Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG6 Digital Movie Camera

[maxwell]

Looking for some interesting Christmas gift!

Now the new Sanyo digital camera has been out on the market for a little a while. At warehouse123, you can get the new camera for as low as $370. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has experience with the beast.

[slosaul]

I just bought this from Warehouse123.com. The purchase and delivery was flawless. Got the camera in 3 or 4 days right around christmas.

So far I like the camera very much. I had bought the xacti cv6 from circuit city but when I saw this one described I returned it and got this one instead. This seems to be an upgrade.

I also bought a 4gb sdhc card from Newegg. The first one didn't work in my laptop cardreader even though I upgraded the TI software. I bought a different one, the Sandisk, which come with a card reader and of course is twice the price.

I have taken a number of videos and stills with the camera. So far I am very satisfied. The anti shake seems to work ok with the video and I suppose it works with the stills as well but it is hard to tell. I have not yet made a dvd yet so I can't say how well that works. I installed the software that came with the camera and then uninstalled it because it seems to react badly with Roxio 9 which is also on my laptop. I think I prefer Roxio. The ULead is not the full version so I don't think I'm missing much.

Zoom works good. The menu system is only fair and to get to often used settings (scene, flash, etc) you have to go through a maze of menus. There is a way to set a short cut to 4 of your most used settings so that is a good feature. I have the camera set for the highest still and video settings and with the 4gb card can get 2 hrs 45 min of video or 2300 stills. The camera came with an extra battery, extra sony case, small tripod, and a few other trivial goodies. No sd memory card though. I can use the same sd card that my digital camera uses, that is a nice feature.

If you have any questions about the camera just let me know. I can post some pics if anyone wants to see them.

[slosaul]

Sorry in my last post I should have said you can take 1349 still pics with the 4gb card. BTW, the sandisk 4gb card and reader seem to work perfectly in the camera and on my Gateway laptop.

[snuk]

hello SLOSaul,

i have a question about the VPC-CG6 and i cannot find an answer in the specs or on websites but it should 2 minutes to verify with the camera in hand (and a nearby TV):

does the camera send a live video image on the composite video out?

if so, is there a lot of latency (delay)?

i am looking for a small SD camera for a very specific application and if the CG6 does this (with acceptable latency) it's going to be a buy!

thanks,
snuk.

[slosaul]

I am on a trip right now and although I have the camera with me I didn't bring the cables to connect to a tv so I can't actually check to see if the tv image is live. I will get home this weekend and will check it out for you.

[snuk]

thanks; looking forward to know the result!

in the meantime, have a nice trip.
s.

[slosaul]

Hi Snuk,

I plugged the camera into my 42" Pioneer Plasma using the RWY cables.

Picture looks very good but slightly watercolorish. There doesn't seem to be any delay although I am not exactly sure what you mean by that. There is good synchronization between the sound and the picture and the video is smooth with no gaps or jerkiness at all. Basically it looks like a video.

Only thing that I had to do is go to the play menu and choose the correct TV system, the default is PAL. With this setting the video doesn't look that good and is in black and white. I was surprised that it showed at all. The menu change is simple.

Hope that answers your question.

[snuk]

thanks for doing the test!

seems i'm going to order one of these.

some digital cameras exhibit a significant delay on the live composite output -- the image may appear on the TV almost half a second later than in "real life", sometimes choppy with dropped frames.

but if you can compare it to a "normal video" it means it is fine for my application.

thanks again,
snuk.

[maxwell]

After using hte CG6 for couple months, i find it doesn't work well in low light!

Sanyo has couple new camera! Anyone have experience with the new Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2 High-Definition Digital Moive Camera

[slosaul]

I have had the CG6 since January, about 4 months. I have taken hundreds of pics and many hours of video. The pics are surprisingly good and the video is very nice. You are absolutey right about the low light performance - it isn't very good for stills. The video, though, is very good even in low light. I think the flash is just too wimpy and maybe the sensitivity of the sensor just isn't that good in the dark. But the videos are very good even when the still pics come out too dark. We were just in Disneyworld and the videos at night in the park were great. The fireworks were so bright that it overloaded the picture somewhat.

When I bought this camera it was primarily for the video and I knew that the low light performance for stills would not be good and I was not disappointed.

The 4gb card I bought is amazingly good and you can take almost 3 hours of video on the highest setting and over 1,000 stills.

[maxwell]

Seem Sanyo aims to create the perfect machine! The new VPC-HD1000 looks very promsing. So anyone have tried this?