Sanyo VPC-HD1 First Impressions Camcorder Reviewby Matt CullerPublished on Jan 7, 2006 10:00 PM
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For a frame of reference, Sony’s HDR-HC1, their lowest-priced HD camcorder designed for consumers, features a 4:3-aspect, 1/3-inch CCD and features 1.49 effective megapixels in legacy 4:3 MiniDV video mode and 1.98 effective megapixels in 16:9 HDV video mode. The Xacti HD1 shoots in native 1280 x 720, which is a 16:9 ratio. However, the Sony HDR-HC1 has a datarate of 25 Megabits per second while the Sanyo has a data rate of 9 Megabits per second.
It’s really hard to know how this camcorder is going to perform, but all the signs point to poorly. Its great-great-great-grandfather, the Fisher FC1, which also sold for eight hundred bones back in the day, shipped with a 1/2.7” CCD with 3.2 gross MP, which was tremendous for a camcorder at the time, but its video performance was for the birds. We’ll never really know until we get it in the testing room. Stay tuned.
The Front
The front of the Xacti HD is pretty barren. It features the termination of the camcorder’s lens barrel, which is tilted upwards, as on the Fisher FC1. The camcorder’s infrared sensor is located below the termination of the lens barrel.
The Right Side
The right side of the Xacti HD1 features the camcorder’s battery slot, a slider-opened panel. The camcorder’s speaker is located above this panel. Above this and inching towards the side of the flash are the silver button for popping up the flash, and the rubber port cover.
The Back
The back of the Xacti HD1 is the main control panel for the camcorder. It features the main controlling device, the camcorder’s joystick and the button to enter the camcorder’s menu system. Below these buttons is the switch to toggle between record and playback modes. Below this switch, the user will finder the camcorder’s SD media port, covered by a small panel door. Towards the top of the back of the Xacti HD1 are the camcorder’s two capture buttons, one for still photos and one for video. In the middle of these buttons is the camcorder’s zoom toggle.
The Left Side
The left side of the Xacti HD1 features the camcorder’s LCD screen which folds up and away from the bottom half of the left side. Featuring nothing besides the screen on the folding panel itself, the Xacti HD1 features three buttons underneath this panel. They include the camcorder’s on/off button, the button to toggle between normal and HD shooting, and a button to switch to burst mode if capturing photos.
The top of the Xacti HD1 features the camcorder’s pop-up flash along with the button to pop it up. Along with this is the camcorder’s external microphone port covered by a small, round rubber port cover. All of the camcorder is covered in quality, sturdy gray metal, which is accentuated with streaks of silver and grayer metal portions. Overall, the camcorder is much sturdier than the earlier Fisher FC1; it has the feel of a top shelf camcorder in the body of the lowest of the low.
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