Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000

Motion (10.9)

The Sanyo VPC-HD2000 is the first consumer camcorder that can record truly progressive 1080/60p video (called Full-HR 60fps by Sanyo). At first glance, it's difficult to see a distinct difference between 50i or 60i and a fully progressive 60p, but in our motion test, we noticed smoother motion and less blur in the 60p mode. The HD2000 can record video in regular 60i as well as 30p. It also has two slow motion settings (240fps and 600fps), but those modes limit video length to 10 seconds and resolution to 448 x 336 and 192 x 108, respectively. (More on how we test motion.)

The main difference we noticed with Sanyo's 60p mode was the amount of blurring and ghosting on the greyscale pinwheel in our motion test. Most HD camcorders, which shoot in 50i, show significant blur around each black stripe, but the HD2000 produced a crisp, clear image. The 60i mode on the VPC-HD2000 records at a lower bit rate than the 60p mode (16Mbps vs 24Mbps), which may be another reason the 60p setting captures better-looking motion. The VPC-HD2000 wasn't perfect with motion, however, as the RGB colour pinwheel (on the left) didn't look as sharp when compared to the Canon HF20 and HF S100.

Canon HF20 in 1080/50i
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The Canon HF20 offers two frame rate options: 50i, 25P. This camcorder had the same problem we usually see with blurring in 60i mode, while its alternate frame rates looked smoother. The 25P mode offers a slower look for smoother motion.

Panasonic HDC-HS20 in 1080/50i
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As we've noticed on a number of our performance tests, the Panasonic HDC-HS20 couldn't keep up with the other HD camcorders in this group. The motion didn't look nearly as sharp or as crisp as either of the Canons or the Sanyo VPC-HD2000. The HDC-HS20 has a 'Cinema Mode' setting, which is Panasonic's version of 25p mode. The setting slows down the speed of the video quite a bit, but it has more blur than the 25P mode on both the Canon HF20 and Canon HF S100.

The last camcorder in this group was the Canon HF S100. It looked very similar to the Canon HF20 and shares all the same frame rate options. With this set of camcorders, it's difficult to pick a true winner as far as motion is concerned. The 60p mode on the Sanyo produces great results and is a noteworthy achievement, but the camcorder's lack of a 24p or 25p setting is disappointing—especially for people who want to capture a film-like quality with their video. Both Canon camcorders capture motion well, although the ghosting and trailing we noticed at 60i is a bit unsettling.

Video Sharpness (10.59)

We've been seeing significantly higher video sharpness scores this year—likely due to the larger sensors and higher effective pixel counts being packed into the new HD models. The VPC-HD2000 measured a horizontal sharpness of 650 lw/ph (line widths per picture height) and a vertical sharpness of 700 lw/ph, both of which are strong scores. This is a big improvement over last year's VPC-HD1010, which measured 550 lw/ph horizontal and 575 lw/ph vertical. Still, it isn't as good as the video sharpnesses we measured on the Canon HF20 or the HF S100. The VPC-HD2000 is once again right in the middle compared to the competition; it doesn't have the best sharpness score, but it still put up fairly good numbers and showed a significant improvement over last year's top-of-the-line Xacti. (More on how we test video sharpness.)

Video Sharpness Score Comparisons