Sanyo VPC-HD1000 Review

The Sanyo HD1000 offers a refreshing change from a world obsessed with increasing resolution at the expense of image quality. Based around a four megapixel CCD image sensor and a Xacti HD-branded 10x optical zoom lens with an impressively bright maximum aperture of f/1.8 to f/2.5 across the zoom range, the HD1000 has an equivalent focal range of 38 to 380mm - a moderate wide angle to a very useful telephoto. Still images are recorded to a maximum of 2288 x 1712 pixels with a burst rate of up to seven frames per second at full resolution, while video ranges up to a maximum of 60 fields-per-second 1080i (1920 x 1080 pixels) using MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 compression.

HD1000 images are stored on SD/MMC cards, including the newer SDHC types, while a 2.7" LCD display with 230,000 pixels serves as the sole method of framing or reviewing images. The Sanyo HD1000 also includes both high definition HDMI / and standard definition NTSC / PAL video output, USB 2.0 high-speed computer connectivity, and a built-in flash strobe. Seven scene modes help get the picture you want, with shutter speeds ranging from 4 - 1/1000 second, and ISO sensitivity from 50 to 3200.

The Sanyo Xacti HD1000, announced overseas a few months ago, is available immediately in the USA priced at about $800.