The Xacti HD700 continues Sanyo's efforts to build camcorders that break miniaturization records. Whether it's true or not is entirely up to the history books, but the HD700 is claimed to be the world's smallest and lightest (190 grams) 720P camcorder. What really matters is that it's uniquely designed in a pistol-grip form factor, has a very large sensor by consumer standards, and boasts a huge pixel count. The MSRP is $600 (but in the reality of retail it actually straddles the $400 line) and what it buys you is a slick video/photo hybrid that looks like a compact laser-gun from the future, albeit with mediocre image quality and no laser capabilities.



The 1/2.5-inch, 7.3 megapixel CMOS sensor is the big gorilla of consumer camcorder sensors, and records 30 progressive frames per second at a 1,280 x 720 resolution. Image quality is not bad – despite its flaws, it looks and feels like high-definition. Saturation is still strong, but does not overpower correct color reproduction. Noise is present in all light conditions, but not too noticeable in normal daylight. Compression artifacts abound in the HD700's images. Dynamic range is better than expected, but in-camera sharpening is too strong. Under low-light conditions noise shoots up tremendously.



Footage from the HD700 is unusually compressed, with a maximum quality of just 9Mbps using the

MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. The result translates in long recording times and small file sizes, but image quality suffers even more than with the already mediocre AVCHD format. Problems have been signaled by many users with codec compatibility on both PC and MAC systems. 720P uses a 9Mbits/sec compression, so an SD or SDHC memory card will hold about 2 hours and 50 minutes of footage.



The 5x zoom lens opens up to f3.5 and has a 35mm equivalent field of view of 38-190mm. The 38mm wide-angle has been reported by users to not be nearly wide enough. Image stabilization is electronic, not optical, which besides not achieving very good results, has the unfortunate side-effect of eating away at the total resolution of the image.



The 2.7-inch widescreen LCD has a 230,000 pixel resolution. There is no viewfinder.



A smaller than usual joystick provides manual control, and those used to larger camcorders could find it hard to use. However, the diminutive joystick fits the camera's small size and sleek design perfectly.



The menu system gives control over focus, aperture, shutter and exposure. Aperture goes from f1.8 to f8 and shutter speed can be ramped up to an unimpressive 1/500. Auto-exposure is achieved through multiple points, center metering, or spot metering. Auto-focus can use nine point or spot focusing.



Other features include the “Face Chaser” - which is just face detection technology that should be able to detect up to 12 faces at the same time - and a built-in flash that pops up, but can only be used for taking photos.



With 7 megapixels available for taking photos, the HD700 is clearly aiming to be a one-stop solution for the consumer's image-capturing needs. Its sensor is identical in size to those of most compact still cameras, but doesn't achieve the same image quality. Stills have a maximum resolution of 3072 x 2304, or an interpolated 3680 x 2760, and can be captured in photo mode or while recording video. Light sensitivity can be selected for photos, up to 3200ISO. 



Unlike the HD1000, the HD700 only has an internal microphone. No headphone or mic jacks, and no control over audio level.