If you head further into the settings, you can even adjust the image saturation and sharpening, with vivid, soft, plus soft and vivid modes available. The minimum shutter speed then drops to 1/15th, reducing the minimum amount of light required to 3 lux. There’s a high sensitivity mode, which is actually what other manufacturers call slow shutter. Other optional settings include a Face Chaser detection system, which tracks up to 12 faces. The iris can be varied from F/2.1 to F/8, and the shutter from four seconds to 1/500th, although we found the shutter didn’t actually appear to go below 1/30th with video even if we set it lower. The latter actually provides aperture and shutter priority modes, as well as a fully manual option where you can configure both independently. Only when you get to the third menu page do you find the settings for white balance and exposure. You need to head to the second menu level to adjust focus manually or select macro mode. The eight scene modes are found in the first level of the menu, including an Underwater option. The WH1 does have some manual settings available, but these are all buried in the menu, and clearly not intended for regular access. In 2-megapixel mode, you can take up to 29 photos in a row, and in 1.1-megapixel mode 30, although Sanyo doesn’t divulge the frame rate in either case. Still images can be capture at up to 1,600 x 1,200 – clearly with some interpolation – and you can take sequential shots. We also found battery life was immense, lasting over three hours on a single charge. The top quality mode has a data rate of 9Mbits/sec, so an 8GB SDHC card will be enough for nearly two hours of video. All of these formats use progressively scanned video. Alternatively, you can record with a 640 x 480 resolution at either 30 or 60 frames per second. The resolutions on offer only extend to 1,280 x 720, not Full HD, with a non-European 30 frames per second. A tiny 1/6in CMOS sensor with 1.1-megapixels records the footage, although on the plus side this enables a sizeable 30x optical zoom. The WH1’s internal specification is also relatively modest. However, whilst this earns the Sanyo an IPX8 waterproof rating, there’s no word on what height you can drop the device from without damage, where the SW20 and 21 can survive tumbles from up to 1.2m. The locking screws on the SW21 still inspire slightly more confidence, but we tried very hard to jog the WH1’s doors open, and failed miserably. These have all been rendered nearly impossible to knock open accidentally, using a variety of sliding catches. In order to achieve this feat, every port and opening is protected by a door sealed by a rubberised gasket. The SW20 operates at depths down to 1.5m, and the SW21 goes to 2m, but Sanyo claims its new model can descend to 3m. This isn’t the only area where Sanyo surpasses Panasonic with the WH1, either. The Xacti VPC-WH1 can not only shoot underwater – it can shoot in HD. But Sanyo has also been offering its own underwater devices for a similar amount of time, and has now beaten Panasonic to another milestone. The SDR-SW20 and SW21 brought industrial-strength waterproofing to consumer camcorders. Until recently, unless you were a pro videomaker with the budget for a fully-fledged sealed housing, if you wanted to shoot underwater only one manufacturer’s name would spring to mind: Panasonic.
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