Camcorder: Inexpensive, HD, good low light.

[wkulecz]

Sounds too good to be true but its why i picked up a Sanyo VPC-HD2000.

Read the review at http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content...view-36280.htm

You can pay 2-3X more and still need 2X+ more light for a usable image. It does 1920x1080p/60 and produces an easy to edit mp4 file that Windows Media Player 7 can "just play" no extra drivers or Codecs needed. Edits nicely in Sony Vegas 7 Pro. Also has a 1/8" stereo jack for an external mic. Records to SD cards up to 32GB at 25 Mbps max data rate. Nice way to start playing with HD video for ~$500.

Of course there is a down side, several actually:

Digital image stabilization, its useless enough in HD and low light that a tripod is essential (no biggie for me, I generally hate hand held video even with optical stabilization).

Weird "pistol grip" configuration, not such an issue with a tripod.

No optical viewfinder -- probably why the digital image stabilization is so useless -- holding the camera out were you can see the screen is not conducive to being steady

The auto white balance is not very good, but are any of them really? Worst part is the manual white balance control is ill placed in the menus.

Not the best in the resolution tests, all the more expensive camcorders do better, but this one will give me a usable image in low light that the others won't.

No 24P mode. But I want 60p unless I need 30p for the lowest light. I usually shoot in very poor light or fast action in good light.

--wally.

[Fat Tone]

A very timely review. Thanks.

I'm looking for something that produces good results in normal indoor situations. I have a Panasonic HDC-SD9 which is perfectly fine if you pay attention to indoor light or of course outdoors, but I have a project that needs a large number of short vids to be done by a number of people. If the IS was better (they probably won't have tripods) this would have been a good choice.

[Brian Ellis]

Still sticking with DV. Good enough for me with my upscaling to HD inbuilt to the TV and it is a STANDARD, which HD isn't. In fact, at my age, I doubt the economic wisdom of upgrading to a decent camcorder, BluRay player and recorder etc., anyway. I'd be sucking the dandelion roots before I could do any decent work with them!!!!

[Hulk]

What is the size of the sensor?

[paulw]

My Canon MVX150 (Optura 20) has a problem with the image sensor, not repairable. I bought a Canon HV20 at the boxing day sales here. Found that the Firewire port was stuffed when I went to capture so took it back and got a store credit. Looked at all sorts of reviews for cheapish AVCHD camcorders and Canon always seem to come out best HF20 and HF200. Unfortunately both have been discontinued and I am waiting to see what the prices down here are for their replacements. I would rather still go with HDV but I think this technology using tape and Firewire has had it's day and the Canon HV40 is the last .. The Sony HDV camcorders are out of this world in prices down here.. If they would make a flash based HDV consumer camcorder I would be in..

[Hulk]

I have a Canon 50d camera and a Canon HF100 video camera. The video on the Canon 7d is so good that for the first time I'm actually considering buying both cameras and just going with the 7D.

How any non-pro camera with sensors smaller than 2/3" compete with an APS-C sized sensor and the great lenses you can put on a DSLR? I don't think they can. The only thing stopping me is I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the dSLR form factor for video.

[wkulecz]

What is the size of the sensor?

The specs list 1/2.5" for the sensor size.

The problem I see with a DSLR for video is you are paying for a lot of pixels you aren't going to use which makes the APS sized sensor moot. 1920x1080 is the best HD video standard, but would be laughable as a digital still photo resolution. But the upside is the lens selection, for sure. I'd go that way when they can deliver 1920x1080/60p resolution with usable images in low light. But in the mean time this Sanyo camcorder is a fun toy and will let me learn an effective HD workflow.

This Sanyo camcorder can take 8 Mpixel stills so the larger sensor is used for digital image stabilization (which I can verify is best turned off in low light, at least).

Went to a party last weekend, parked the camera on a tripod and pressed record. Copied the SD card mp4 files to a USB hard drive, plugged it into my Viewsonic VMP-70 media player and the quality on the 52" in Samsung LCD TV they had was quite impressive at the Sunday afternoon post party reception. Lighting was "dance floor" I used 1920x1080/30p mode, that extra exposure "stop" over 1920x1080/60p was essential.

--wally.

[Hulk]

Wally,

The reduced resolution of 1080p vs. the resolution of most crop dSLR's IS important. It's not like they're cropping and only using a small amount of the sensor.

You still get the light gathering ability of the large lens and sensor and that makes all the difference in the world even if you will be eventually reducing the resolution before compression to video.

Like I said I have a HF100 and while it's good it's not even in the same galaxy as my dSLR in terms of optical sharpness and low light. Supposedly the 7D is better in terms of low light than my 50d. Wow.

- Mark

[wkulecz]

That's some good points, when the SDLR supports 1080/60p video and has a full frame sensor (for wide angle stills) at a price I can affort ~$2500 it'll be a no brainer.

--wally.

[Hulk]

I think the Canon 550 and/or 7d can do 60p at 720 res. Not sure though. I don't think it will be long before we see 1080/60p from dSLR's.

You can buy a 10-22 wide angle lens and go wide on a crop camera. And then you have the wide angle for still photography as well.

But like you I'm not completely sold yet on a few things, most notably the form factor of a sitll camera for video work. But having one camera is appealing, especially since the lowlight performance of the dSLR's is really another world from the prosumer video cameras we're used to. The overall image quality is just crazy good.