By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: In the battle for the hearts, minds and, most importantly, wallets of video camera consumers, Sanyo has this afternoon outlined its 2010 range and where it will be positioned in the market.

Since Panasonic assumed a 52 per cent stake in the Japanese consumer electronics giant, Sanyo has been in close contact with its new owners, at least at director level, ensuring that across both suppliers’ shared categories there is as little consumer cannibalism as possible.

Sanyo Oceania regional president and managing director, Bill Crichton, said that in the video camera category, of which Panasonic has a rich history, Sanyo will be concentrating on providing quality dual camera/HD video solutions at competitive prices, something that Panasonic is not as focused on. Conversely, Sanyo’s own considerable projector offering will remain the premium product across the two company’s ranges.

The new product range launched today is comprised of five models, each in a range of modern styles. The RRP range of the Xacti series is from $399 to $599. The top of the range model is the VPC-SHI. This model has a 10-megapixel compact camera built into a Full HD video camera. It is Eye-Fi compatible for wireless data transfer to a PC and is available in red and black. The marquee feature of this model is its 30x advanced zoom, which in video camera mode, can bring distant images to the fore without losing picture quality.

The theme of this range is small, light and thin – three adjectives Sanyo uses in the superlative when describing its new models. Also evident is a style consciousness, with colours ranging from traditional silvers and blacks to the more stark pink and blue tones. Sanyo channel account manager – retail Chris Moore confirmed that Sanyo is directly targeting young consumers, and female consumers, with these styles.

Here following is a breakdown of the new Xacti range:

- VPC-SH1; RRP $599; red/black; due late April.
- VPC-CS1; RRP $499; silver/pink; due late April.
- VPC-GH1; RRP $399; silver/light blue/light pink; due May.
- VPC-CG100; RRP $399; black/wine red/white; due June.
- VPC-CG20; RRP $349; silver/gold/pink; due June.