large chunks of noise, the stills had a very fine grained, blackish noise, which was far more tolerable.

The difference between the 2592 x 1944 low compression and 2592 x 1944 normal compression is clear. The low compression image (5M-H), is brighter, with less noise and sharper lines.

The 10MP image is actually interpolated, meaning that the camcorder is taking the picture at a resolution that exceeds the actual number of pixels in the CCD. It does this by splitting existing pixels, then guessing what information should go inside the new pixels. While interpolated images can sometimes go wrong, the process the Sanyo uses is obviously working well.

We have to mention one problem. In all stills, the left side of the image was fuzzy, even out of focus, compared to the right side. We ran retests several times and ruled out smudges on the lens, chart vs. camcorder placement, and lighting discrepancies. Our only conclusion is that this is a flawed model. We will order a second model and retest to see if the problem continues. In the meantime, all comparisons and scoring are based on the right half of the image.

Crops of the upper left and upper right of the 5M-H image. Note the blurred left image,
which occured consistently in all the stills.

Comparatively, the Sony HDR-HC1 had a much less balanced color palette than the HD1. Noise appeared as a horizontal grain rather than black flecks. The Canon Optura 600 had about the same color balance as the Sanyo, with a bit more saturation in the yellows and greens. It also sharpened more, producing less graceful curves. The Sony DVD505 had less balanced color, though the whites were brighter and the noise less intense. While the Sony stills were quite good, the max resolution sizes  (3680 x 2760 vs. 2016 x 1512) make the Sanyo the clear winner.

Finally, we looked at the JVC GZ-MC500, which had some of the best stills of any camcorder last year. The MC500 was certainly privy to more saturation and less even colors: the reds were bright and distinct, but the greens, yellows, and blues all tended to run together. The whites were much brighter, however, and the image was sharper overall. Faint halos appeared around certain high-contrast areas, but the sharpening tended to work towards the image’s benefit more so than with the Sanyo.

Still images are captured in the JPEG format in four image sizes. The largest is 3680 x 2760, or 10MP. Because the CCD only has around 5MP of pixels to work with, the 10MP image is created by interpolation. In the Sanyo’s case, the largest non-interpolated image is 2592 x 1944, around 5MP. There are two quality settings for this image size, 5M-H (for high quality, or low compression) and 5M-S (for standard quality, or standard compression). The other still image sizes are 1600 x 1200 (2MP), 1280 x 960 (1.2MP), and 640 x 480 (0.3MP), all using standard compression.

 In all, this is the most promising hybrid camcorder we’ve seen this year, and we hope to confirm that the left side focus flaw is a fluke with our particular model. The camera's performance in stills is really outstanding, and adds credit to our conspiracy theory: the VPC-HD1 isn't a camcorder with still functionality, but a still camera posing as a video camera. Why do we think this? First, there are no good video chips at this resolution that we know of: if there were, we'd see a lot more HD camcorders from the big manufacturers. The ISO gain control instead of dB is another hint, as is the video, which displays typical artifacts of the poor quality video we're seeing in still camera, along with poor dynamic range, oversaturation, and oversharpening. But, before we send the VPC-HD1 out of the CamcorderInfo.com office with a big scarlet S and make it walk into the DigitalCameraInfo.com office next door, we should recognize the fact that the video was much better than we've personally seen out of any still camera. This includes Canon's S80, which shoots similar high resolution video.