Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 First Impressions Camcorder Reviewby John NeelyPublished on Jan 17, 2007 2:00 PM
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Ease of Use
The Sanyo VPC-HD2 is not as easy to use as a typical palm-sized camcorder. It is simply too small – and includes too many options – to keep the interface idiot-proof. Than again, that would be a tall order for a camcorder that is the smallest HD camcorder on the market. The menu layout takes some getting used to, though it’s no less opaque than Panasonic’s tricky-but-efficient icon-driven menus. Handling this diminutive device is difficult because the screen is relatively small, and all the controls have been miniaturized to fit an ultra-svelte profile. Yet in considering ease of use, size can’t be underestimated: this is truly the only pocket-sized consumer camcorder on the market, the Panasonic SDR-S150 and Canon HV 10 notwithstanding. Nothing else on the “serious” camcorder market is smaller, and if that doesn’t make operating the VPC-HD2 easy, it certainly makes it easier to slip into a pocket or bag with nary a thought about bulk.
HandlingThe VPC-HD2 is tiny, and that impacts handling more than anything else. Upright camcorder bodies are not uncommon, but this Sanyo will feel much more natural in a relatively small hand. Like other ultra-compacts, the HD2 is harder to keep steady than a model with greater heft, though even prosumer camcorders weighing 20 times as much can be difficult to keep steady. The screen is smaller than most, at a mere 2.2 inches and that means much less surface area with which to assess the quality of your recording. Other controls like the zoom toggle are very small and do not have as refined a feel as those on larger camcorder. The menu is also somewhat confusing (as are many we encounter), though the number of options Sanyo offers on this camcorder will be appreciated by those who take the time to dig below the surface.
In the end, this camcorder is full of trade-offs. It does not handle well compared to many (but not all) palm-sized camcorders. A better question would be, how does this camcorder handle in comparison to other HD ultra-compacts? That question is impossible to answer, as there are no other HD ultra-compacts. Canon’s HV 10 is the only HD camcorder to come close in size, though it costs twice as much as the HD2 and is so fundamentally different (media, compression, 1080i…) that it will not appeal to the same market. However, it too was plagued by handling problems, offset in part by a phenomenal video resolution score and solid bright light performance.
MenuManeuvering through the manual controls on the Sanyo VPC-HD2 is not a simple matter. The first mode of doing so involves the menu, that is divided into two areas: the Shooting Setting Screen and the Option screen.
Pushing the Menu button, located on the back of the body, will bring up the Shooting Screen menu. This menu is split into two pages, "Basic Settings" and "Advanced Settings," but the nomenclature seems more or less random.
"Basic Settings" provides options for changing the video and still quality, the Scene modes (described in the section above), the filters, and the timer for still photography. Also on this page are the Manual Exposure settings, that include auto, aperture priority, shutter speed priority, and full manual modes.
"Advanced Settings" covers image stabilization, focus controls, auto focus methods, auto exposure methods, white balance settings, and ISO settings. The ISO setting is perhaps one of the most confusing controls and gets its own explanation in the Gain section below.
Users toggle through the menu with a joystick located on the rear of the body. While we normally lionize the joystick as the best possible navigation control on consumer camcorders, we have to make an exception in this case. The joystick on the Sanyo VPC-HD2 has terrible sensitivity problems. Almost half the time I attempted to push the joystick inwards (which functions as an “enter” button), it interpreted the movement as left, right, up, or down.
LCD and Viewfinder
The LCD screen on the VPC-HD2 features a resolution of 150,000 pixel and measures 2.2”. It’s a smaller than average screen size, but it seems appropriate for a camcorder so petite. The HD2 has no viewfinder, in keeping with a trend towards omitting this feature on smaller consumer camcorders.|
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