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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good enough..., 17 July 2009
This review is from: Sanyo VPC-WH1EYL HD Waterproof Dual Video & Photo Camera - Yellow (Electronics)
Put alongside the results from my Panasonic SD-5 camcorder (a definite 5-star product) I can only rate the Sanyo as 4-stars. Viewing screen is smaller, less crisp, and less accurate in colour. Much the same applies to the output when viewed on computer or TV. But hey, the Sanyo is waterproof, which the Panasonic ain't, and I wanted the Sanyo for when I am getting drenching wet when sailing. It's a little smaller than the Panasonic, and thus slightly easier to put in a pocket, altho' to my mind not as easy in the hand. It also has a 30x optical zoom to the Panasonic's 10x, again a plus when sailing, altho' at the top end of the zoom range the results are somewhat soft. I don't like the seemingly rather flimsy door to the card slot and USB and HDMI sockets, and it's a pity there is no tripod bush. The stills at 2 MPixels each are not worth worrying about - if you want waterproof stills get one of the Olympus "tough cameras" like my mui 1030. But the Sanyo is a nice enough camcorder, the ability to drag MP4 files direct to my Mac's screen and see them via Quicktime without needing to import via an editing program is good - and again and above all it's waterproof.
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tidy go anywhere HD camcorder, 21 Aug 2009
This review is from: Sanyo VPC-WH1EYL HD Waterproof Dual Video & Photo Camera - Yellow (Electronics)
I bought this is a backup to a more expensive (SD admitted) camcorder. It was one of two choices this or the Panasonic SDR SW-21. They are similar in spec I.E. Waterproof to 2+ metres but for me the Sanyo scored on having a better Optical Zoom 30x opposed to 10x, the HD recording (thats 720 not full HD) and biggest plus of all a 3 hour battery life! both are around the £300.00 mark so there were no other big money factors.
First off it's not as feature rich as a lot of other camcorders, such as my old Panasonic NV-DS25. But they're not waterproof and wait a moment how many times have I actually used them? Not many to be honest, the main thing I miss on this Camera is a remote to playback video, but again I don't use this much on my "posh" camera.
So this is a simple camcorder that "does what it says on the tin" it takes video in conditions that I'd never use a conventional camera in, also it's so small it fits my pocket easily all of a sudden bright yellow seems a good choice. Playback is at least as good as I'm used to, in fact slightly better using HD and the real plus is that with a 16GB SD Card and full charge I know i can live with it for a full day and I can confirm it is waterproof, I filmed my fish in my pond on day 1 probably about 1m down. There have been comments on some reviews I've seen that the MP4 files are incompatible with editing software, it doesnt work with Studio 9 but this doesn't support HD so I upgraded to Studio 12 (Ultimate) no problems with seeing video there.
The downsides are minor, the viewfinder is only via the screen, there is no separate eyepiece for filming on those bright sunny days, also no RC for playback. Some have commented on the quality of playback on the view screen but what counts is playback on my TV and this seems fine. Also on day 1 I got it properly wet, on day 2 there was still some moisture around the battery door when I opened it and this seems to have resulted in some condensation inside the lens. This was cured by simply leaving the camera with all hatches open to dry on a table. So all I would do here is add to Sanyo's advice, wash it off with clean water and put it somewhere to dry all doors open, or stick it in a bag with some silica gel packs.
You can use it as a still camera but to be honest I found this anoying, it takes a second or so to process the shot and then it's only 2Mb, but to be fair it will do this while videoing and not stop. As an owner of an 8Mb SLR I don't find this usefull, but then I didn't buy the camera for this feature.
Overall for the money it's a good go anywhere camcorder, it won't get a space in my camera bag, but thats because it'll be in my pocket!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great camera, awful software, 25 Aug 2009
This review is from: Sanyo VPC-WH1EYL HD Waterproof Dual Video & Photo Camera - Yellow (Electronics)
The camera itself feels like a good-quality, solid build. It's nice and easy to use with great battery life and the HD quality is pretty impressive. The zoom is powerful without losing image quality, but you will need to mount it on a tripod to use it effectively. I saw a review here that says it "doesn't have a tripod bush". Not sure why they wrote that as mine is sat next to me on a tripod right now with a standard screw mount.
The waterproof feature is great, and I look forward to giving it a more thorough testing when I'm out in Africa later this year.
My only complaint is that the software (Total Media Extreme) it came with is awful. Every time I try to convert the MP4's, it crashes with the message that the programme has stopped responding. I can't find a fix for it anywhere. This meant that until I got hold of some software to convert MP4's, I had no way of sharing my videos or producing edited videos. I think it's fair to say that free software with any camera or camcorder is generally pretty limited and usually poor quality, but I couldn't even use this.
The still image capture is rubbish of course, but no one buys a camcorder to take photos on, and to be honest the manufacturers ought to stop wasting their time by including this feature on camcorders.
All in all, awesome camcorder, rubbish software. As long as you've got some kind of software to edit MP4's I would definitely recommend this camera to anyone.
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