CES 2006: Sanyo first with HD SD camcorder
One of the big stories at CES this year is likely to be the explosion in the number of video cameras that can capture footage in high def. Samsung is certain to have a model and JVC has already promised a HD version of its hard disk based Everio. Whether it surfaces this week is another matter though.
Anyhow full marks to Sanyo for getting in first with a camcorder that record HD footage to a memory card (SD). Due in the US in March, with a UK launch expected in the summer, the VPC-HD1 isn’t much larger than Sanyo’s standard defintion Xacti cams, yet it shoots footage at 720p at 30 frames per second using MPEG4 compression. It can also take five mega pixel still images and sports a 10x optical zoom lens. There’s no indication yet as to how much HD footage can be archived on card. More here.