Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 review

The Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 is neither a digital stills camera nor a digital video camera; it's both.

You can take standard photos and then, with the flick of a button, shoot video. Unlike a normal camcorder, the Sanyo uses neither tapes nor disks, instead following the stills camera route of saving to a memory card. This keeps the size down but does add to the cost of the camera, as no memory is included. That's fairly sensible, given that the cost of memory keeps falling. A 2GB card, around a tenner from online dealers, will hold about 30 minutes of video at full resolution. If you do a lot of shooting, you'll want more than one card to keep you going.

As the 'HD' moniker implies, you can record high definition (720 pixel) video, and, unlike the poor-quality stills from most camcorders, you can also take very respectable 7.1 megapixel photos. Designed to reflect its dual purpose, the camera looks a bit odd, with the lens pointing skywards; it can't even stand on a flat surface without support (a dock is supplied for it to sit in). When you start shooting, though, it all makes sense. The way you grip the body brings the lens to the horizontal, and using the camera is very comfortable.

The majority of the buttons are arranged in a circle on the back. You navigate the menus with a tiny joystick that we found a bit of a pain: it didn't always go in the direction we were expecting, making it easy to select what we didn't want. Basic recording, though, proved simple, and it really is very easy to jump between pictures and video.

There's no viewfinder, so you have to use the modest 2.2-inch LCD screen to compose your pictures. In most situations that's fine, but, as with most LCDs, in bright sunshine it could be difficult to see detail.

Video was really good in well-lit situations, with strong colour accuracy and excellent image quality. With less light, the image became very grainy and lost its punch and colour fidelity. Still images were good, though the camera is better suited to video than photos. On a HD-ready TV, our video footage looked spectacular at its best, and would impress even the grumpiest of audiences.

Priced at £399, the Sanyo is much cheaper if you shop around. If you're after a small video camera that provides decent image quality, and want to take stills too, it's certainly worth the money.

Author: Colin Barrett