Sony HDR-TG1 VS Sanyo HD1000 : Sony Handycam HDR-TG1 VS Sanyo Xacti HD1000

So finally after the review, here’s the comparative between the Sony Handycam HDR-TG1 and the Sanyo Xacti HD1000, I underlined the most important thing and put in green the points that seemed the most attractive. Enjoy!

	Sony Handycam HDR-TG1	Sanyo Xacti HD1000
Design	Very compact, but square	Prominent Optics , but more stylish and good grip
Ergonomics	Complex	Intuitive
Optical Stabilization	Great Performances	Weak point of Sanyo, the HD does not forgive!
Focus	Accurate, Focal point losses is rare	Difficult to follow sometimes
Video quality	Good quality, but a little fuzzy in Full HD with loss of detail (HD720 upscaled?)	Good quality but too much pixilated in FullHD (HD720 upscaled?), but good sharp / contrast
deo formats (some difficulties to find details for Sony)	Full-HD 1920×1080i and HDV 1440×1080i (16, 9, 7 and 5 Mbps), 640×480 and 640×360 (9, 6 and 3 Mbps)	Full-HD 1920 x 1080i (60 fields/s 12Mbps), HD-HR 1280 x 720p (60fps, 12Mbps), HD-SHQ 1280 x 720p (30fps, 9Mbps), TV-HR 640 x 480 (60fps, 6Mbps ), TV-SHQ 640 x 480 (30fps, 3Mbps), Web-SHQ 320 x 240 (30fps)
Video Codecs	HD : MPEG4 AVC/H.264 (.MTS proprietary formats) and SD : MPEG2	MPEG4 AVC/H.264 (.MOV, recognized without problems in 720p, but requires an earlier version of Quick Time to be read for FullHD -ver. 7.1.6-)
Picture quality	Awful , it is better to make a video screenshot	Good, but not excellent.
Lens	F1.8～2.3 (41-410mm 16 :9 without stabilization)	F1.8～2.5 (38-380 mm 16 :9 with/without stabilization)
Lens Accessories	Nothing	Wide 0.7x, FishEye and Zoom 1.6x
External Plug	Cradle, power supply, AV composite and HDMI	Cradle, power supply, headphones, external microphone, USB host (with adapter cable) and HDMI / AV composite (with cable adapter)
Memory Support	Memory Stick Pro Duo	SD & SDHC
Battery	6.8V 6.1Wh => 897 mAh	1900 mAh => better autonomy
Japan Price (1 US Dollar = 104 Yens)	90 000 ~ 100 000 Yen	50 000 ~ 60 000 Yen

Conclusion :

Neither is really better than the other , each having its own advantages and weaknesses. But as a general rule, professionals prefer the Sanyo Xacti HD1000 thanks to its optical options, the possibility to put an external microphone and the multitude of other options which suits to customers’ needs. Sony, with its Handycam HDR-TG1, aims clearly the general public who wants HD in his/her pocket, without any extras… it loses on ergonomics and menus, if you are apt to change theHDR-TG1 settings.

For now, the current market price for the HD1000 is half as much as the HDR-TG1 (probably simply because of how new to the market the TG1 is and its brand name), so, as Sanyo seems to have more video modes, longer battery life, uses SD memory cards which have become insanely cheap, and many other options that are simply not available on the Sony, this should give them a very good advantage. We imagine that there will be another Full HD Xacti announced soon (the HD1000 has been on the market for 1 year now) and we hope it receives an update correcting the weaknesses we have found during our review.

Sony is still new at the ‘ergonomic’ or vertical style, and will surely improve upon the TG1 as time goes by. Just because they are a little late in the game for these types of cameras doesn’t mean that they won’t come out with an incredible product to knock our socks off in the future, but for now, its really a simple matter of taste as to what you prefer regarding the cameras available today.

In conclusion, as each camera has its advantages and disadvantages and certainly both have been designed well, everyone should find the device which corresponds to their own needs, as both are should make their owner happy as long as they are purchased with the foreknowledge of the weaknesses/strengths of their camera.