Product Description

Sanyo True Hd Camcorder Hd1000
• Sanyo HD1000 HD camcorder• Features a CMOS sensor and a high precision lens, digital image stabiliser, MPEG4-AVCHD video compression, USB2.0 port, video writing software and HDMI connection• Also saves videos & 4MP JPEG photos to SD cards.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34425 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sanyo
• Model: VPC-HD1000BL
• Released on: 2008-02-10
• Dimensions: 2.13" h x 3.50" w x 4.37" l, .0 pounds

Features

• Sanyo True Hd Camcorder Hd1000
  • Sanyo HD1000 HD camcorder• Features a CMOS sensor and a high precision lens, digital image stabiliser, MPEG4-AVCHD video compression, USB2.0 port, video writing software and HDMI connection• Also save

Customer Reviews

Excellent Point and Shoot Camcorder
Other reviewers have mentioned the excellent quality of the both video and still images from this product. I would agree with them.
Although its best thought of as a high quality point and shoot camera it does have some very useful features that are rarely present at this price level. These include a cold accessory shoe, external mike input(that can be adjusted), and a headphone socket. Most controls can be set through the easy to use menu system. On the downside I found manual focus almost impossible to use, what a pity they did not go for a manual focusing ring.

Using SD cards I find an advantage over HDD. Difficult to change an HDD, but you can always add extra SD cards.
The transfer to Computer is easy, but has to be done through the camera (ie the card cannot be read by a cardreader.)Also if you want to use the Xaxti Library function(transfer files without a PC)with an external drive note that it must have its own power supply, formatted as Fat32 and I could not get it to use drives larger than 160Gb. I wrote to Sanyo asking if this was a limit, so far no reply.

The Xacti HD1000 uses a form of file called MPEG4 (AVC/H.264). This can be a challenge to Editing Software and PC's. You will need a dual processor, 2Gb ram and a good graphics card (256Mb) to edit your material on a PC. My PC is not up to the task, but I found that if I trimmed the clips using the camera's onboard edit function, I could then transfer the trimmed clips to the PC and using Pinnacle Studio 11.5 plus I could add titles, transitions and music, but could not preview the results. However once exported as a DVD compliant MPG2 file this could be viewed.
I have noticed some reviewers mention the Xacti HD1000 only produces files that run at 30fps and 60fps, rather than the European 25fps and 50 fps. I was able to use 30fps but not 60fps. Once exported to DVD as an NTSC file using 30fps, using a flat screen LCD TV set caused no problems.
All formats produced by the camera can be viewed when the camera is connected directly to a flat screen TV

Stunning performer
I must highly reccomend this product. If you are looking for a digital camcorder which does the following then take a serious look at the Sanyo....Compact enough to fit in your pocket, genuine HD movies, great quality stills, Small movie files with drag and drop facility between camera and PC, Good battery life - 3 hours of continuous use (the absence of a conventional Hard drive gives super battery life), Easy connectivity to PC/TV or DVD/HD player or even direct to your printer - with all the leads included in the box, Remote control for recording and playback.

The Xacti HD is also very simple to use - recordings and photos come up as thumbnails on the integral screen - you just choose which one to transfer or play.
Some people might view the lack of a normal HD drive as a negative. So far this has not been an issue - I purchased two SDHC 8GB cards with the camera - circa £25 each from Allmemeory.co.uk and each is giving me circa 2.0 Hrs each of full HD movie recording quality. You can now buy 16GB and 32GB cards although at the time of writing they are premium priced. Lets face it inside two years conventional hard drives will be redundant - flash drives appear to be the future.

This Sanyo also uses CMOS recording technology- which for those in the know - CMOS gives you near broadcast HD movie picture quality - it's fantastic. I am playing our clips back theough a Samsung 50'' plasma tv and the results are stunning - no pixelation or blur. The camera's remote control enables us to sit on the sofa and use the camera's menu & thumbnails to select which clip or photo to display on the TV without moving from our seats - just great!

The camera also takes excellent quality photos - up to 8MP if required -which means that the HD Xacti has now made our Sony 7MP cybershot camera redundant.

On the negative side - You can only connect the camera to the PC etc via the docking station, which means if you are going away and want to show movies to family friends you need to take it with you. Additionally, there is no viewfinder which always makes shooting ski/beach scenes challenging - however the integral screen is super bright and high resolution and so far this has not been a problem. But these points are really just being unnecessarily picky.

This unit is probably the best bit of kit I have bought in 10 years and trust me I have bought a lot of kit!!!

Enjoy.

Not bad at all
I brought this camera a couple of weeks ago now and it's really not that bad to be honest. I'm a filmmaker and my previous camera was a canon xl1, which is a semi-pro model, so I do know what i'm talking about in terms of cameras etc.
To start off, its not perfect, there's camera shake which I ironed out with a mono pod, but its difficult to get rid of.
The exposure isn't that great, it tends to underexpose and so I'd recommend that one over-exposes the picture, unless its very very bright using the exposure compensation.
The auto focus is sluggish, but you can adjust it in various ways, you basicly need to get used to the camera and find out the limitations etc, then its not so bad. Use the focus lock to avoid any problems, also you can't manual focus while you're filming.
And lastly the lcd monitor is very poor at giving you an accurate color and exposure, for some reason the monitor is independant of the actual picture and so while the picture on the screen looks correctly exposed, it doesn't come out like that, so just as a rule of thumb, overexpose slightly.
Okay, problems aside, the camera performs as good as any HD camera that are used on films, I do know about this stuff. The colors are good, the sound isn't bad, as you'd expect, and thankfully you have a mic socket, so i'm able to attach my rode ntg-2 for example.
What else? It has white balance which is good, and it basicly has every manual option you'd have on any pro camera, but you can't change the setting's while filming.
You can change shutter speed (up to 1000), aperture etc but it won't recongnise on the monitor for some reason.
At the end of the day avoid the auto stuff, you gotta feel your way round the camera and use it a lot, you'll find the limitations etc and learn how to adjust this.
I use it for shooting random stuff I see, but I would be more than happy to shoot a film with it, and I will do soon. Infact i'm surprised that people aren't using it for tv stuff etc.
My one adjustment to the camera i've made is to make a lead weight and attached it to the battery compartment, because for my uses the camera is just too light believe it or not. A weight will steady it a bit more, and that is a trouble with it, no matter how smooth the camera looks like its moving there probly is camera shake.
Otherwise i'm very pleased with it, and it takes very good clear photos on top of that.