Sanyo VPC-HD1000

Sanyo's high-end HD1000 has the same basic layout as the HD700, but is bulkier and significantly heavier due to its larger lens. The camcorder is also more cluttered with controls and buttons - clearly the enthusiast, rather than occasional user, is firmly in mind here.

Continuing the high-end theme, a pop-up flash is built in, and a hot shoe is included for the addition of external accessories. The lens surround is threaded, too, to allow photographic filters to be used, but no video outputs are included on the player itself, with all output handled via the included dock.

Despite its size, it's just as comfortable to hold and use as the HD700. The buttons may be more plentiful, but they still all fall easily under the thumb, so it's simple to use the camcorder with one hand. Just as with the CG9 and HD700 models from Sanyo, there is a dedicated button for both recording video and taking stills, which shows Sanyo intends this to be a dual-purpose device.

Inside, there's more good news: the 1/2.5in sensor is large given the size of the camcorder, providing Full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1,080. While the Canons can only take stills at 3.1 megapixels, however, the Sanyo can achieve a more detailed 4 megapixels.

The high video resolution and the large lens helped the Sanyo achieve impressive results in our tests. In low light conditions it performed well, with colour reproduction matching the award-winning Panasonic while producing less noise. In bright sunlight, though, it struggled a little with shadows, leaving some areas lacking detail. Larger cameras such as the HF10 and HDC-HS9 handled these conditions slightly better, but the HD1000 is significantly smaller and almost £200 cheaper.

Image stabilisation was less impressive, and is the HD1000's only real weakness - but it still matched the Canons' performance in this area.

In fact, we were very impressed with the HD1000 all round. It may not boast the best image quality, nor the most competent image stabilisation, but it comes close enough at an excellent price. And that combination earns it a well-deserved Recommended award.

Author: Matthew Sparkes