Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000: Let's all meet up in HD2000

The number 2000 will always suggest the future for those of us born back in the 20th century. So there's something undeniably futuristic-sounding about the camcorder at the top of Sanyo's new Xacti line-up, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000.

It's the first consumer model to shoot 1,920x1,080-pixel high-definition video at 60 frames per second, which is quite futuristic-sounding. Not exactly a hoverboard, but still. It comes in a chunky pistol-grip configuration that looks rather like those L-shaped torches GIs carry in World War II films.

Inside that is an 8.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, which gives the HD2000 similar still-photo capabilities as a compact camera.

Sanyo claims a 16x advanced zoom function, although this actually involves using a smaller area of the sensor, which may impact on night-time shooting. Photos benefit from a 10x optical zoom. Both video and stills also make use of face-chaser facial recognition, which spots and adjusts settings to best show up to 12 faces.

Although it follows the consumer-friendly route of recording to SD and SDHC memory cards, the HD2000 also has a couple of top-flight tricks up its sleeve. It boasts an external microphone jack and pop-up flash.

Kids born close to the millenium won't have the same reverence for the number 2000 as Arthur C Clarke (kind of), Judge Dredd fans, or the chaps that wound the clocks in computers way back in the early days. And we think they're missing out. Before the year 3000 rolls around, click through our photos to get a closer look at the Xacti HD2000.