Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and 8 MP Digital Camera (Blue) by SANYO
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Digital camera reviews of Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and 8 MP Digital Camera (Blue)
Digital camera Review: Better than I could have imagined
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an awesome little camera. Anybody who surfs or hangs out at the beach should have one. Its so small you can just stuff it in the front of your wetsuit and head out. If you hang out in the channel you just get great photos and movies without any worries, because you can use all the buttons just like you could on land. The picture is really clear and you can get some great photos or vids all you have to know is left button pic right button movie. Its so small and easy to use it's not tough to get waves while using it. Just a glimpse into the here and now, and not a second lookback to waterhousing, especially for movies its just too easy to use. Then when you get in you just literally rinse the sand and saltwater off in the showers. It isn't the highest extreme quality product, obviously for the price you're not getting lots of zoom and I don't know what else but I've been just fine with the pic quality. Just that the design leads you to wonder if all camcorders are gonna end up being water resistant, kinda like sport watches. And if they can make this little product work so well in the ocean, then they probably can make some super HD master camcorders too that would go for like 2K. And if you have a laptop with an SD slot, you're pretty much already there. Oh yeah and its good enough to be your only camera too because the specs are fine. Me and my boy just went to A day with Thomas at the train station and we got some insane great pics there too. Things like this really do exist now adays. Enjoy it!Digital camera Review: Between Xacti CG10 & Xacti E2
Summary: 4 Stars
Trying to decide between the Xacti CG10 and the Waterproof E2?
Read on.
I was trying to decide between the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 and the E2. The CG-10 simulates HD and this camera does not. The E2 is what I bought, for a couple of reasons. My last cheaper pistol-grip cam was a Aiptek G0-HD and it lasted about 13 months. Why? I remember shooting some video outside and it started to rain, I thought it was light rain and continued to shoot. When I got home, the video markedly degraded and lost color (flickered green). It went in the trash literally. I fear the CG10 would suffer the same fate. The CG10 has a 10 megapixel CMOS chip and the E2 has a "8" so there's some loss of video and still image quality. But, you know I shoot mostly in the "2" range anyway so 8 megapixels is fine for me. Do I ever intend to dip this in water? No. Not the pool, not the ocean, not anything. But, I think it will do fine if I ever get caught in the rain. As for widescreen - no simulated HD here. The camera does go up to 60 fps, but again I would rarely use it and it is nice to know the E2 can do it. Did find extremely low light video was too dark. I know you are reading this everywhere, but until you see it the low light thing will be a problem. You can increase your aperture to 3.5 and don't zoom in too much in low light scenes.
Yes, the optics are only X 5 zoom and lots of reviewers knock this. WHY?? YOU ONLY ARE PAYING ABOUT $200 for this camera! Get real, a lens alone can easily contribute up to 50% of the manufacturing cost. Up the zoom and the $200 tag goes away. I think you get a good bang for the buck. This is my second "economical" camera, I think it is a good deal.
Another thing with the CG10 is it generates simulated High Def files. I always had trouble editing these. It is getting better, now some of the editors do it. My computer would choke (even though it was dual core). Also, HD files take up a lot of space. I like the smaller 640X480 files produced by the E2. This is easier to edit. If you want to win an Oscar for best photography, don't buy the E2. If you want to shoot video and see reasonably clear quality video for the informal amateur videographer, this is a great grab and go camera.
HD files online, really how often do you totally give up and just play the regular resolution? ALWAYS, youtube files stutter or stop altogether. HD files are overblown in terms of utility. Would I like them in my camera? Sure, but the fact is they pose some problems in editing, take a long time to upload, and when they play on line we still only see them in 1/4 screen.
BIGGEST PROBLEMS - come on Sanyo, let us do battery in-camera charging. Get real. Do away with the proprietary USB cable. Using the "OK" button, should be more functional - let it do directional input in the menu instead of pressing the outside ring. Really needs a lens cap, would rather have that over the "cheap" camera case. Don't ever hire the same person to write that manual again. Some things just aren't clear. You are getting better though over the E1 manual from what I hear, but Sanyo just hire someone that understands the US customer! Can't we have a bit longer batter (like 1000 mAh rather than the 720) or even a second li-ion battery in the box? Again, so I will write it twice Sanyo, please in-camera charging!
BIGGEST POSITIVES - light weight, water-repellent (not proof "as eventually in the fine print" you will see a need to check the seals yearly). Go ahead, dip it in water if you want, I am not. This camera is great for outdoors, lots of sunlight (although LCD is poorly viewable in the sun). MP4 file compression is great. I like 5X zoom, face tracking, and point focusing. Motor is really quiet when zooming and you don't get the loud noise on video of the hum. Stereo sound is fantastic. Face tracking is a plus! Nice you can swap from "complex every detail" menu to a "simple" one.
BOTTOM LINE - This is for outdoor fun - camping, snow skiing, hiking, & a little rain, and a quick and light camera. If I give get a 2 year life span then I will be happy. I am sure the CG10 is a great camera too, not taking pot shots at it here. It is just the E2 is probably in the dying breed of 640x480 cameras and until we advance a bit in support online and in storage space - I'll stick with normal definition awhile.
Digital camera Review: But I could rated it ONE star as well
Summary: 4 Stars
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
OK, first the important disclaimer: my other two cameras are SLRs. And had you ask me a week ago, I'd say Sanyo makes great batteries. Sanyo camcorders? What camcorders?
I have an antique Canon A70 with a waterproof case that is good down to depth of 120 feet. This A70 is used in places where I would not risk using an SLR or where the weight restrictions are too high. So as you may guess VPC-E2 is a replacement for that "adventure" mode camera/camcorder.
To be frank, I can give this little Sanyo marvel either four stars or one. You see, when a company enters the market where the smallest gorilla weighs at least eight hundreds pounds, they can only hope to win with a niche product. And this is the one. So the question is - do you belong to this niche?
First, the camcorder is waterproof. Well, not exactly in the sense that I used to define this word; it is only rated for five feet. Snorkeling is OK, but not diving. On the other hand, snow, rain, dangerous edges of a pool, and spilled beers do not bother this gadget. Also, it shoots movies in H.264 which means your IPhone plays them and you can post them up on YouTube faster than I can explain what H.264 stands for. It can shoot movies at 640x480 with 60 frames per second - definitely not HD, but much better than your average compact camera in movie mode. Oh, and when somebody asks you how many of those ergh... megapixels this camera has, you can shock him or her with a lazy reply, "Ah, eight...". Yeah, right! We will talk about this a little bit later. It also features 5x optical zoom with fair wide-end (38-190 in 35mm equivalent), electronic image stabilization, EV shift, macro mode, and even manual focus and face-recognition that works when lightning is good. The LCD screen is large and bright, and can swivel in two dimensions. It supports SDHC cards and the 8 GB card can hold up to five hours of video.
Controls are minimal, but well designed. There are only ten buttons to choose from: four arrows with a central "set" button, a menu button, two dedicated triggers - one for video and other for pictures, as well as an on/off button and a play/record button behind the screen. A well organized menu almost compensates for the lack of dedicated buttons. Left and right buttons can be assigned shortcuts for recording mode (up and down is always assigned to the zoom function) and many functions are easy to select. The menu can be switched to "easy" mode, which limits choices only to necessary basics.
So why I would give it only four stars? First, there is no viewfinder. Second, the flash is extremely underpowered (guide number 3); it is only good at very close ranges. Third, the battery capacity is insufficient; it allows you only about 200 shots or 75 minutes of video (twice as less in real life). Fourth, there is no lens cover, so usage of the included soft case is a good idea. Fifth, this soft case does not have either a handle or a clip, so every time the camcorder is removed, there is a problem - where to put the case?
What else? Proprietary USB cable, no AC power in the box (sold separately). I also have problems accessing up/zoom-in button: it is too small.
Now we get to "out of the niche" one star rating. Yes, one star and I insist on it.
This gadget has a tiny sensor and it is crippled with severe noise. Video is OK, though I can see a lot of noise there as well. However, still image noise is on the brink of disaster. I do not know how many real megapixels this unit has because object contours simply disappear in the ocean of color dots as I try to zoom into the picture. A black line on a white background looks OK, but my attempt to take a picture of Lillet Blank's red-on-yellow label produced huge amount of red specks far away from the edge of red letters. I suspect some sort of processing error here. In terms of resolution it is safe to assume this unit has somewhat around 3 honest megapixels (and your typical cell phone probably has just one half of megapixel being rated on the same scale). Oh, and do not even think of using ISO above 400, unless you want to produce a parody on Claude Monet paintings. Unfortunately in automatic mode unit happily sets ISO above 800 in low light conditions, so I assigned one of the shortcuts to change ISO manually to fight this problem.
What it all means? It means this gadget better not be used for any prints bigger than 4x6. Its video played on HDTV does not look too crisp either.
Despite of all these drawbacks, I like this little gadget. I will never use it to capture beautiful landscape or even a portrait. This thing is for ski slopes, water motorcycles, snowmobiles, mountain bikes, hikes, pools, beaches, outdoor parties - for all those places where action means more than perfect image quality. Finally, it is interesting to notice I made more movies last week using Xacti than I made with my "big" DV camcorder in the last season.
Digital camera Review: Buyer beware...camera died twice, Sanyo doesn't stand behind
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this camera from Amazon in Jan. 2010 because a couple of friends had them and really liked them. I used it on a few occasions, taking nearly all pictures on land. The button to push for still pictures is somewhat awkward and, at least for me, sometimes resulted in camera shake when shooting. The video was good, considering the cost of the camera and its size.
I took it on a southern Caribbean cruise in June, 2010. Midway through the trip, while taking photos snorkeling, the camera simply stopped working. When I got home, I contacted Sanyo. I had to send the camera to an authorized service center. It cost about $90 to fix, even though it was still under "warranty". I was told that the malfunction was not due to water damage (I had not exceeded the 1.5 m depth or 60 min. time, so I didn't expect it to be, but wanted to know) but that it was a "circuit board" that required replacing. I got the camera back within a month, used it a few more times (on land) and just a week ago, took it to Hawaii. After working fine for a couple of days, the camera just stopped working, exactly as before, while I was taking photos snorkeling.
As soon as I returned, I called Sanyo. I was very unhappy to find out that the only warranty coverage that applies is the ORIGINAL warranty; so even though I paid $90 8 months ago to fix what appears to be the same problem I have now, there is no coverage at all now since it has been over a year since my *purchase* date. There is no warranty at all on repairs.
As other reviewers have noted, the Sanyo representatives I spoke to, when I could finally get through to a human, were very rude and unhelpful. I think it's worth noting that when you call the Sanyo 800 number for service, there is a totally separate extension for Xacti waterproof camcorders--does this mean they have so many people call in that they need a separate extension to handle all those calls?
There's no way I would spend any amount of money to have this fixed again. If you do a search on Amazon there are a lot of similar land/snorkeling cameras available for around $100 (the price I paid to repair this one), with good reviews. I will never buy another Sanyo camera. Please think carefully before buying.
Digital camera Review: DATE & TIME
Summary: 2 Stars
Unit works good but there is no way to get a time & date stamp on either pic's or video. The TS feature is not built into the unit. I needed this for work reasons and without that feature it's useless to me.