Digital Camera

The VPC-HD700 is a slim and stylish high-definition shooter. Its volume of 171 cc and weight of 189 g make it the smallest and lightest 720p digital movie camera on the market*. Compared with our previous model, the VPC-HD2, it?s about 16% smaller in volume and 10% lighter. Now it?s even easier to put in your pocket or bag and take with you wherever you go. With the HD700 on hand, you won?t miss another photo or movie opportunity. Not only does the HD700 take high-definition movies at 720p (i.e., 1280 vertical by 720 horizontal pixels), it also takes high-resolution stills at up to 7.1 megapixels. This lone shooter gives you a choice of taking either high-quality movies or stills, without the hassle of having to switch between separate still and video cameras. Thanks to the VPC-HD700?s ergonomic new design, the lens barrel lines up horizontally when the unit is set up on a tripod. At the same time, it follows the characteristic design concept of the Xacti series, in that the user can maintain a comfortable, pistol-style grip and avoid muscle fatigue. The compact and slim chassis of the HD700, though, is more than merely functional. Its elegant curves and attractive materials are also very easy on the eye. At the heart of the VPC-HD700 is a high-speed processing engine with low power consumption?the same engine that was originally developed for the VPC-HD1000 model. Sanyo?s original H.264-compliant codec helps the HD700 achieve a low power consumption of 4.0 W. It also enables the engine to fit onto a single chip, rather than the usual two chips. Movies are recorded in the high-compression MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. As this format is more efficient than the traditional MPEG-4 format, you can either record more standard video footage in the same space, or record higher-resolution video for the same time. A further advantage of the high compression rate is the ability to store both the audio and video data for a movie in a single file. This makes it as easy to upload movies to the internet as it is to upload still-image files from your digital camera.