Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 Camcorder Review

Color & Noise Performance Summary
• Color accuracy among the best we've seen from a consumer HD camcorder • Some small trouble with skin tone accuracy • Average noise levels in our bright light testing • Image looks good, although not as sharp or detailed as the Canon HF20 and HF S100
	Product Tour	(Page 3 of 17)	Motion & Resolution Performance

Color (10.06)

In our testing, the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 produced very accurate colors in both bright and low light—putting it near the top of the pack amongst other HD models that have come through our labs so far this year. Recording in the 1080/60p mode (the camcorder's highest quality setting) the VPC-HD2000 measured a color error of 3.48 and a saturation level of roughly 107.6%. We also tested the camcorder's color capability using the 1080/60i record setting. The results were almost identical—3.99 color error with 111.4% saturation—with the main difference being a slightly darker image on the 60i footage. All of our testing on the HD2000 was performed using the 1080/60p mode (called Full-HR 60fps by Sanyo) unless otherwise noted. (More on how we test color.)

Color Accuracy Performance
Color Chart with Error Chart to the right
The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 produced a color error of 3.48 and a saturation level of 107.6% in our bright light color testing. (The map on the right is a diagram of the color error and the direction the camcorder skewed each color for each patch on the chart.)

The VPC-HD2000 offers a few color modes that allow you to slightly tweak your image. Sanyo calls these modes Image Settings. (The feature is strangely quarantined in the Options menu rather than in the Recording menu with the rest of the manual controls.) Below we have frame grabs from video footage of our still life train display, taken from regular 60p and 60i footage as well as the three available image settings.

Sanyo VPC-HD2000 Color Modes
60p Auto	100% Crop
60i Auto	100% Crop
Image Setting Vivid (60p)	100% Crop
Image Setting Soft (60p)	100% Crop
Image Setting Soft & Vivid (60p)	100% Crop

Looking at the images above, you should be able to see the exposure difference between the 60p and 60i footage. The 60i footage appears just a bit underexposed, even though both videos were taken in auto mode using the same lighting setup. The image settings, on the other hand, offer very little difference from one setting to the next. You'd expect the footage to look different (i.e. more saturated colors in vivid mode), but they really don't provide much of an enhancement on the VPC-HD2000. Other camcorders that have similar options (such as the Canon HF20 and HF S100), show a much greater difference in the various color modes. The Canons also allow for some user customization in the color settings.

Sanyo VPC-HD2000 Color Comparisons
Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20
Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100

Under bright light, there's very little noticeable difference between the colors produced by the four HD camcorders above. The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 has darker colors than the rest. The numerical saturation values recorded during testing confirmed what we saw with our eyes: the Sanyo has highest saturation levels of the bunch—by a good margin. The two Canons put on a good performance in this test, with the HF S100 measuring a color error nearly identical to the VPC-HD2000. (Though, at $500, we expect the HF S100 to perform as well as the HD2000.) The Panasonic HDC-SD20 had the least accurate color performance and the lowest saturation level in the group, but it still performed fairly well. Below is a sampling of color-square crops taken from the DSC chart images above.

	Close-Up Color Comparisons
	Ideal	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20	Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100
Red
	Ideal	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20	Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100
Green
	Ideal	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20	Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100
Blue
	Ideal	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20	Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100
Skin Tone 1
	Ideal	Sanyo VPC-HD2000	Canon HF20	Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100
Skin Tone 2

While the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 had a very good color accuracy overall, it had trouble reproducing skin tones faithfully (as evidenced by the chart above). You can also clearly see the how much darker the HD2000 looks compared to the other camcorders—again, a result of its higher saturation levels. Overall, the four camcorders shown above each did a decent job producing accurate colors—with the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 and the Canon HF S100 both perched a notch above the Panasonic HDC-SD20 and the Canon HF20.

Color Performance Scores

Noise (9.53)

The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 had low noise levels, although it wasn't the elite performer we saw in our color tests. The camcorder averaged 0.6275%, which is a fairly typical score for this test. The HD2000 does have a manual noise reduction feature, which, when engaged, brought the noise levels down to approximately 0.585%. With consumer camcorders, however, we base our noise scores with any manual noise reduction turned off. (More on how we test noise.)

Noise Comparisons
Sanyo VPC-HD2000 100% Crop	Canon HF20 100% Crop	Panasonic HDC-SD20 100% Crop	Canon HF S100 100% Crop

It's difficult to see the noise in the cropped images above, mainly because so little is actually present in bright light footage. The Panasonic HDC-SD20 had the lowest noise levels of the set, measuring only 0.4175%. Not surprisingly, the Panasonic also had the softest image and captured the least amount of detail—something that is clearly evident in the comparison table above. This blurriness makes noise less noticeable, while at the same time providing less detail and a lower video resolution. On the other hand, the two Canon camcorders recorded the sharpest image, but picked up the highest levels of noise. The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 sits right in the middle: its image isn't as crisp as the Canons, but it's definitely sharper than the Panasonic. As a result, noise levels are significantly lower than the Canons and higher than the Panasonic.

Noise Score Comparisons