At
CES this past January we were smitten by Sanyo's little
VPC-CS1 camcorder and now, many moons later, it's coming to retail.
Akihabara News has taken it for a test drive and, as you might expect from something only 29mm thin, it has some compromises. The most glaring issues appear to be related to image quality, with the review stating: "Shooting in low light will give you really crappy images." Also, it turns out the cam's touted 1920 x 1080 at 60fps mode is actually
interlaced, meaning it's time for a return to scanline mountain. While 720p mode is said to be rather better looking, still shooting is said to be "simply useless." Despite all this the review has a positive conclusion, and we could see the same for users more interested in form than function. Those looking for image quality, however, will want to look at the sample videos and images on the other end of that source link below.
posted May 6th 2010 3:48PM
Why cant we make the final push, and put in 1080p recording?
I WANT FULL HD
I WANT TO BE ABLE TO SEE MY FAVOURITE VLOGGER'S SOPS CLEARLY
@SamTatr
The header for the source site is weird!
@who said what
There weren't any videos... just video screenshots...
@who said what They're toward the bottom of the review. "228MB worth of untouch videos coming straight from the Xacti DMX-CS11"
@TimStevens
Thank you!
@SamTatr I'm happy with progressive recording. Even expensive models from Sony & Canon can only do 1080i. I'll take 720p over 1080i anytime
@pika2000 modern day plasmas and lcds cannot display interlaced so they convert to progressive. interlaced is a leftover from the crt era. so give me 1080i over 720p any day.
Last sanyo i had, had major problem with lens flare. So had to go as no way to stop it
So in summary, I'm sticking with my Aiptek A-HD.
I had a Sanyo Xacti camcorder that lasted for 5 months. Then I discovered that the warranty is for parts only after 3 months, so you have to pay for labor, and for shipping. The whole process was such a hassle that I decided not to fix it and accept the loss... and mark Sanyo as a brand that I will never again buy.
@adarmi
I second that. A similar thing happened to me. I had a Xacti that went bad after one month. I didn't deal with it for a few months since I thought for sure it would have a one year warranty. Once I called Sanyo, the price they gave me for repair was more than half of what I paid for it! I'll never buy Sanyo again. It's better to stick with the companies that specialize in cameras, like Canon or Nikon.
There isn't a thing wrong with a camera like this...it just has to cost $99.
@Hexydes
I imagine the video quality is more that 10x the quality of a flip which is more expensive than what you stated. Please digress.
Anybody with one eye can see that you won't get much from a lens that tiny. I mean come on, what do you expect? Do people really expect this to capture video as good as a $$$ pro camcorder?
There's nothing wrong with 1080 60i, it is the highest resolution for broadcast TV in the US but 1080 60p as the earlier models had created a file that was hard to edit. By the way this camcorder will do 1080 30p. I have a sister to this camcorder the VPC-CG102 and am quite happy with my $209 purchase. Its no Canon 7d but I didn't expect it to be either. Example vid here: http://vimeo.com/11380265
Sanyo is still in business?
@dmgabe yep.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/mail/nb20100507n4.html
I just go this. It was either this or the KODAK Zi8. Nice, light and fits in my pocket. Indoor video with fluorescent lighting is not so great but better than my Nikon D90. Haven't tried it outside yet but inside with bright natural light is nowhere comparable to the D90 of course. D90 doesn't have autofocus though which is required when you have an active 14 month old.