Although some critics were unimpressed with the Sanyo Xacti HD1 when it was rolled out in January, calling its quality "disastrous," it still has the bragging rights as the smallest and lightest high-definition digital media camera. Now Sanyo has updated the mini-shooter, calling it the Xacti HD-1a, which still has that unique ability to record both 720p HD video and 5.1-megapixel stills on an SD flash memory card.
Unfortunately the addition of that lowercase "a" to its name amounts to a mini update for the Xacti HD1a, because it looks like all that's been added is the ability to record 320x240 MPEG-4 clips that can be directly used on a video iPod and 16x9 still shooting capability. BFD. Even though this thing is small, it's still nothing to get excited about. But then there's that price that seems to be dropping, where now the camcorder will retail for $699 instead of the original $750. Ships in September.
Sanyo High-Definition Digital Media Camera [Yahoo Finance]