Sanyo's HD700 Xacti was the then smallest 720p camcorder in the world, and we liked it. Time's moved on and Sanyo has a new Xacti, the HD800, and it's apparently a great leap in video quality. The new cam has an 8-megapixel CMOS sensor, and shoots 720p video at 30fps in MPEG4 format. It's also got "three-dimensional noise reduction" for improved image sharpness, can track up to 12 faces in the scene for optimum image settings, a 5x optical zoom and can shoot down to a minimum of 3 lux. The SDHC-recording cam comes this time in whacky 70s-esque colour schemes, and is available August 22nd in Japan at first, for around $460. Press release below.

Tokyo, July 30, 2008 - SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (SANYO) announces the DMX-HD800, a new sleek, slim high definition dual camera Xacti that can take both stills and videos. The camera sports a compact and light-weight body, and easily saves data onto SD/SDHC memory cards for convenience. The DMX-HD800 will take stills and videos used on a personal computer or for the Web, houses a new three-dimensional digital noise reduction (3DDNR) filter, and adds the 'Face Chaser' for both stills and videos with an active scanner visible on the monitor.
On the new product launch, Hideki Toyoda, General Manager of SANYO's Digital System Company, DI Company Products Planning Department, said, "The DMX-HD800 has not only has it been designed to be sleek and stylish, but it now offers our unique three-dimensional digital noise reduction (3DDNR) filter, which allows clear, beautiful images with simple operation of a dual camera offering high resolution stills and HD videos in a single unit."

Main Features
Compact, light-weight camera capable of high definition movies compatible with personal
computers and/or upload video data to the Internet
- Easily drag and drop recorded files on to the hard drive or upload to the Internet
- Ideal for website-use/blog-use videos as well as standard video creation
- Take either high definition videos (1280 x 720, 720p) or 8.0-Megapixel still images with one
unit
- Snap photos anytime, even during video filming, without changing modes or pausing the viedo
- Preview the frame for photos while still recording video with the one-push 'Photo View' button
- Uses AVC/H.264 codec format for longer, higher quality recording than traditional codecs

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