Sanyo Xacti HD Camcorder: “don’t get suckered”

Sanyo Xacti HDCamcorder Info is one of the best review sites for consumer camcorders. Unlike a lot of reviews you’ll read, they’re critical of picture quality and take a look a features like manual controls. Yesterday they took on Sanyo’s new Xacti “High-Def” camcorder that records to SD memory cards, and find that while it’s a good idea, it simply doesn’t deliver:

This test confirms what we expected with the VPC-HD1, while the picture is sharp, and it might technically be HD, it certainly doesn’t perform in the “spirit” of HD. The resolution performance is nowhere close to any existing HD camcorder including the Sony HDR-HC1 and the performance we’d expect from its successor, the HDR-HC3. You’re going to get a sharp picture out of the VPC-HD1, but it’s not going to come with the same brilliance that people expect when they hear high definition.

That jives with the reivew that Akibahara News gave it last month.

Without a doubt, videotape is on its way out, but slowly. Until solid state memory cards with capacities of 13 GB or more become reliable and inexpensive, a $4 miniDV tape will remain a useful and proven choice. With camcorders like the Xacti and JVC’s Everio line, which use hard drives instead of tape, it seems like manufacturers are cutting corners to keep the prices cheap and consumer-friendly. For instance, the Everios record in MPEG-2, rather than DV, making the footage a lot harder to maniuplate and edit using common editing apps from iMovie to Premiere. So that pretty much scares off advanced amateurs and video hobbiests who need higher-quality and the ability to edit as easily as you can with miniDV.


Posted

in

,

by

Tags:

Comments

2 responses to “Sanyo Xacti HD Camcorder: “don’t get suckered””

  1. camcorder review Avatar

    I actually own this camera. The only advice I have is don’t get it wet..

    I think I am going to get one of these next

    http://www.videomaker.com/r/162

  2. camcorder review Avatar

    The lens cap had a problem too.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *