Sanyo's High-End Camcorder Boxes You In

Nope!

One other feature to note: Small cameras are a lot more difficult to keep level and steady than larger ones. That means unless you use a unipod, tripod or even a Steadycam (what professionals use in Hollywood movies) your videos will shake. The more you zoom into a subject, the more noticeable the shaking.

The Sanyo is no exception. Not very portable if you have to lug a tripod with you.

So, I'm giving the Sanyo Xacti HD-1000 a conditional recommendation. It's a pretty good quality full-HD video camera if all you want to do if view those files on a TV screen. Otherwise, those full-HD, 1080i files are pretty useless.

I can recommend the camera in all the other, less-than-full-HD modes.

In a search of the Web, prices for the HD-1000 range from a low of just under $500 to a high of $850.

By the way, the semi-pro Panasonic camera produces better-looking videos at every resolution but costs a whole lot more.