Sanyo announces VPC-HD1 hi-def SD recording camera

Sanyo has just unloaded the VPC-HD1, which looks to be the first camcorder to record high definition video to an SD card (and something which should also make it one of the smallest high-def cameras available). The $800 camera measures 3.1-in. x 4.7 in. x 1.4 in and weighs only 8.3 ounces with the battery, but despite its size, the VPC-HD1 still packs a 10x optical zoom lens.  The camera can record 720p video at 30 frames per second and uses real-time MPEG-4 compression -- still pics come in at a nice 5.1 megapixels. It also has a handful of manual controls, including focus, aperture, exposure compensation, shutter speed, ND filter toggle, and manual white balance control.  Look for it in March.

[Durk @ Jan 3rd 2006 12:39PM]

Wooohooo! This thing looks sweet. Not sure if it uses the xacti C5 technology for pictures / video (5MP) which had a problem with low light shots. I hear the C6 (6MP) has better lighting for video and pictures. I want a review when you get to it. Thank Engaget for great news.

[Brian Short @ Jan 3rd 2006 12:50PM]

So how many seconds of HD video is it going to be able to fit on a 2GB SD card?

[tom @ Jan 3rd 2006 12:56PM]

i think the same as durk,(about the c5)

but i have to ask, wont the sd cards memory be used up VERY quickly. now the c5, which records at vga, can hold 1 hours of video on a 1gb card (at best quality) how much 720p is going to fit on that??????

[TZK @ Jan 3rd 2006 1:00PM]

Dont (usually) all HD tech suffer from low light problems? Thats been my experience, so far.

[Ryan @ Jan 3rd 2006 1:19PM]

According to the link, this thing records at 9.3MBit/sec...that's about 1.1625MB/sec. Assuming a 2Gb card has a full capacity of 2048MB, that works out to about 1762 seconds or about 29 minutes. Better have your DVD burner ready.

[dp @ Jan 3rd 2006 1:20PM]

Well, it's 9.3mbit/sec MPEG-4. 9.3 * 1m / 8 = ~1.2MB/sec. About 14 minutes per gigabyte then.

[dan warriner @ Jan 3rd 2006 1:32PM]

hey i'm not buying a high def camera ne time soon but congrats to sanyo for pushing the market...supply and demand people....TERABYTE SD!!









hey i can dream right?

[starpause @ Jan 3rd 2006 1:59PM]

yes, all digital cameras suffer from poor low light conditions, but the sanyo xacti c5 is exceptionally poor ... unfortunate sinc i own one, because it's a wonderful camera otherwise!



and all the manual control on this one has me juicey ... and the price drys me up again :O

[MrFloppy @ Jan 3rd 2006 2:38PM]

Uhm... this is a cool one.

But a 1080p would be even cooler :p

[Chad Purser @ Jan 3rd 2006 2:48PM]

Come on, why doesn't it use CF? Much higher capacities.

[Komodo @ Jan 3rd 2006 3:10PM]

Could anyone list off any cameras with a similar design to this one (not neccesarily HD)? I'm referring to the tall and thin form-factor that allows it to be held like a handgun. I've seen at least one like it before, I believe it was made by Sony. This is the kind of thing that's really difficult to search for. Thanks in advance.

[Training Guy @ Jan 3rd 2006 6:33PM]

Is there some limit to how big the storage on SD cards can be? I have a 512MB mini-SD so I assume well be getting 8-16 GB SD cards soon that will be enough to shoot a full lenght movie (well not king-kong) but you get the idea

[Wes Felter @ Jan 3rd 2006 8:58PM]

Komodo, check out the Panasonic S100.

[Quicksilver801 @ Jan 3rd 2006 9:58PM]

I did some nmber crunching and they said that the camcorder records at about 9.3 mb/sec. That means ur only get like 3-4 min of HD video on the 2gig sd card.

[andy @ Jan 4th 2006 3:01AM]

Quicksilver, look a few posts up. Media throughput is often measured in megabits, not megabytes. 1 byte = 8 bits. 1 megabit = 1000000 bits. 1 megabyte = 1024x1024 bytes = 1048576 bytes.



I also think this camera is cool, I wouldn't expect it to have good low-light, but you're not buying this for any serious video shooting.

[photogeek @ Jan 4th 2006 11:05AM]

one issue i have with this is, they never have firewire ports, so i can't use it to directly capture video to the HD via a video editor (FCP, imovie, etc...)

if someone could come out with a HD based camcorder WITH firewire output instead of just USB, i'd be a happy boy.

[ione @ Jan 4th 2006 11:55AM]

photogeek, couldn't you just import the footage into your video editor directly from SD card? It is much quicker than realtime capturing.

[argh... @ Jan 4th 2006 3:26PM]

I just bought the C6, which rocks, but has half the zoom of this, a bottom-mounted flash, and not HD recording. Oh well...it's still $500 well spent...but still jonsing for this one...this is what makes my wife a bit nervous...

[photogeek @ Jan 4th 2006 4:41PM]

photogeek, couldn't you just import the footage into your video editor directly from SD card? It is much quicker than realtime capturing.



true, but i'd like the option of doing realtime video capturing to the HD, basically using it as a webcam, like i do with the Sony miniDV cams we have at work.



this i would use for home, and have an all-in-one unit- flash-based memory cam plus webcam/live video option.



that would be sweet.

[Matt @ Jan 5th 2006 12:24PM]

Komodo, I'm looking for exactly the opposite - I love this thing's specs, but why does it have to look like a sawed-off phaser from the first season of Star Trek? I want one of these that looks and feels like a normal everyday digital camera. Anybody know of anything like that? I love the Canon S2-IS, but it does not compress (not HD either). By the way, you can buy a 4 GB SD card for a little over $200, which should hold almost an hour of video. That's on par with most tape based devices. Expensive, yes, but if you can cough up $800 for the camera, what's another 2 bills?

[UNCLE DAVE @ Jan 8th 2006 8:19PM]

ITS HARD TO BELEIVE THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY RECORD HD ON A SD CARD ! I CURRENTLY HAVE THE C-6 THATS GREAT! IT WAS HARD TO BELEIVE YOU COULD RECORD S-VIDEO ON THE SD CARD LET ALONE HD! I LOVE THE SANYO CAMERA IT GOES EVERYWHERE WITH ME EASY TO HIDE . I HAVE BEEN KNOWEN TO PUT IT IN MY SHOPPING CART IN WALMART AND EVERY OTHER STORE AND RESTRAUNT AND TAPE THE WHOLE SHOPPING AND EATING EXPERIENCE.

[jaroy gilmer @ Jan 15th 2006 1:13AM]

http://sanyo.com/entertainment/cameracorder/index.cfm?productID=1239

[Grant Husselman @ Jan 17th 2006 6:08PM]

Yea it sounds great, so great that I'm considering buying one, but is it threaded so i can put other lenses on it?

[HD-admirer @ Jan 27th 2006 5:29PM]

The SANYO website says that the HD camcoder can record 42 minutes of HD video or 2 hours of SD video on a 2 GB SD card. So I guess this camera mighth be good for recording short duration HD movies since it lacks direct Firewire connection to PC/other HD recording device. The problem with not having Firewire is that any continuous recording of HD done using this camera will limit the recording time to a max of 40 minutes (for a 2GB SD card). I not sure sure if the camera can take a 4GB SD card. The website says it takes 2GB SD card. Fo more info look at http://www.sanyodigital.com/HD1/features.html