Sanyo VPC-SH1R High Definition Camcorder and 10 MP Camera (Red)

Review by William E. Hornibrook for Sanyo VPC-SH1R High Definition Camcorder and 10 MP Camera (Red)
Rating:
I just got the Sanyo VPC-SH1 yesterday so these are first impressions. But I’ve spent quite a bit of time with it already.

I’m a single guy who will primarily use this camcorder to share short clips online, and occasionally burn a DVD. I’m not filming family opuses, doing any kind of advanced video editing, or even plugging it into an HDTV. So for me – here are it’s pros and cons. They may not be yours. I’ll go into detail later.

Pros:

1. Fits in my jeans front pocket. I call it a pocketcam (barely… and you ladies may not.)

2. Fantastic video quality for a pocketcam.

3. Large wide angle lens.

4. Manual settings for practically everything including ISO and focus.

5. AVC/H.264 format (for ease of use, file size, fast transfer, and because it’s common and everywhere. Plus I’m a PC guy).

Cons:

1. Monitor doesn’t close flush with the body of the cam.

2. The four way directional “set” button is too small for a guy’s hands.

3. Anti-shake could be better.

OK we’re off – look out!

First off, the only thing I have to compare this Sanyo to is a Sony Webbie (the traditionally shaped one that’s very similar in size) that I bought a year ago. Since anything would probably take better videos than that, you might want to take it into consideration when you read this review.

Size is very important to me, and this thing is small. This diminutive camcorder is not just the product of some whacked out Asian obsession with miniaturization. It really is a full featured camcorder with a decent lens that can fit in the front pocket of a man’s jeans. And that means that I will actually use it. It would stay here at home most of the time unless I can slip it into my pocket. It’s widest point is 1.6″ and that’s just around the lens area. Most camcorders of this type are well over 2″ wide, which really disqualifies them as something you can slip in your pocket easily. The Sanyo VPC-SH1 is kind of a unique product right now, having more features for it’s size than anything else currently on the market – that I know of anyway.

I ran around for a couple of hours with the Sanyo in one hand, and the Sony in another – taking videos outside, inside, up close, far away, and at night both indoors and out. I dumbed the Sanyo down to 720p so they would be on an even playing field. No matter what the conditions were, on my computer monitor the Sanyo videos looked much better. The differences were not subtle. They were dramatic.

It couldn’t have been more dramatic than in very low light. The Sony videos would be nothing but a black screen while the Sanyo’s would still be quite watchable. Grainy yes – but I’ll take that. I’m not expecting miracles out of a cam this small.

On it’s own the Sanyo does all right in low light, but if you manually run the ISO all the way up to 1600 or 3200 things really brighten up. It won’t go that high if you leave it in auto – probably because of the grain issue – but that’s a trade-off I’ll make anytime.

I set this up as a one button shortcut, along with manual focus, auto focus lock, and display info on-off. These shortcuts are user configurable to whatever you want them to be – and it’s simple to set them up. I haven’t cracked the manual for anything yet, and I’m hardly a video nut.

Optical zoom goes all the way out to an astounding 30x. There is no way that this is usable unless you have the camcorder set on something solid or on a tripod. I tried zooming to some windmills five miles away and they were shaking in and out of the frame like we had been hit with a magnitude 8 earthquake!

But – the cool thing about this zoom is that it’s speed is dependent on how far you push the lever. If you slam it you will go to it’s max in about three seconds, easily outrunning auto focus. However with a gentle nudge you can slow zoom way down.

Speaking of auto focus, I think this Sanyo does all right most of the time. You can fool it in low light if you suddenly go from something near to something far, but for the most part if you behave yourself it does it’s job. It also helped when I went into it’s settings and changed the default multipoint focus to spot. You do have AF lock which can be engaged anytime if you need it. Manual focus unfortunately is not available when you are shooting, so you have to adjust it beforehand if you want to use it.

Image stabilization is electronic and pretty weak. I tried walking around with it on and off and it did smooth things out somewhat. But it seemed to have little or no effect at all when zooming in on something, and that’s when things are really shaking.

The wide angle lens really does take in a huge panoramic view. I’ll appreciate it more this summer and it should make for some great scene shots. The downside is that you end up having to use zoom for more normal stuff just to get your subject in the frame properly.

For the most part the OS is pretty intuitive, but there are a few head scratchers. You can delete a photo file from the set button, but in order to delete a video file you have to dive into the menu system. Audio wind reduction is not in “sound” but bunched with the video noise reduction settings.

I took a few pictures. It works but that’s not my primary interest. Still I’m glad it’s there because you never know when –

This camcorder behaved perfectly when I hooked it up to my PCs. On both it came up as an external drive named Xacti (a nice touch that Sony missed) and it was fast and easy to locate and copy the files to the hard drive for editing. On my Windows 7 notebook I put together a short video using several clips in Windows Live Movie Maker without a hitch. In fact this is going to be my video editing and sharing program from now on. It does everything I’ll ever want to do (trim, join, add titles and music, fade out), and will send the finished video anywhere right from the program. You don’t have to ask Youtube to go to your hard drive. This program goes to Youtube – or anywhere else you want it to online. And the program is free – what more can you say?

I also plugged the Sanyo into my desktop PC running Windows XP, and once again no probs. There I made another clip in Nero Vision throwing in some old files from the Webbie for good measure, and it came out perfectly. That’s what’s sweet about AVC/H.264 BTW.

I haven’t installed the included editor and probably won’t.

The biggest drawback this camcorder has (to me) is the hardware. In the interest of sleek styling Sanyo didn’t make the body of the cam so it would be flush to the monitor screen when it’s closed. The two back edges really hang out there. That’s why I wouldn’t recommend this camcorder for teenage kids. I don’t think it would survive in one piece for long with a 14 year old skateboarder. It’s really for adults who hopefully would be a bit more responsible with it.

The “Set” button, which is a four way directional and enter button, is also way too small and sensitive for a guy’s thumb. The way I’ve found to use this very important button is to not put my thumb on it, but engage each direction by gently pushing it from the opposite side. It works but it’s not optimal.

In spite of that, I’m giving it five stars because it does everything that I want it to do – and very well. It really makes the videos I took on my Sony Webbie look like they were taken with a toy. It cost $150 more than the Webbie but is worth every cent of it.

My five stars may well be someone else’s three though. If you prize optical image stabilization you are going to knock off a couple of stars right there. (I don’t because optical stabilization adds bulk and size, and it isn’t all that important because of how I’m using this camcorder. If I use two hands and hold it at my waist it’s pretty easy to keep steady anyway.) It all depends on what you are doing with your videos. Experienced videographers my snub their noses at camcorders like this, but I love it!

—————————–UPDATE MARCH 26 2010————————————

Since there seems to be a difference of opinion about what constitutes acceptable low light performance for a small flashcam in in this price range, I thought I’d put up links to a couple of Youtube vids of a low light karaoke bar to help people decide for themselves. I know – it’s Youtube – but it will still give you a good idea. The first one I made myself and it includes both my new Sanyo Xacti VPC-SH1 and my old Sony Webbie MHS-CM1:

[...]

Here’s another vid of the same karaoke bar (with the same singer) made a few months ago by another guy. His camcorder is a Canon FS100:

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For the purposes of this vid, I left everything on Auto. I purposely chose the same singer (a mutual friend) because I knew the other vid was up.

My original enthusiasm for Windows Live Movie Maker has dampened a bit after using it for a couple of weeks (not worth going into that!) but not for this camcorder. It’s just a champ!