Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 Camcorder Review

Still Features Summary
• 12M interpolated stills and 8M native resolution stills, plus plenty of other options • Packed with still features like red-eye reduction, self-timer, continuous shot, and ISO • Excellent color and resolution performance • No dedicated still mode
	Manual Controls	(Page 8 of 17)	Handling & Use

Still Features (11.71)

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 has a healthy range of options in the still photography department. It hits up a lot of the obvious necessities, like a self-timer that can be set to two or ten seconds and a flash with optional red-eye reduction. There's also a Sequential feature, which is the equivalent of continuous shot found on most still cameras. This feature, however, is hidden away. You can select it from the bottom of the photo size option in the main Recording menu or as one of the four options only accessible through the camcorder's shortcuts tool. (See Menus.)

Use a small switch to pop up the flash manually.

There's a large variety of photo resolutions to choose from, including a large 12-megapixel option, though this size is interpolated during recording. The native maximum resolution photo size available is the 8-megapixel 3264 x 2448 size, which is available in standard or low compression. You also have access to all of the camcorder's manual controls, including exposure compensation, aperture and shutter adjustments, scene modes, etc. (See Manual Controls.) Though there is no separate Photo mode, some manual settings are only available when taking stills; ISO 3200 and all the shutter speeds slower than 1/30 of a second will only take effect if you're taking a photograph. Those looking for a video-still hybrid will be especially interested to see the breadth of ISO options—a given on most still cameras, but a rarity on camcorders.

The Simple Playback Menu		The Normal Playback Menu

Still Color (8.45)

The VPC-HD2000 didn't fare quite as well with color accuracy in its still photos as it did with its videos. At best, the camcorder measured a color error of 4.14 with 82.23% saturation. While this is close to the color accuracy produced by the camcorder in our video testing, the saturation level measured roughly 20% lower for stills. These are still strong numbers and it suggests the VPC-HD2000 is one of the better video/photo hybrid devices on the market.  (More on how we test still color.)

The VPC-HD2000 measured better color accuracy in its videos than still images.

The VPC-HD2000 has a blue, cool tone in its still images, which is odd because it appears to have a warm hue on most of its video footage. Even though the camcorder registered decent color accuracy, we expected to see a more uniform appearance between the video image and stills. As far as the competition is concerned, the Canon HF20 measured far less accurate colors in its still images with a 5.36 color error. The Panasonic HDC-SD20 scored 3.39 and the Canon HF S100 a 3.96—putting them both ahead of the VPC-HD2000.

Sanyo VPC-HD2000 Still Color Comparisons
CamReview	Canon HF20
the Panasonic HDC-SD20 records still photos in 16:9 only
Panasonic HDC-SD20	Canon HF S100

Still Noise (5.42)

The VPC-HD2000 measured average levels of noise in its still images—0.7675%. We expected this number to be a bit lower, especially since the camcorder did rather well in our video noise tests. Looking at the other camcorders, the still noise numbers mimic what we saw with our video noise tests. The Canon HF20 and HF S100 both measured the highest noise levels (roughly 1.64% each), the Panasonic HDC-SD20 had the lowest (0.39%), and the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 landed in the middle.  (More on how we test still noise.)

Still Resolution (11.05)

The VPC-HD2000 takes very large photographs for a camcorder. Its 8-megapixel capability is one of the highest on the market, although we expect to see lots of camcorders in the near future with this kind of still image proficiency. In our still image testing, the HD2000 recorded a horizontal resolution of 2275 line widths per picture height (lw/ph) and a vertical resolution of 2000 lw/ph. These are very high resolutions, but it should be noted the camcorder also oversharpened the image a lot. The HD2000 had 24.3% oversharpening on its horizontal resolution and 10.5% on vertical.  (More on how we test still resolution.)

The Canon HF20 (3.31-megapixels) and Panasonic HDC-SD20 (1.7-megapixels) don't have nearly the still resolution of the VPC-HD2000, so it doesn't make sense to compare their numbers. The Canon HF S100, however, also takes 8-megapixel still images. It produced a still resolution of 2821 lw/ph horizontal and 1380 lw/ph vertical—excellent numbers as well, although the disparity between horizontal and vertical is shocking. The HF S100 registered only 0.5% oversharpening.