Rich in features Poor in picture quality but Best Bang for the Buck
I picked up one of these locally intending to replace my MinoHD with it. This camera ended up being a disappointment to me. I really want to like it but the reality is that the picture quality disappoints compared to the MinoHD.
PROs: LOTS of really nice features
- Compact pistol-grip design that's comfortable to hold
- Large easy to view 3" LCD screen with rigid plastic screen to protect it
- Uses SD/SDHC memory cards up to 32GB
- Stereo audio
- Standard h.264/AAC codecs compatible with Apple's iMovie '09
- 5X optical zoom able to change zoom range while recording
- Focus auto-adjusts while recording (not all cameras do this)
- Ability to take decent 10MP still shots without having to switch modes
- Has a flash for still pictures
- Easy to navigate menu system with customizable shortcuts accessed by the joystick
- Easy to operate joystick with positive click feedback that doesn't intrude while recording
- Manual adjustments (full manual shutter priority aperture priority noise reduction auto-focus mode exposure measure mode etc.)
- Comes with a lens cap to protect the lens
- Tally light is on the top of the camera to the rear where the person holding the camera can see it and not where it's distracting to the person being recorded (VERY important when recording small children)
- Easily accessible battery compartment / Battery cover is tethered by a plastic tab so it can't be easily lost
- Standard tripod mount on the bottom
CONs: Picture quality requires a lot of tweaking in the manual settings to make it decent.
- Low light performance is poor even for this class of camcorder
- Electronic stabilization tends to soften the picture sometimes to the point of making it appear to be out of focus
- Color saturation results in a visual pleasing picture but inaccurate color reproduction
- Focus and Exposure reaction seems to be fairly slow as well
- Proprietary USB/AV port (I hate it when manufacturers eschew standard ports in favor or proprietary solutions. I'd rather have the camera be a little bigger to accommodate a mini-USB port as well as a mini-HDMI)
- Proprietary HD Component cable NOT included
- SD slot cover seems a bit flimsy
- Camera cannot be used as a live camera with Macs only with Windows PCs
- Camera draws power from battery when used in card reader mode instead of drawing power from USB
Before I bought this camera I did a lot of research on it including viewing uploaded footage from this camera on Vimeo.com. Even though I've only had the camera two days I've done a lot of testing with it.
[...] Keep in mind that I'm not saying the MinoHD is the best camera out there but it is certainly better in my experience overall. I simply compared the CG10 to the MinoHD because the MinoHD is the incumbent.
I gave the CG10 3 stars because I love all the features that Sanyo put into it but the picture quality is such a disappointment. One of the major features is the electronic stabilization and I found it to reduce the picture quality more than it improved it.
I think that a camera's auto/program settings should produce a good basic picture that serves as the camera's baseline and then any manual controls should serve to tailor that picture to your artistic needs or to make a good picture great. The Sanyo's auto/program settings produce a sub-standard picture that's soft to the extent that it looks out of focus it suffers from serious motion blur and in the end simply looks like widescreen standard definition. The manual settings only serve to make a bad picture look good if you can find the right settings for the shooting conditions. Having said that I don't find this camera to be good for capturing those precious surprise moments that young children present us because you can't expect a good picture by simply pulling it out turning it on and starting shooting.
I think Sanyo should spend some more time with improving their stabilization 9-pt auto-focus and exposure measuring algorithms. Out of the box it just doesn't perform and the plethora of features simply cannot make up for that.
UPDATE: I still stand by my initial assessment of the VPC-CG10's picture quality but after spending quite a bit of time playing with various settings I believe I have found a good setup which probably should have been Sanyo's starting point in its auto/program modes.
1) Turn off the stabilization: While this helps a little bit in extreme tele situations it actually seems to hurt picture quality otherwise resulting in a blurry picture that appears out-of-focus. Turning off the stabilization does result in more shake and/or jitter but the picture is quite a bit clearer. I personally do not believe that there is any decent alternative to optical image stabilization. They could drop this feature from the camera altogether drop the price a little more and then I would probably bump this camera up a star even.
2) Enable Single-Point AutoFocus: The 9-point AF algorithm spends a good deal of time "hunting" i.e. trying to find a focus point even when the camera is not moving. The single-point AF does a much better job of providing a clear focus. While still providing a softer picture than the MinoHD it is a vast improvement over the 9-point AF's performance.
3) Set Exposure to Aperture-priority with f=3.5: This is the camera's widest aperture setting and will let in the most light through the lens. It will then adjust the shutter speed as necessary to provide a decently exposed picture. Fine tuning can then be adjusted via the EV adjustment which can be assigned to one of the joystick shortcut positions.
With the above settings I have been able to record some footage that I think is close to the MinoHD's quality both in bright light and indoor lighting. If they either ditch the electronic stabilization altogether or replace it with optical IS address the 9-pt AF's poor focusing algorithm and either lock the aperture at 3.5 or put in a faster lens Sanyo would have a very impressive camera on their hands.
One distinct advantage that the Xacti has over the MinoHD is its optics. At full wide angle the Xacti has a much wider field of view than the MinoHD whose fov is significantly narrower when compared even to its SD sibling the FlipVideo Ultra.
After using this camera for a couple weeks along with the MinoHD and Sony's DSC-T900 I have to say that the Xacti VPC-CG10 is probably the best bang for the buck. I'd maybe bump up the rating by another star but I don't think any of these pocket HD camcorders really deserve 5. And yes I kept the Xacti and sent the MinoHD and T900 back.
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