Sanyo VPC-HD1 First Impressions Camcorder Review

Still Features
With its 5.36 MP CCD, the Xacti HD1 can apparently capture ten megapixel stills (10MP--3680 x 2760). There has got to be some interpolation going on here. More believable are the five megapixel stills (5MP--2595 x 1944), the two megapixel stills (2MP--1600 x 1200), the one point two megapixel stills (1.2MP--1280 x 960), and the point three megapixel stills (0.3MP--640 x 480). To be frank, this camcorder’s still performance may be able to pull it out of the garbage if its video performance and low light performance sucks. The camcorder is small enough to provide excellent portability, like any five megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera, and with the added bonus of taking (albeit possibly mediocre) HD video on the side, it might be a decent buy as a hybrid. That said, eight hundred dollars is quite a lot for a hybrid, especially after the charm of having the world’s smallest HD camcorder wears off.

The Xacti HD1 does feature some still features worth noting however. It offers manual ISO adjustment, with options of 50, 100, 200, 400, and when in lamp mode, 3600. When video is being captured ISO levels of 200-800 are available when it is adjusted automatically and 200-1600 when it is adjusted manually. There are different flash modes, too; auto, forced, off, and red-eye, with a slow synchro mode possible in Night View mode. All of the other manual controls used in video mode are available during still capture, especially because there is no difference between still and video capture modes.

One last big downside, however. No card is included with the camcorder.