Review on Sanyo Xacti HD700 7MP MPEG-4 High Definition 720P Camcorder With 5X Optical Zoom (Silver) (Discontinued By Manufacturer) by Josh Flanagan

A few days ago a storm thousands of miles away brought high tidal waves to my town. As I drove past the beach, I had this toy in my pocket. The frames are raw, mostly automatic, with no extra lenses and tripod. Just me, the camera and the stage. (Unfortunately, Revain doesn't support MPEG4. Here's a clip - [.]) That's the best thing about the Sanyo HD700 - you can carry it around with you all the time without being taunted by those who know you're not a cameraman, or no one will know you're wearing it. This means your camcorder is much more useful. It is also much easier to use: remove, remove SD card, insert into a USB reader, copy to a computer hard drive, view, edit, convert or delete. Full random access, no need to wait for tape. A 4GB card gives you 1 hour and 20 minutes of HD recording. Two cards will do if you can get the files on your computer fast enough. You can also copy videos to an external hard drive without a computer. Other things I like--* Convenient docking station for charging, connecting to a computer, TV or DVD recorder in a range of standards (USB, HDMI, component, .) and with a remote control* Manual control of almost everything with the Usage Assignable shortcut keys* Some advanced features like face tracking, although I usually turn them off for better responsiveness/performance they can be useful* Design, build and ergonomics* No moving parts in memory mean higher reliability and lower power consumption* Video quality: 720p, 30 fps, 9 Mbit/s and MPEG4 update to solution* Poor low-light performance* No optical image stabilization* Short battery life (80 minutes for HD recording) coupled with high price ($40 OEM)* No extras. Microphone input (there's a typo in the manual that gives false hope) One feature I didn't understand was using it as a powerful webcam. It would be interesting to record video directly on a computer with this device. And one more wish: give us an HDMI video input and let's use it as a HD video recorder with flash memory. Sanyo? Basically, I like the camera. I wear it almost the same as my phone, both for videos and photos. If only it could also work with a cordless phone and the Internet. Update: The Phoenix 0.45x magnetic wide angle converter works pretty well and doesn't require mangling. It is attached directly to the body of the ferromagnetic lens. You can search Vimeo HD700 and find clips.