I give the camera an A+ for styling and form factor. The camera is easy to hold and very easy to choose if you want to shoot video or stills. The 10x lens has a great range 35-350mm. I recommend the 0.6x wide angle adapter which will alter the range to a very wide 22mm allowing for great outdoor images.

The low light on this unit is significantly improved. Still recommend turning on the lights in the room when shooting, but if you have to shoot outdoors at night where the street lamp is your only source, this camera will do a decent job in both auto and in the "high-senitivity" mode.

The camera comes with a docking station which will allow you to connect to and HDTV via component or HDMI and also has the USB connector and power jack on the base station. The camera charges while in the base station.

The default settings could use a little tweak. My recommendations are to turn off the digital zoom (worthless in all digital cameras and video cameras), set the stills to 7m-h, the video to HD-SHQ (both are the best quality settings), and set the powersave settings for BATTERY/CAM to either 3 or 5 minutes.

This is a great camera.

I normally don't use a video camera and generally stick with digital stills. As far as still images go with this camera, they are only "alright". If you want a compact camera for excellent still pictures, I suggest any of the Canon S series or higher end powershots. It is useful if you just want a quick picture of something you're recording, but it's slow to actually take the picture (about 3-5 seconds) and the quality isn't as good as a stand alone camera.
br /
br /However, for video, I'm highly impressed. The one downside I have with it is that when shooting in the highest quality (SHD), the battery only seems to last about an hour. However, bump it down one notch (HD) and the battery seems last quite a while longer. After an hour of use, the indicator said the battery was still full (it has 3 values for battery life).
br /
br /Personally I couldn't tell the difference between the 2 high def qualities, so I'll be shooting at the lower one to get more battery life and longer videos. On an 8 gig card, I get (in hour:minute:second) 1:54:26 at highest quality, and 2:49:53 at the lower HD quality.
br /
br /One other thing, if you plan on shooting extremely long videos, the camera doesn't use the AC input while recording, only playback. This means you can't charge a battery while recording. I suggest getting a second battery and an external charger if you plan on long shoots with this camera.
br /
br /*****EDIT*****
br /Just to clarify on the AC while recording: The camera will still record without a battery as long as the AC is plugged in. It just doesn't charge the battery while recording.
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I just received this device yesterday. I got to play with it for about an hour so far. So, this review is going to be "first impressions" or "initial quality" review.
br /
br /Quality, packaging, instruction manuals, and supplied accessories all look good quality.
br /
br /I couldn't find an SD card in the packaging. I did have a 2GB memory card with me, so I was OK.
br /
br /I could put in the battery, charge the device, take a couple of pictures, and a couple of videos without even reading the quick reference manual. I would call that intuitive enough and user friendly.
br /
br /Quality of the pictures and video is acceptable considering that I used the device straight out of the box without adjusting any settings. Actually pictures and video looked much better on my home LCD monitor, but looked pathetic on my work CRT monitor. (This is not the first time I have experienced this.)
br /
br /I have played the video on a 61" widescreen HD TV using S-Video cable and the quality was acceptable. Nothing compared to off-the-air HD programming, but it was not bad at all.
br /
br /I have placed a couple of pictures and videos elsewhere on the Web. Amazon doesn't allow URLs in reviews. Search in Google groups and you may find a link to the pictures and videos.
br /
br /I will come back here and update the review over the next few weeks.
br /
br /Update 4/12/2007:
br /I have uploaded a couple of low light videos. Link to the Web site in the first comment to this review. Results are disappointing. With what I know now, I would probably give it only 4 stars. Can't change the rating now.
br /
br /I could quickly and easily compile and burn a DVD using the supplied ULead software. I didn't try any bells and wistles, just used the simplest path and I was done with the production process in about 10 minutes. Burning process itself (with an 8x burner) took a long time (unattended). DVD played fine on a regular Panasonic DVD player.
br /
br /MiniDV based camcorders probably produce much better HD footage. But, that is not of much use for me, because burning a DVD out of MiniDV footage is very hard. I don't think I could have posted sample clips on the Internet so quickly if I were using a MiniDV camcorder. So, should we compromise on quality of the video or ease of sharing the footage?
br /
br /Update 4/16/2007:
br /This camcorder is going back. While it is very easy to use and very convenient to quickly share the footage (compared to MiniDV based camcorders), I don't think this can replace my existing DCR-DVD201 due to the poor video quality under low light conditions. I am not the kind to maintain multiple camcorders and use different one for different situations.

Pros-
br /Small.
br /Light.
br /Concealable.
br /Fill flash syncs at all shutter speeds.
br /Video shutter speed priority and internal mechanical neutral density filter for bright scenes.
br /
br /Cons-
br /Focus hunts. Focus fails to lock on nearest central object even when that central object has high contrast and fills 50% of frame. Focus prone to locking on background instead of subject. Focus is substantially worse than every camcorder I've ever used.
br /
br /Taking stills while shooting HD video is useless. Viewfinder goes black while still is written to card. During playback video freezes. Taking stills while shooting SD video does not interrupt recording only if lowest resolution 640x480 still is selected. Unable to disable still button to prevent accidental activation.
br /
br /Audio is full of clicks from auto focus hunting and grating from zooming. External microphone is a must. Can't adjust external microphone level while viewing a meter. There is no meter in any display or menu. External microphone level can't be set high enough, even when using battery powered microphone. Zooming during recording adds high pitched whine to audio from external microphone. Likely due to lack of proper shielding in camera and microphone.
br /
br /Microphone jack smaller than standard 1/8" plug. Adapter cord is included.
br /
br /No standard USB jack on camera, docking station or cable adapter block. Must use supplied adapter cable and either docking station or cable adapter block to connect to computer.
br /
br /This camera is a poor substitute for dedicated still camera. Stills have many artifacts. Substantially worse than my oldest 1600x1200 2.1 Mega pixel Canon Elph camera.
br /
br /No front lens threads. No lens hood. Lens cap prone to marking lens.
br /
br /Lens adapters and filter adapter use friction push on "mount" instead of secure aligned threaded connector. Lens ring does not turn. Hama rectangular hood is good fit to filter mounted to Sanyo's filter adapter.
br /
br /Tripod socket not perpendicular to lens axis.
br /
br /Camera does not naturally point at subject. At telephoto end finding subjects is difficult.
br /
br /No place to mount an accessory light or microphone on top of camera.
br /
br /No provision to alter file naming convention.
br /
br /Video data rate at minimum secure digital flash card rate. Rate is not even close to the transfer limit of current flash memory. Artifacts so prevalent that it is hard to tell if image is in correct focus. Shooting with tripod is a must to lessen artifacts. Image stabilization ok, but not good enough to prevent compression artifacting of background.
br /
br /Does not come with HDMI cable. HDMI cable not available for purchase 3/2007 .
br /
br /Fastest shutter speed only 1/2000.
br /
br /No thumb wheel for manual focus. Manual focus isn't smooth, but jumps in steps. Unable to adjust manual focus during recording.
br /
br /Changing between focus modes requires one way cycling through all options. Focal length jumps to widest and stays there when cycling past macro range focus setting.
br /
br /Unable to adjust exposure compensation during recording.
br /
br /Instead of smoothly changing to new lighting conditions, automatic exposure noticeably jumps between exposure levels.
br /
br /Recording display confusing. Displays red "REC" even after pause button is activated, "REC" stays on while card is written, long after actually recording has ended.
br /
br /Screen momentarily goes completely black after pushing video record button. User unable to follow subject motion with black screen.
br /
br /Settings menu confusing. Box end wrench menu shows two tabs, but only first is used.
br /
br /Videos require fast computer to play smoothly. 2006 Apple 1.5GHz G4 Macmini unable to smoothly play unscaled 1280x720 video.

I bought this product after doing months of research and looking at comparison videos between this, the Canon TX-1, and the super cheap Aiptek GO-HD. I bought this one because it was the best bang for the buck. I thought the TX-1 seemed to have a slightly better picture (and price), but I went with the Xacti because the file size of the movies were much smaller. Giving me about 40 minutes on a 4GB SD as opposed to the TX-1 that would have only given me about 14 min. And although the Aiptek had superior image quality to both. I didn't trust the camera build, and the images seemed much more jerky then the other two. Not to mention the Aiptek's lack of zoom.
br /
br /Well, after having the Xacti for 2 weeks, I packed it up and sent it back. With real world (my own) tests. I found the image quality was complete crap. although these cameras give you 720p images. The look like crap! The contrast is too harsh. Whites are always blown out and everything is very soft. This camera also had a very hard time focusing on anything while zooming. No matter how slow you went. And it was useless for fast motion. Everything was a jerky mess, or complete blurs. Most of the sample videos I saw online were out door. Which dont look too bad at all with perfect even/natural sunlight. But I did a lot of tests indoors with very bright light (natural sunlight) and even then this camera had issues. The image wasnt grainy. But the camera had a very hard time with too much light and shadow. Handheld was a complete waste. Dont even bother. The "image stabilizer" didnt help at all. It's just a garbled mess.
br /
br /I personally think that using a regular MiniDV camera with a good image sensor will give you a far far FAR superior image, even if you upscale to 720p during your import for editing. Oh and speaking of importing. It was a breeze! Just plug the camera in and it gives you multiple options for connecting to the computer. The only problem is that if you want to edit on a mac, it's not quick. iMovie still has to convert all these so that they can be edited. Which kind of makes things a pain. And there is no documentation on this. It took me hours to figure out why I could play these files but not edit them. I personally like the old tried and true firewire method of importing. At least you know exactly when you're getting, doing it this way. Unfortunately, this camera does not have firewire. Only HMDI with an adapter for USB. Which brings me to another point. Although it does have HDMI out. That's it as for as the camera goes. everything else (component, composite, power and USB) are through, either an adapter or the cradle. And the HDMI port is on the bottom, right next to the tripod mount. So forget setting this thing up on a tripod with it plugged into the wall. Better have your battery charged up all the way!
br /
br /Other then the image quality/performance. I thought this camera was solidly built. A great size, with great features. And I didnt have too many problems with the control layout.
br /
br /I think these small consumer grade HD cameras are a great idea. But they need more time for the technology to catch up. With the image quality as it is. I wouldn't trust it to be something I want to record my personal memories with. 5 years down the line when I want to review my child's progression in life. I would be very very sorely disappointed. My personal opinion is that you wait another year before diving in to this category of personal video cameras. I was very glad I was able to return it. Thank you Amazon for having a great return policy!
br /
br /In conclusion. Stick with MiniDV for the price range, for now. And for stills, get yourself a cheap a real point and shoot!

I purchased the hd1a model and returned it since I was made aware that the new model was soon coming out.
br /Honestly although I want so much to love this camera, I am disappointed and decided to send it back as the video quality did not measure up to my old Sony P350, and the camera stills did not measure up to my wedding camera, which is a Canon 30D.
br /Then I started thinking. I pass up taking my Sony or Canon anywhere because they are not small enough for it not to be a bother. I realized that now with my Sanyo, I actually take it in my man purse with me everywhere I go so now I get shots and footage I never got before. What good is a great camera if you leave it at home? The point is, my Sanyo is just great if I just except that it does not take professional level HD video and that the pics are just a little grainy indoors even with flash. For casual use, this Sanyo is the missing link. I can at least improve video and stills with software if it becomes critical, but as with my wife, once I stop expecting her to be a superwoman, I realize how amazing she really is. This camera is the best hybrid out there and the macro mode blows me away. It is worth it and I am keeping it!

I have to say I am very disappointed with this camera. I had really high hopes for this one. I waited for the hd2 to come out and when I saw a lot of positive reviews I bought one, I should have waited. For Sanyo to call this an HD camera doesn't make sense. The picture has more grain and noise then my old High 8 camera. Outdoors in bright light the camera is ok. Low-light is horrible
br /
br /Pros:
br /- Nice form factor, love the look and feel and it's so tiny it fits in your pocket. Very portable and something you can take anywhere.
br /- Secure Digital cards are great, can transfer and edit on the computer quickly
br /- Still pictures are pretty good. Although still digital cameras are better.
br /- HDMI output can plug directly into your HDTV (although if you are used to watching things in HD you will be disappointed)
br /
br /Cons:
br /- Indoor and Low light situations very grainy, even with the high sensitivity button.
br /- Don't attempt to take still shots while you are filming, it works but when you watch the film you hear loud noises and the shot pauses for 2 or 3 seconds and then continues. Very cheesy.
br /- You can hear the data being written to the secured digital card on the video which is annoying. I thought SD was supposed to minimize noise.
br /- Watching the playback of movement with this makes me dizzy, not even fast movement either.
br /- Image stabilization is not that great either compared to other cameras I have used.
br /- Audio sounds a bit tinny
br /
br /In my opinion this camera is geared for portability and being able to capture moments quickly as this is something you can always carry with you. If you aren't too concerned with quality picture it's probably fine. I really think Sanyo has a great concept and one day this could be the end all be all device. For now it should come with a warning of it's limitations. I am not saying it's total garbage, but if you have high hopes like I did, you will be disappointed.

No tapes to carry, works with memory cards, after shooting plug the SD card in your PC and Voila', transfer your videos fast or watch-edit them right in the SD card. No tapes makes this camera easy to carry around. There are other home video camaras in HD (even higher resolution) but there are much larger in size and the media is tapes.
br /I got first the HD1a and days later was released the HD2, so I exchanged for the later model. HD2 is basically the same camera as the HD1 but with much more improved features. The low light capture is much more efficient and now you can take decent shots with interior lights. Zoom is great, fast and focuses with no trouble. Super silent. You will not hear the zoom gear working at all.. The microphones are located on the flip screen away from the body so I think that helps a lot on isolating any zoom noise away from your movies. The still camera features are also excellent. Took several flashed pics of faces and no one shows red eye. Many ways to customize your scenes. This is the video camera we were all waiting for: Small, High Def, Dual mode, SD media for easy sharing and editing and reasonable priced. Enjoy!

I was surprised how well this camera takes still pictures. I was expecting it to take bad still photos and great HD video, but it's just the opposite. The HD video looks more like regular video, just in widescreen format.
br /
br /If you want true HD quality video, buy another camera. If you want portability and just want better video than a digital still camera, get this one.

After a week of testing this camcorder, I found it good enough for daily use. The HD2 does not come with an SD card, so make sure you buy one before or at the time you get the HD2. I got a 2GB SD A-DATA and a 4GB SDHC QPI Class6. Both worked fine. The 4GB gives me about 1:20h in StandardHD mode, and 55mns in SuperHD mode. I didn't notice a speed difference between a Class2 and a Class6 SD card using the HD2, I think you should be fine with an 8GB SDHC class2.
br /My first impression of the camera is how small it is, however it may not fit in a jean pocket. It turns on very quick, you can start filming within 2secs of startup. It has a lady voice telling the mode you are using (ie camera mode), not sure if this is useful for others, but not for me.
br /The video and still pictures are great outdoor. The video quality is impressive during a bright sunlight. In a room lighten by a 60W equivalent fluo light, the video quality is grainy/noisy, this has been confirmed by other people as well. The High Sensitivity feature (to boost the image quality at low light) helps but not enough. My 7yrs old Sony DIgital8 does a better job at 1lux. I noticed that video quality is grainy at low light, but 7MP still picture quality is very good for the same lighting. Compared to my new Canon SD800 at 7MP, it is obvious the Canon Digital Camera wins. On the video side, I played with several configuration, ISO setting, white balance, resolution, etc... It does helps, but the video is still grainy at low light. This camcorder has not been designed for low light filming.
br /I ran into an issue when transfering the video Pictures from the HD2 with its cradle to the PC via USB connection. I got errors transfering the files if you use the craddle (this will freeze the HD2). I am not sure why, I have to check with Sanyo on this. If you connect the HD2 directly to the PC (without the cradle), the transfer goes smooth. So there is an issue with the cradle and USB port.
br /I am also using Pinnacle Studio 10.5 for my video editing. So far, I have not been able to use it and control my HD2. You can however copy the files from SD to your PC, and use these files with Pinnacle Studio.
br /Since I film most of the time outdoor during daytime, this camera does the job fine and video quality is great. I would still give a 5 stars even with the video issues at low light.
br /

There is hardly a thing I don't like about this camera. I appreciate having complete control over exposure, including ISO, as well as settings for manual focus and focus lock. My biggest complaint: compared to a 5+ year-old sony mini DV cam in a car garage setting with fair lighting, the Sanyo's video picture quality was appaling. The camera's ISO automatically jumped really high and the grain was unacceptable. Using the High Sensitivity feature helped by slowing the shutter speed instead of increasing the ISO, but the picture consequently had a blurred effect. Fortunatly all the low-light shooting I did thus far (other than the garage test), including my kids reading in bed by table lamps, was entirely satisfactory. I never set the ISO higher than 200 and tend to use the monochrome or sepia feature for indoor low-light situations. I find the eye is more forgiving of under exposed sequences in monochome, probably because as light is reduced the human eye itself is more and more monochrome.
br /
br /This camera has been a good little buddy for the past several weeks and I take it with me wherever I go.

I had high hopes for this camera and wanted to love it. It looked like the ideal way to move from my current setup (Fuji S7000 for stills, old Sony Digital Hi8 for video) to a compact hybrid that would do both.
br /
br /First impressions were very positive. It is indeed a solidly built camera. The menu system is organised nicely and very easy to figure out without the manual. You get every kind of cable you could need, a nice docking station and a sweet little case that will take the camera, spare battery, spare SDHC card and included remote.
br /
br /I started with some outdoor/bright light scenes. The video quality was great. Before long I was editing HDV in Adobe Premiere Elements (you need v3.0, not included) and feeling very happy. Stills were 'OK', nothing special and not as good as my old Fuji but acceptable given the camera size. And the 10x zoom and image stabilisation are great.
br /
br /Then, I went indoors. Oh Oh. Grainy video, grainy stills. Very bad. There really is no point in having hidef and 7mp if the output looks worse than my 5 year old hi8 recorder and an old 2mp Canon SD100 I used to have. I had read other reviews on this site saying they were grainy and I thought "yeah, I've seen grainy before but I can live with it". But this was an education. I've never seen this kind of grainyness. - Skin complexion and solid colours just look dirty in low light (not darkness, just normal evening indoors environment).
br /
br /So... Maybe my expectations were too high. Again, it is a nice camera in bright lighting situations - if you want to video and photo outdoor events/sports/family events, its a winner. For me, I want something that will do family shots indoors (I live in Ireland where it isnt always sunny). So with a heavy heart I'm returning it (thanks Amazon) and postponing the search for the holy hybrid grail for another while. For now, I'll probably just start with a Canon SD for decent stills at least.

I have had this for a month and used it occasionally .Here is what I have to say as a normal user with some experience from several years of toying with digital cameras and camcorders :
br / -Photos : produces photos with excellent colors and clarity .I liked it as much or better when compared to my Sony 5 meg DSC M2 and Canon Pro 1.
br / -Videos : Realy good for everyday usage .I have suprisingly clear and colorful video clips,better when compared to my Sony mini DVD camcorder . In fact ,I was somewhat stunned when view clips on my laptop 17 in screen.When record in low light,I changed settings (mainly low ISO,about 100 or 200 ) ,results are just fine and no grain .
br / -Conclusion : This is not a perfect machine,same as all digital cameras and camcorders I have owned .They all have some draw backs one way or another . But this Sanyo with 7 meg pixel photo and good video capability combined, plus 10X zoom and quite small , after some practicing .I carry it with me everyday and love to use it!

As I watch the videos of my kids on my 50" plasma, 32" LCD and Mac, trying to convince myself that I like the quality, my wife walks by and says, "Fuzzy." I know most guys out there will know what I'm talking about - she just killed the deal. Regardless of the specs, the wives don't lie - the picture quality just doesn't cut it. It's unacceptably noisey in all but the brightest of light and is an incremental improvement over my 6 year old Sony DVR. The product design is cool, the price is good, the SD card recording idea is perfect, but the HD promise doesn't come close to paying off.
br /
br /If you're looking for sharp, crystal clear images - you're just not going to be happy with this camera unless the gathering of technology and low price are enough to cause you to settle.

I own a high end 3 CCD HD video camcorder, but, in our plans to travel abroad at the end of this year, transporting a large HD camcorder is not in the plan and I wanted an all-in-one for both stills and video rather then bring both a still and video digital camera. I needed something very compact that I could use to get very good still images as well as clear HD video using a common format (MPEG4) that I could easily edit on my PC or MAC. Almost all of the digital still cameras out there that offer video too don't produce video quality like a dedicated video camera, I looked at reviews for a couple of compact HD camcorders and decided to try the HD2 because of it's small profile, it's bright LCD display which "gains up" to allow good viewing even in bright outdoor light (there is no viewfinder so if the LCD can't be viewed outside/bright light, the camera is useless for that situation), best of both worlds (still and video),, plenty of adjustments and customizing in the menu and the ability to store an hour or more of video and many still images on one SDHC or standard SD card. I considered that after trying the HD2, I'd be disappointed and return it to continue to look for something better. It just looked too small to be able to do well for video as well as stills. Well, after using it this week (several hours) and putting it through a variety of shooting tests, I'm very impressed. Like many other video cameras out there, they need sufficient light to produce the best video and this camera is no different. In viewing images on our 47" Sharp HD TV shot on a bright overcast day, the video is superb, colors saturated and accurate and most of all, images are very sharp. I was amazed such a small package can produce such great images. The HD2 also has a very in-depth menu and allows a lot of options and changes to suit a variety of shooting situations as well as manual over-ride of exposure, white balance and other parameters. It also has an incredible "super-macro" setting allowing focus down to about 4 inches from the lens at the wide-angle position of the zoom. Stills I took on some indoor plants using Super-macro resolved every detail. The flash at this position does NOT burn out your image and the light is very well controlled unlike many other digital camera that often burn out image highlights when shooting very close up. You'll get great shots using the flash for extreme close-ups. For distance shots, no problems there either. Still images from the HD will not disappoint and are sharp and well exposed, just be sure to use the higher resolution settings to be fair on evaluating the still image quality. There's also a 16:9 wide screen still setting which yields about a 5mp image, very cool to view on your HD TV and fill the entire screen instead of the 4:3.. There's many editing options in the camera including the ability to crop an image, and then save that cropped images as a new JPEG. Neat! I haven't used it yet, but, I believe you can also grab a still frame from video (in pause) and store it as a JPEG on the SD/SDHC card as well! The battery seems to offer long life, but, it's smart to always carry a spare (memory card too). I purchased an 8Gb SDHC card from Amazon and probably could use only that card to record the entire trip. The camera also uses standard SD cards and with limited use of the non-HC cards I have (Standard SD), I saw no change in performance, although there may be read and write speed gains using the HC card (time will tell). Bottom line is I'm very satisfied with my purchase of the HD2. No complaints at all and in fact, I'm quite surprised how good the images are from such a very small package. It will be a delight to tuck this into a pocket or small carry case during our trip. Well done Sanyo!
br /I'm an AMAZON fan all the way, and have found that typically they beat any other price, ship very promptly and offer excellent customer service. Go PRIME if you plan to buy from Amazon on a regular basis. What you will pay for a PRIME annual membership will save you far more then that in FREE 2 day shipping or one day/over-night for either 3.99 or if near end of week, (it drops to) $1.99 per item. I've often ordered end of the week and had the order at my door the next day for $1.99. GO PRIME! GO AMAZON!
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what I didn't know is that Final Cut Pro 5 cannot yet edit MPEG-4 video! Wha!? The odd thing is, iMovie does. Weird. So that kinda sucks, until I buy Final Cut 6 (which fixes the problem, apparently).
br /
br /The camera, well, it's okay. The features I was really stoked about were the smallness, the external mic jack and the SD card memory.
br /
br /Smallness: great! It's VERY small. So that's a-okay.
br /
br /External Mic Jack: not great at all. What good is an external mic jack if you have ZERO control over the gain or input levels? You have no idea if it's peaking, you can't listen to it on headphones (no headphone jack) and there's nowhere to attach the mic!
br /
br /SD Card: Great. Except for the fact that you get MPEG-4. Nice if you don't want to edit and just throw it on your iPod, but who wants unedited video?
br /
br /Finally, though I wasn't expecting the world, the picture quality is kinda lacking. It looks great in full sunshine, but anything else the picture comes out very contrasty and compressed. Not very impressive.
br /

I love the size and picture I get. Just dock then camera and VLC Player plays them great direct from the card. I installed none of the software that came with the camera. So no drivers needed to get at the files. I will have to order a differnt lens for it. I find it just dosnt get the shot I want up close. I need negative zoom it seems. Thinking a wide angel lens will fix that?
br /
br /
br /Wish it had on board usb. Docking it kind of sucks to use it as an SD reader.

To preface this lambasting, in all fairness, this camera -IS- quite adept at SD (Standard Definition). But the HD settings look like SD resized to 1440 pixels across. That's not HD in MY book, nor should it be advertised as such.
br /
br /And it's for that reason that this camera has to rank as one of the worst electronics purchases I've ever made. The HD image quality is atrociously bad: anything in slight shadow or darker becomes deep DEEP black, highlights or anything close to a highlight becomes pure white, not to mention the super-pixelating compression. Completely worthless indoors, at night, or in anything approaching a low light situation. In bright daylight, I was able to manage a super-compressed blobish complexion on my subjects, with a framerate resembling about 15fps. A $600 FisherPrice camera. I was angry to say the least.
br /
br /Frankly, I am a little surprised that this camera has received the glowing reviews it has on Amazon. It is for this reason that I kept the camera a little longer, fiddling with the settings, reading the manual all the way through, seeing if there was anything I was missing to boost the quality. In the end, it was all for naught. Perhaps I took receipt of a defective model, but all I know is that I returned the HD2, and I am now more than pleased with my HD1000. It's WELL worth the extra $40 if you want solid 720p image quality.

Why I like my xacti is is small enough to put in your pocket so I dont mind carrying with me while on vacation or other events. People should realize what the xacti is and what its not. Its not going win any awards for picture video quality, but its compact and ease of use features are enough reasons for me to use the camera.
br /
br /The xacti video quality is mixed bag. Its not anywhere near the quality of other HD camcorders becuase its bitrate and MPEG4 compression. However under the right circumstances its produces great video. Under low light and/or lots of motion, the picture is grainy/blurry. Under good lighting and calm settings then the Sanyo HD can show very good detail that looks fantastic on an HD TV. Most of the time my video comes out much better than my old Sony 8mm SD camcorder. However comparing a low bitrate MPEG4 cam to a normal MPEG2 high bitrate HD camcorder will always turn show up as negative on the HD2. That still doesn't bother me to use the HD2.
br /
br /I love the SD card format. Its so simple to copy the video footage to your computer for editing. I edit the video using pinnacle studio 11 ultimate and can export to most formats.
br /
br /At the end of the day after knowing all its quirks I still love my xacti. I am willing to trade the video quality issues with convience. I almost never lugged my old camcorder around becuase I had my hands full already with other things. However, with the xacti I can put the thing in my pocket and am good to go.
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I had to double check the label as I was under the impression that this camera was an HD (720p) camera. Well I guess there are no requirements or guidelines for marketing a camera as HD. The first thing I did when I received this camera was shoot some HD footage and then watch it on my HD tv. Boy - was I surprised. The footage looked awful. To be honest I have seen regular cameras and even cell phones that could give the video feature a run for it money.
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br /The standard photos looked pretty good, but shutter lag was a pain. The only reason I rated this camera a 2 is that the form factor was great and it is a good idea. Needless to say this camera was returned the very next day.

We bought this camera to replace our aging Canon ZR-30MC. It's extremely easy to use and I'm happy to report there are no compatibility problems with a Mac--just drag the movies from the HD2 onto your desktop, as simple as that. I can't get over how small it is, and people are really intrigued to see such a tiny camcorder.
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br /Two reservations:
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br /1) Video noise in low light. In sunny, outdoor light the image quality is truly exceptional. Indoors, in a moderately or dimly lit room, noise creeps in much sooner than you'd expect.
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br /2) Image quality for still images is poor. I'm accustomed to shooting with a DSLR, so I realize I'm spoiled, but I'm really disappointed in the noisy, blocky images this camera produces. To my eye, Sanyo's in camera processing makes still images look overprocessed, noisy, and almost "painted." If you're shooting with a low end digital camera this might make a decent cross-grade, but if you're accustomed to the image quality from a DSLR or some of the higher end digital point and shoots, you will be unhappy with still images from this camera.
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br /Still, it's 4 stars out of 5 for this video camera. We carry it all the time and with a newborn it's extremely easy to share high quality video with family near and far. I'm happy I bought it and I think it's worth the money. As long as you're at peace with the poor quality of the still images, my guess is you'll be happy with it too.

I bought this as an upgrade from my Canon ZR-series DV camcorder. I have an HDTV, but since there's currently no way to author HD discs, the home movies I edit end up as DVDs. The Xacti's HD movies easily surpass the resolution of DVD, so I have no complaints there.
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br /Do the images compare to an HDV 1080i camcorder? Probably not. Do they compare to 1080i HDTV made with pro equipment? Definitely not. However, let's be realistic--we're talking about a $600 camcorder for home movie use. I scaled down and sharpened the movies to widescreen DV (DVD resolution) with MPEG StreamClip, edited with iMovie, pulled the result into iDVD, and the end result looked great considering the price and size of the camera.
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br /Some of the other complaints people make do have some merit. The autofocus is a little sketchy sometimes when the subject is difficult to find. (But hey, that's why there's an easy one-click manual focus option.) The image stabilization is not as good as the optical image stabilization on other cameras; it does help, but you'll still need very steady hands at the far end of the zoom range. (But hey, that's why there's a tripod socket.)
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br /On the plus side, the camera is small, even in the padded protective case supplied. It's very light in weight. The audio quality is fantastic compared to my old Canon camcorder; no continuous motor noise. And the convenience of being able to pull movies off the memory card and rename them to something appropriate, or delete chunks that came out bad, is hard to beat.
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br /Still image quality is acceptable. It's not as good as my Canon SD400, but it's good enough that I can take just the Xacti with me and not feel too upset if I want to take some stills. My suggestion is to shoot at the maximum still resolution and scale down; the built-in downscaling seems to be pretty bad. (That applies to movie mode too--while there's an option to shoot at online-appropriate resolutions, the result is much worse than shooting in full SD or HD and scaling it yourself afterwards.)

Low light movies are dark and grainy. Flash is weak.
br /Video quality is poor and freezes when played in a computer. Sound in all videos is not syncronized to video (you can see it when people is talking; it looks like the movie was translated to other languaje...).
br /Otherwise than that is a very good concept; very few moving parts or mechanisms (except zoom), files are immediatly playable at the computer, movies and pictures with good light are good, HD offers a nice resolution, one device offers fair quality for two uses (camera and camcorder).
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br /This is an update about the review I made about the xacti cam.
br /- the problems with video out of sync and skipping were because those videos require a fast computer (core duo?) computer to run. Also, you may need to place the files directly on the computer's hard disk rather than playing them from the memory card because bandwidth. Playback gets a little better.
br /Even with all the cons I mention and some other more, the camera is very practical as you can carry both video and digital pictures in one device, with no delicate moving parts other than the display and zoom. I would recommend to purchase a second battery and a second card (have 2x4gb ones). there are some tricks to avoid graini images at night, like changing the ISO to 50x, but the display will go dark (even when the pictures are taken a lot better).
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This expensive gadget has no real tech support. Sanyo USA hides phone listings and has 1 (yes 1) woman to answer all incoming inquires and even she is not available during stated business hours. Good luck if you need help as I do. All the videos I have taken at HD setting studder in both audio and video-unusable footage. My cutting edge Vaio laptop will not display the footage properly in either Ulead softwares provided and Sanyo apparently uses some proprietary codec/Mpeg4 as none of my sophisticated HD editing software (Edius 3.0) will view the footage. Apple Quicktime 7.xx Plus also studders most especially in audio. Therefore, the camera as an HD item is worthless and without viable support my expensive purchase is DOA. I highly recommend, deceptive reviews not withstanding, you save your manoy on this frustrating gadget and yes, the multidirectional flipper switch does not work well at all -the failure is that it simply doesn't work...causing multiple repeated attempts to pullup or change otherwise simple menu settings!

Saying that this camcorder does not perform well in low-lights conditions, this is an understatement. This camera is simply not designed to work indoors, even with all lights turned on.

The still images greater than 1280 x 780 taken by this camcorder has strong aliasing effect,
br /and the sharp edges in the scene are very diluted.
br /The file sizes for higher-resolution (1280 x 780) images are significantly smaller
br /than those taken taken by an ordinary camera.
br /This means that a higher-resolution image does not contain enough information than it should contain.
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br /The resolution of the CCD is much hyped that it should be,
br /and taking pictures that are larger than 1280 x 780 does not make any sense,
br /since the quality of the images is so bad.

After 9 months, the buttons on the camera stopped functioning. Contacted Sanyo and was referred to their Service Provider, Skokie TV.
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br /Contacted Skokie and shipped my camera to them in early September. Hearing nothing after 2 weeks, I contacted Skokie and learned that diagnostics had found a faulty "control unit", which needed to be ordered from Sanyo.
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br /After 2 more weeks and no news, I contacted Skokie again and was informed that the replacement unit arrived defective and was reordered from Sanyo.
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br /After 2 more weeks, I contacted Skokie again and was advised that they were awaiting the replacement part.
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br /Service and communication from Skokie are unacceptable. I have now waited 6 weeks and still do not know when I will get my camera back. My 16 months old baby is walking, talking, learning... and we are missing the capture moments for which our Sanyo was intended.
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br /Although we love the camera, would caution buyers as to the defective control unit and after-market experience with Skokie.

A good camcorder for outdoor use.
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br /However, a full charged battery lasts only about 22 minutes for a continuous recording. You'd better get at least two backup batteries.
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I expected the video to be so-so and the pictures to be excellent. Both were miserable.

Pros:
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br /-Very easy to work with, editable and small mpeg4 files. Great for posting stuff on the internet. Avid or FCP users don't need to capture footage from dv tapes; they just need to import the quicktime files, which is faster.
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br /-Good daytime quality with HD mode
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br /-Small Size
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br /-A few external (but expensive) lenses available
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br /-Decent (though somewhat grainy) pics
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br /-records onto sd cards, which can be 8gb
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br /Cons:
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br /-grainy, significantly worse quality in low light
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br /-As has been noted by many other hd2 users, there is an inherent problem with this camcorder's external audio. External mics, including expensive ones, produce an ugly electrical noise, which seems to be a magnification of the slight electrical noise that one hears in the normal recordings of the internal mic.
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br /- tripod socket made out of plastic instead of metal
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br /- difficulties zooming in and out slowly, though this may vary depending on your luck. My first Hd2 (which I returned due to another problem) was indeed able to zoom in and out relatively slowly. The new one I got can't do the same.The hd2's relatively cheap construction means that the viability of some functions is fortuitous. If you know how to work with avid or FCP you'll be able to add an effect to slow down the zoom, but most people wouldn't want to go through the trouble.
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br /-slow to focus. Even my cheaper and smaller sd-card mini camcorder, the samsung sc-mm10 (which has a 10x zoom) is faster to focus. On the bright side, the Hd2's fixed auto focus does help maintain the focus.
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br /-may look like a gun, especially with an external lens. If you like to record the police, this little camera may give you problems.
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br /Overall, I'd say that the most important change this camera needs is decent external audio. Audio is 50% of your production. If this thing had good external audio I would have given it 5 stars, because it would be a good bargain for the price. I'd like to know what the engineers think is causing the problem. I do know that small gadgets can record good external audio. For example, when I use an external mic with my tiny WS-100 Olympus digital voice recorder I get excellent sound.

I previously owned a Samsung Mini-DV camera which is about 4 years old. The poor thing died after many trips to the beach and so forth so I was faced with replacing it. I figured I would "get with the times" and look for a tapeless model.
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br /The Sanyo Xacti HD2 is very easy to use, makes transferring video to a computer much easier, and has a great form factor; however, unless you are standing in bright sunlight, the picture looks worse than my Mini-DV camera. Stills are the same. Great pictures outdoors in the sunlight, but horrible indoors.
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br /This is the perfect camera for outdoor vacations (beach, theme parks, etc...), but not good at all for inside the house shots.

Have had the Xacti HD2 since it became available in April, 2007 and have used it a lot at home and travelling for both photographs and videos. I have been totally delighted with it in all aspects. The video quality is outstanding as is the photo quality. I have burned lenghty videos directly to DVD using the included software and the resulting DVD images are crisp with no noise. I have the 8GB memory card and shoot everything in HD using vibration and wind noise reduction, and autofocus. Controls are handy and easy to get used to and sound pick-up and playback is very good. I carry it in my shirt pocket.

After owning the HD2 for 6 months I sold it on eBay.
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br /This is a tweener device - trying to be both a video camera and a digital still camera. I thought I was getting the best of both, but really the HD2 isn't great at either. Video and photo quality was fair - despite the 7.1 MP resolution, the picture quality wasn't as good as I had been getting from the 2MP Canon SD200 that it replaced. Sure I had more pixels, but subjectively (mostly - "these don't look as good as your old camera..." from the family) the colors didn't look as good and there was reasonably high noise. Also the "image stabilizer" used cropping so you lose field of view on the wide end (making the 39mm equiv. more like a 50mm), making this hard to use indoors.
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br /But what ultimately got me to put it up for sale was the drop in the number of pictures I was taking. I just didn't like using it as much so I didn't carry it as often and when I did didn't take as many pictures. Part of that was the quality, but more the pistol grip style camera just didn't work for me - I much prefer the standard box shape.
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br /It wasn't all bad, it has a long 10x optical zoom in a small body and pretty high compression (with good quality) on the videos.
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br /After selling it I went back to a standard digital camera, I bought a Canon PowerShot SD870IS 8MP Digital Camera. I'm much happier with this, it is a great digital camera that happens to take good SD videos, my picture (and video) count has gone back up.
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This is the perfect camera for our outdoor activities. Awesome picture! Don't bother if you want to use it inside though, it needs a lot of light to really give you the best picture. This was our choice because of the HD and mostly because it uses a memory card which is super easy to pop into our computer! This camcorder is really rugged, too! I recommend the extra battery and an extra memory card for convenience sake.

Yes, the video has a little grain in it particularly at low light, but the resolution and color saturation are outstanding.Took it with me to Europe and was perfect "pocket traveller". Still photographs were very good and with good light, the video is excellent as well. Very durable. I found the controls easy to use once you got the hang of it.

I recommend this as a good all around camera for recording family moments. It's biggest selling point is portability and convenience. We had quit lugging around our video camera and were guiltily missing allot of good video opportunities of our kids. This cam was just what we were looking for. We carry this and an older Kodak 5mp pocket camera.
br / It takes pretty decent video with impressive sound recording- I'd compare it with high-8 recordings. Get that HD video idea out of your head and save it for Sanyo's HD4 or 5.
br / Photos are ok, just not up to snuff with our 5 year old 5mp Kodak. 7 megapixels is plenty but almost always a little grainy and the colors aren't very vivid.
br / It doesn't do well indoors, especially shooting into outside light. I haven't messed much with the settings but it's inherent that this camera has trade offs.
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br / Highs- Portable, I carry it with no case in a cargo pocket, in standby mode. I can have it rolling in seconds. Decent video. Decent photos in good lighting conditions. 1 hour battery and 2 hours on a 4gb card.
br / Lows- Poor video and photos with indoor lighting. Really could use a wide angle lens. Screen small and washes out in bright sunlight. Irritating toggle. Not made for human hands, how about a rubberized pistol grip?-See Xacti HD5
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br / Although some reviewers complain, our computer is a year old and we've never had a problem playing back the videos. It won't however read our newest SDHC card, so we leave the camera in the supplied cradle.
br / It gets the job done but leaves more to be desired. I believe these little hybrid cameras are the wave of the future and in a couple of years the video and photo quality will be amazing.

A Great camera, small enough that you can always have it with you, versatile enough that you won't regret you didn't bring your "big" camera. The 720p Hi-Def video looks just fine on my 71" RPTV through the HDMI connection. I have made prints up to 13"x19" from images taken at the highest resolution, even with a small amount of cropping, that are very satisfying. I really enjoy using the camera, it's a fine "chronicler of life".

I've had this camera/camcorder for 1 month and I absolutely love it . It takes GREAT pictures and movies . For someone who is looking for an all in 1 unit , this is it . I purchased a 4 GB card for 40 dollars and can take up to
br /an hour of High Def. movies and 3 hours of standard video and photos . No more buying tapes and no moving parts to go bad . I haven't had a camcorder in a few years and I wasn't into dragging around and charging 2 separate units . It's so nice to hit 1 button and change from shooting photos to video . I can't comment on how it will hold up long term and I've never bought anything from Sanyo but so far it's been GREAT !!! . Battery life has been good . I highly recommend this !!!!!! AAAAA

See my review of the original. Of course with any small CCD there's going to be some low-light noise (physics...the "action/sport" pre-set is nearly optimal for all conditions, it seems to be an allusive feature to most that really helps!). This (sensor size), not optics, # of pixels (unless one is into using up memory fast), zoom or even anti-shake, is by far the most important aspect to digital video or photography. The point of this invention by Sanyo (as put so well by someone from the UK in another review) is form factor...and it works so well...only one item to carry that fits in your pocket, take anywhere even the beach. There are now many imitations (of course, imiitation is the sincerest form of flattery...take it from a successful inventor) and I haven't seen one that even slightly compares to the Sanyo lines...they've remained on top, even in the commodity non-HD market. The non-HD models are also great, especially for their super-low price (one essentially gets a videocam for free when compared to compact camera counterparts).

Don't expect a HD movie out of it, it's just bigger. Consider this before buying a handicam, forget about tape forever, but PLEASE buy the light accesory, it is absolutly needed because of it's bad performance in poor light.
br /The camara works ok.pics are fine, (sometimes), ...
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This is a great camcorder! I have been using it to film scenes from the Academy. Does a great job outdoors but inside with low lighting, the picture gets a little dull.

I've had this camcorder for about a month now and it's everything I wanted. I bought it mainly for 2 reasons, one being the fact it uses SD and SDHC flash memory. I have a Transcend 8 Gb class 6 SDHC and a 2 Gb generic SD card. The 8 Gb holds just shy of 2 hours on the highest quality setting (HD-SHQ) and 39 minutes with the 2 Gb card. Second, I wanted a video camera that takes high megapixel, good looking stills. This camera can take up to 7 megapixel stills with up to 100 times zoom (10x optical and 10x digital). Figure about $350 for a digital camera with that kind of zoom and 7.1 megapixels. So for $600 I get a camcorder and a digital camera. This is my first camcorder so I don't have anything to compare with it but so far everything looks good on my 51" Toshiba HDTV connected with monster component cables. I haven't tried the camcorder in low light yet but I am not allergic to turning on a light if this is really an issue. I'm sure there are some quirks I'll find that I don't like but as far as I see this camera has met every expectation I had from reading other reviews and far surpassed some as well. I would buy it again without hesitation.

I love this gadget, there is nothing that compares to it. Yes I'm sure you will find a camcorder that records better HD footage than this but in all probability you may well be unlikely to have it with you when there's something to shoot! That's it's main plus point, it's size coupled with an entry level price! If you are after better quality then expect to pay a lot more. Once bought and docked into it's power/hdmi holster.. make sure you use the remote, if trying to playback whilst pressing the buttons on the camcorder can cause the sound to cut out, any small movement must cause a bad connection.... use the remote! Yes pleased with the still quality too and I don't have a problem with the quality of the video footage, for the most part and certainly for filming the kids / holidays etc, this is perfect. So find yourself a lovely felt-lined pocket and buy one, a pocket shouldn't be without one!

Ok, the video isn't really HD either, but is much better than even a high end point shoot camera video. (eg. Canon SD850)
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br /The size of the thing and the ability to take it anywhere in your pocket is worth a lot. Especially for baby.
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br /The stills are soft, but make fine prints. My wife still made me buy a dedicated camera for stills...

I got mine today, and it is being returned today. I had high hopes, given the reviews so far and the supposed improvement in low light sensitivity. I was hoping for an all-in-one device for stills and video. Here's my results:
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br /1) Stills. Pictures are not too bad, but do not compare with a similar 7MP Canon SD500 which I own. The zoom works well, focusing is ok, but slow. The pictures themselves have quite a bit of noticeable noise in them, flash or not, like they are all taken at a high ISO setting on a regular digital cam. So slight disappointment here.
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br /2) Video. If this is improved low light sensitivity, I would not have liked to see the results on the HD1! Video does not even come close to comparing to my regular Sony DV camera. Focusing is hit or miss, and shake is much more evident at high zoom than with my Sony.
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br /I really was hoping for the be all end all combo device, but the HD2 does neither very well. Ergonomically it is beautiful and fits in one hand very well. The finish is great and the buttons are well placed. But it doesn't justify the price or quality misses on the photos and video themselves.

So far I like this camera alot. I need to learn how to edit the sequences...it is not too simple from the direction given.........we'll see.
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I bought htis from Amazon, and have troubles in playing back the video clips. Almost evrytime, after a while, I do see "System error" on the screen, and then the firmware is hung. After a power-cycle, the last recorded clip is gone! Some issues with the basics...so I called Sanyo service, they said this is happening because I'm using a 4GB plain SD card. Acc to the support guy, max of 2GB of plain SD is supported , for more GB, a SDHC card is needed. I could not find this info on the manual or spec...so I'm not sure how true is this. If anyone of you know about this , please let me know.
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br /Video is okay for my need...still is too bad.
br /Firmware is just about average..not too great. There is much scope of improvement to be more user friendly and more informative with lesser use of buttons.
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br /Battery did not perform as promised in the spec.
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br /Also, there are way too many components in the box for such a specialized product. I would expect those many in a robotics kit.

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br / Just purchased this Sanyo Camera and it's great.
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br / I Love It!!!!!!!!!!

I hope to write a detailed review after i have put it through a few more tests, but after 36 hours of use i must give kudos to Sanyo the HD2 is a winner.