Sanyo VPC-HD1 Hands On – CES 2006

We were very excited when this camcorder came out in Japan, but we finally got our hands on a Xacti HD1. A year ago, we did not believe that we would get a compact HD camcorder that soon. The device is a bit bulkier than previous models, but it feels solid and the manufacturing quality is high. This camcorder can shoot 720p (1280×720) videos but can also snap 5 Megapixel photos, thanks to its 5.36 Megapixel image sensor that works along with an image stabilizer that should help videos and still images to be crisper. The videos are recorded in MPEG4 at a maximum bitrate (quantity of data per frame) of 9Mbs. While we played with it, we noticed how the OLED display was refreshing quickly, it was impressive. Did we tell you that one could snap a photo while filming in HD? We would have liked to test it in a controlled environment, but that’s for another time. Retail Price: $799, when it launches at the end of March 2006.