Event Coverage

Sanyo Announces 6 New Camcorders!

By Alvin Soon - 23 Jan 2009

New Xactis for a New Year

New Xacti for a New Year

In seven countries around the world on 21st January, Sanyo announced six new camcorders in their Xacti line-up; three in the familiar Xacti vertical hand-held design, and three surprisingly in the horizontal design - a new look for Sanyo. Launches were held in Dubai, Munich, Toronto, London, New York, Osaka, and we were present in Bangkok to catch the news.

Why is this beautiful model in a silver bikini? Because two new Xacti camcorders are waterproof, that's why!

Why is this beautiful model in a silver bikini? Because two new Xacti camcorders are waterproof, that's why!

The new Sanyo Dual Camera HD-capable Xacti camcorders aim to combine digital still cameras and camcorders into compact and easy-to-use models, and because they record to SD cards (in the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 format) without a built-in hard drive, they're very small and light. The six new camcorders fall into three categories of two models each; Full HD, Compact HD and Waterproof HD. Let's take a quick look of these new camcorders by categories:-

Full HD

The Full HD Dual Camera Xacti camcorders record up to a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (in both 1080i and 1080p formats), shoot 8MP photos and have 10x optical zoom.

VPC-FH1

The VPC-FH1, Sanyo's new horizontal hand-held Full HD camcorder. It shoots 1080p videos at up to 60fps/24Mbps, 8MP photos, high-speed video (240fps/600fps), 10x optical zoom, with a 3-inch LCD monitor.

At only 53.3 x 57.3 x 105mm and 342g, the VPC-FH1 is small and light. Comes in black or gold.

VPC-HD2000

The VPC-HD2000, successor to the VPC-HD1010, is Sanyo's new vertical hand-held Full HD camcorder. This baby can shoot videos at 1080p and up to 60fps/24Mbps, 8MP photos, high-speed video capability (240fps/600fps), 10x optical zoom and comes with a 2.7-inch LCD monitor.

Readers familiar with Xacti will find the gun-grip familiar. This model cones in gold and black editions.

Compact HD

The Compact HD Dual Camera Xacti camcorders are smaller than the Full HD models for easy carrying on the go, and record up to 720p. The VPC-CG10 shoots up to 10MP photos, while the VPC-TH1 boasts a 30x optical zoom, and also a long 3 hour 20 min continuous battery life, recording in HD!

VPC-TH1

The VPC-TH1 lists an incredible 3 hours 20 minutes of continuous shooting battery life. According to Sanyo, this is Eneloop technology at work. The VPC-TH1 shoots 720p at 30fps/9Mbps, 2MP photos, and has 30x optical zoom.

The VPC-TH1 models look colorful and stylish, coming in silver, red and blue.

VPC-CG10

The VPC-CG10 - stylishly curvy and comfortably small. It shoots 720p resolution videos at 30fps/9Mbps, 10MP photos and has 5x optical zoom.

The VPC-CG10 comes in black, pink and white - you know which she likes!

Waterproof HD

If you've ever worried about getting your camcorder wet, the VPC-WH1 and the VPC-CA9 are for you. The VPC-CA9 can go down to 1.5m in water, while the VPC-WH1 goes down to 3m. Sounds great for shooting in the rain, water-sports or the annual Songkraw festival in Thailand!

VPC-WH1

The VPC-WH1, Sanyo's own yellow submarine! Also comes in white and blue. It is waterproof down to 3m, shoots 720p at 30fps/9Mbps, 2MP photos, has 30x optical zoom and also boasts a 3 hours 20 min. continuous shooting battery life.

The VPC-WH1 also swims with an inflatable (inflatable and air not included).

VPC-CA9

The VPC-CA9 goes underwater down to 1.5m depth, shoots 720p at 30fps/9Mbps, 9MP photos, and has 5x optical zoom. Color options are either black, green or red.

Coming in March

Our first hands-on impressions with the new Sanyo Xacti Dual Camcorders are that they're beautifully compact and light, making them easy to carry. The videos and photos we saw on demo also looked promising, and we look forward to getting them in our labs soon to put them through their paces in our usual thorough analysis. Sanyo says we can expect to see them in stores by late March to early April, but pricing is yet to be firmed at this point of time.

Sanyo executives with local Thai celebrities, (far left) Mr. Pojsanut Thongjua, Senior Sales Manager, (third from left) Mr. Tsutomu Morimoto, President of Sanyo (Thailand), (sixth from left) Mr. Yoshinori Nakatani, CRO and Vice President, Sanyo.

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