Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 Camcorder Review

If you don't know much about Sanyo's Xacti series of camcorders, blame the manufacturer's lack of popularity in the United States or perhaps the nontraditional upright body design. Their latest high definition model, the VPC-HD2000, is as worthy as any mid-range consumer camcorder on the market. There's the vivid and smooth 60p video and a jam-packed feature set—all for an expected retail price of about $600. That's several hundred dollars less than what you'll pay for the top models from Sony, Panasonic, or Canon. If you're willing to make the switch to the pistol-grip body style and deal with Sanyo's unwieldy menu system, the VPC-HD2000 will reward you with excellent video performance and a real bargain.

Sanyo has provided a number of features that will interest experienced videographers. There's no viewfinder, but you have a microphone input, headphone output, and accessory shoe. The manual controls are surprisingly robust, including an ISO/gain control, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, and independent manual aperture and shutter speed. The still photography features are also impressive, beginning with the 12-megapixel interpolated resolution and 8-megapixel native stills.

The two most significant flaws in the design of the HD2000 are its menus and its connectivity. The menu system is an unintuitive mess, with features organized illogically and sometimes buried away from view. Exposure compensation, for instance, is only accessible by assigning it to a joystick shortcut. The joystick itself is also far from ideal for menu navigation. Finicky controls make for frustrating menus, especially when you're trying to move quickly.

The other unfortunate design choice is the lack of any USB or AV outputs on the camcorder itself. All connections must be made through the included docking station. Sure, the dock has anything you could ever want: composite, component, S-video, HDMI... but there isn't a single connection on the camcorder. If you plan on transferring files via USB or watching your footage on any kind of external monitor, you'll need to carry the dock, AV cables, and power cables everywhere you go.

Performance (read in-depth lab performance at CamcorderInfo.com)
The Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 gave an impressive performance in our lab testing, even when compared to more expensive models form the competition. In bright light, the color accuracy was some of the best we've seen in a consumer camcorder. Colors were bright and vivid, but not oversaturated. The resolution results were not quite as good as other top-of-the-line models, but the motion looked smooth and crisp. The HD2000's ability to shoot 60p video at 24Mbps seems to result in a very high caliber of video. The camcorder truly stands out in low light performance, where its sensitivity and color accuracy trump all the camcorders we've tested so far this year.

Comparisons (read in-depth comparisons at CamcorderInfo.com)
The biggest difference between the Xacti and other high definition camcorders coming out this year is the upright design, which traditionalists might not be eager to adopt. For video performance alone, the HD2000 was about as good as the Canon HF S100—a camcorder that costs about $700 more—and better than the Canon HF20 and Panasonic HDC-TM20. With the plethora of manual controls and unwieldy menu navigation, the Sanyo does have a steeper learning curve. Making adjustments on Canon and Panasonic camcorders just comes more naturally. If a smooth user experience is more important than video quality, it may be worth it to spend money on the competition.

In truth, the price is what will really get the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 the attention it deserves. With an expected street price around $600, it's already hundreds of dollars cheaper than equivalent performers from bigger name manufacturers. We expect the VPC-HD2000 to give many high def camcorders a run for their money this year.

For a more in-depth review, visit the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 review at our partner CamcorderInfo.com

For a more in-depth review, visit the Sanyo VPC-HD2000 Review at our partner CamcorderInfo.com