First Sanyo HD1A Review. Impressive

I J Walton · September 19th, 2006, 09:43 AM

One thing I did with the clips, was convert them to SD. I still prefer SD due to it's ease of distribution (at this time), so I still like to shoot SD.

So, this cameras footage isn't amazing when viewed in HD. However I took it into After Effects on a 16.9 Standard Definition timeline. I manually scaled the size of the image down and rendered in SD with a good codec. The results are WOW. Downsized to SD this footage looks amazing (to me anyway), It has strong colours and its progressive video!

So, if anyone else likes the idea of using medium quality HD for great quality SD then I think this camera is a good choice, if just for the fact that its progressive.

PS. I might add that all clips look good exept the PoorGuy one. There seems a lot more compression artifacts in that one for some reason.

Chris Wells · September 19th, 2006, 09:38 PM

Given the cost of space and future benefits of HD resolutions, I record in HD and transcode when I'm giving copies out. Every recording I make is saved in its native format so I can pull the best quality out later. This serves a double purpose because if/when codecs of post processing helps the jaggies, I have something to work with.

Wayne Morellini · September 19th, 2006, 10:59 PM

I agree, the camera is lowish consumer quality, unless you are converting to SD. I do comparisons based on optimal setup that people might have in their homes. 19mb/s and a bit of thought would be enough to make this high end consumer and professional quality.

I still think, with a lot of post processing (and extra latitude), this could be made acceptable for professional production, but it would still probably look less than a good HD camera, just not with objectionable artifacts/noise and crawling.

Thanks for the clips.

Wayne Morellini · September 20th, 2006, 10:03 AM

I talked to a Sanyo product manager today, still no HD1a for my country planned, good reasons given. Leaves me with little enthusiasm. But, I asked about the HD2, and the guy said 6 months next model. I don't know where ever he was saying that he knew an actual HD2 would be coming in 6 months or that it is usual to expect future model releases every 6 months. Maybe I should have asked him details.

Anyway 6 months is a real long time, and this present camera needs a bigger brother (25fps, better latitude and 60db+ sensitivity, 1.4 aperture etc) and dropping the price of this one. You either buy it now, or don't buy it at all (still waiting for those $799 h264 cameras).

I suspect that the macro diagonal block might be hardwired into the custom ASIC they use, and we won't see it fixed until they run out of them. Lets see, those things are likely done in 100K or million batches, so it might be a while yet.

Jack Brewton · September 23rd, 2006, 04:02 PM

How do you convert the HD clips to SD? I use an Xacti C5 now and simply load the clips into a Panasonic DVD writer with hard drive. When I get enough clips I simply put in a blank DVD and copy selected clips from the hard drive.

Is it going to be more complicated to make DVDs from the HD1a? I assume they will be retained on the hard drive as HD but copied to the DVD as SD??

I anyone can shed any light on this, I'd appreciate it. I don't understand the concept of converting back and forth. Thanks

Andrea Rossi · September 24th, 2006, 03:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Brewton

How do you convert the HD clips to SD? I use an Xacti C5 now and simply load the clips into a Panasonic DVD writer with hard drive. When I get enough clips I simply put in a blank DVD and copy selected clips from the hard drive.

Is it going to be more complicated to make DVDs from the HD1a? I assume they will be retained on the hard drive as HD but copied to the DVD as SD??

I anyone can shed any light on this, I'd appreciate it. I don't understand the concept of converting back and forth. Thanks

I think you should use a video-editing program, like sony vegas, adobe premiere, etc. Then you could reencode it as you prefer (720p or SD).
Anyways you need a computer, as far as I know, you can't do it just putting HD1 clips into a stand-alone dvdwriter and then burn them as SD, like you're used to do with your C5.

Bye!

Lawrence Mayka · December 19th, 2006, 09:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wayne Morellini

I suspect they have changed the interpolation method, I do not remember this level or anti aliasing, or this much low light ability.
...
I give it thumbs up for effort, Low light appears to be better, but because of aliasing (and we do not know the true lighting level in Think pad) I can not yet tell.

Is it a consensus that the HD1A's low-light capability is better than that of the HD1? Is it as good as that of the C6? I presume that the low-light capability of the CA6 is the same or better than that of the C6.

Lawrence Mayka · December 20th, 2006, 05:47 AM

According to specs, the CA6 actually improves low-light capability over the C6, at least in this sense: On the C6, the video light sensitivity of 3600 was only manual--the Auto setting only went as high as 1800. According to the specs of the CA6, its Auto video light sensitivity does now range as high as 3600 when necessary.

In contrast, the HD1 and HD1A seem to have the same video light sensitivity specs. Their Auto setting ranges only up to 800.

Wayne Morellini · March 15th, 2007, 01:20 PM

Lots of people have disappeared, so here is to reaching out to you:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83398
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=87867

March 15th, 2007, 01:20 PM	#24
Wayne Morellini Inner Circle Join Date: May 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 2,762	Sanyo HD2, reviews and footage (improvements). Lots of people have disappeared, so here is to reaching out to you: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=83398 http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=87867

September 19th, 2006, 09:43 AM	#16
I J Walton Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 40	One thing I did with the clips, was convert them to SD. I still prefer SD due to it's ease of distribution (at this time), so I still like to shoot SD. So, this cameras footage isn't amazing when viewed in HD. However I took it into After Effects on a 16.9 Standard Definition timeline. I manually scaled the size of the image down and rendered in SD with a good codec. The results are WOW. Downsized to SD this footage looks amazing (to me anyway), It has strong colours and its progressive video! So, if anyone else likes the idea of using medium quality HD for great quality SD then I think this camera is a good choice, if just for the fact that its progressive. PS. I might add that all clips look good exept the PoorGuy one. There seems a lot more compression artifacts in that one for some reason.

September 19th, 2006, 09:38 PM	#17
Chris Wells Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kelowna, Canada Posts: 148	Given the cost of space and future benefits of HD resolutions, I record in HD and transcode when I'm giving copies out. Every recording I make is saved in its native format so I can pull the best quality out later. This serves a double purpose because if/when codecs of post processing helps the jaggies, I have something to work with.

September 19th, 2006, 10:59 PM	#18
Wayne Morellini Inner Circle Join Date: May 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 2,762	I agree, the camera is lowish consumer quality, unless you are converting to SD. I do comparisons based on optimal setup that people might have in their homes. 19mb/s and a bit of thought would be enough to make this high end consumer and professional quality. I still think, with a lot of post processing (and extra latitude), this could be made acceptable for professional production, but it would still probably look less than a good HD camera, just not with objectionable artifacts/noise and crawling. Thanks for the clips.

September 20th, 2006, 10:03 AM	#19
Wayne Morellini Inner Circle Join Date: May 2003 Location: Australia Posts: 2,762	I talked to a Sanyo product manager today, still no HD1a for my country planned, good reasons given. Leaves me with little enthusiasm. But, I asked about the HD2, and the guy said 6 months next model. I don't know where ever he was saying that he knew an actual HD2 would be coming in 6 months or that it is usual to expect future model releases every 6 months. Maybe I should have asked him details. Anyway 6 months is a real long time, and this present camera needs a bigger brother (25fps, better latitude and 60db+ sensitivity, 1.4 aperture etc) and dropping the price of this one. You either buy it now, or don't buy it at all (still waiting for those $799 h264 cameras). I suspect that the macro diagonal block might be hardwired into the custom ASIC they use, and we won't see it fixed until they run out of them. Lets see, those things are likely done in 100K or million batches, so it might be a while yet.

September 23rd, 2006, 04:02 PM	#20
Jack Brewton New Boot Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: California, USA Posts: 6	How do you convert the HD clips to SD? I use an Xacti C5 now and simply load the clips into a Panasonic DVD writer with hard drive. When I get enough clips I simply put in a blank DVD and copy selected clips from the hard drive. Is it going to be more complicated to make DVDs from the HD1a? I assume they will be retained on the hard drive as HD but copied to the DVD as SD?? I anyone can shed any light on this, I'd appreciate it. I don't understand the concept of converting back and forth. Thanks

December 20th, 2006, 05:47 AM	#23
Lawrence Mayka New Boot Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Aurora, IL, USA Posts: 16	According to specs, the CA6 actually improves low-light capability over the C6, at least in this sense: On the C6, the video light sensitivity of 3600 was only manual--the Auto setting only went as high as 1800. According to the specs of the CA6, its Auto video light sensitivity does now range as high as 3600 when necessary. In contrast, the HD1 and HD1A seem to have the same video light sensitivity specs. Their Auto setting ranges only up to 800.