Sanyo has always stuck with its own style of camcorders, and the new Xacti DMX-HD800 doesn't differ much in design from its siblings, but on the inside a lot of things have changed that should lead to a vast improvement in video quality.

Let's start with the specifications. The Xacti DMX-HD800 can shoot stills at up to 8 Megapixels and video at 720p resolution at 30pfs at either 9 or 6Mbps bit-rate. Lower resolution video can also be shot at either 640x480 at 60 or 30fps with a bit-rate 6, 3 or 2Mbps, or at 320x240 at 30fps at an unspecified bit-rate. Video is recorded in the AVC/H.264 format and stills are shot in JPEG.

It has a 5x optical zoom lens and a 1/2.5in CMOS sensor, rather than a CCD sensor used in the previous models. Sanyo has also added a 3D digital noise reduction filter, which is meant to further enhance the image quality of video footage. Video is recorded onto SDHC memory cards and the Xacti DMX-HD800 supports up to 32GB cards. An 8GB card is good for some 1h and 55 minutes of video at the highest quality setting.

Other features include a 2.7-inch widescreen LTP TFT display with 285 degrees rotation, HDMI, component, S-Video and composite video out and USB PC connectivity with drag and drop file copy support. The only downside we can see from the specifications would be the battery life, which is good for about 55-90 minutes of filming, which really doesn't cut it.

Price-wise you're looking at around €300 plus VAT which seems fairly reasonable for the features on offer with an expected launch date set for the 22nd of August.

You can find the press release here.