Sanyo Xacti VPC-FH1BK HD 1080p Flash Memory Camcorder w/

Brand

: Sanyo

Model

: VPC-FH1BK

Lowest Price

: 435

Reviewer: David B. Haynie| Date:2009-10-06

This is my fourth HD camcorder... I own a higher-end Sony (HVR-A1U), a Canon HV10, and formerly a Hitachi BD70A Blu-Ray model. I have been "doing video" since the 80s.

First of all... do keep the price in mind. This Sanyo VPC-FD1 was never intended to be confused for a professional model. Neither are the $1300-$1500 units from Canon (S10/S100/S11) or Panasonic (TM300). However, they are all symptomatic of the reality that the line between "pro" and "consumer" is blurring, at least with regard to picture quality.

The quality of this camera's HD image is quite good. It holds up well in low light... much better than any other consumer model I have used myself. It's also very good at capturing fast motion, which has until recently been a big problem for AVC based models, rather than DV or MPEG-2. It's not without some artifacting, but quite a bit better than earlier models, in my experience.

Some places claim the lens is 16x... it's really a 10x zoom lens, optically speaking. The 16x comes, as with many consumer camcorders, from "digital zoom"... that's when the software just uses a small bit of the whole sensor. They claim to be doing this intelligently... could be. In normal use, there's an 8Mpixel sensor here being cropped to about 6Mpixel... that's three times the pixels you need to create a 1080p image. That's also useful... you get better color and better light sensitivity, but if you cut out 2/3 of these, you'll still have decent HD video. More than that, and you'll get noticable pixelization. Which you do see in the viewfinder using digital zoom, but I have yet to look at it in finished video. Just something to be aware of.

The Great Big Feature of this model is 1080/60p video... you have to go to a pretty high-end professional model to get this anywhere other than in the VPC-FD1 or VPC-HD2000. Pros would like a higher bitrate than 24Mb/s (it's actually variable bitrate, peaking around 28-29Mb/s so far as I've seen), but it's not bad... the software clearly knows how to avoid macroblock distortion by adding a bit of low-pass filtering (slight blurring when necessary... don't worry, it does improve the video quality... compression mastering engineers do the same thing on DVDs to ensure that high speed video looks a good as it can on DVDs).

There are some caveats. One is the whole flash meets video meets FAT32 thing... like other current flash-based camcorders, this one uses the FAT32 file system. That offers big storage on 16GB and 32GB flash cards, but the maximum file size is 4GB. This means that, after about 21-something-minutes at 1080/60p, the camcorder needs to close one file and open another. That wouldn't be bad, only that the Sanyo doesn't pipeline this, so there's a delay of a few seconds between the end of one file and the start of another. Sure, it's better by far than changing 8cm DVDs every 20 minutes on a DVD camcorder, but it's an issue. They could fix this in firmware... they ought to. You get more time in a 4GB file as you drop to lower video modes (1080/60i, 1080/30p, 720/30p).

I have shot a number of High School soccer games with this in 1080/60p, and I get great results. Last year, I used my Sony in 1080/60i mode; this is overall better video. For one, I can downconvert to web video without interlacing artifacts. I can decide, after I shoot the video, if I want to make a 1080/60i, 1080/30p, 1080/24p, or 720/60p Blu-Ray disc, assuming I target Blu-Ray for delivery. That's pretty nice.

The other big issue is edit. Know this now: your PC is probably going to struggle just to play back 1080/60p at full frame rate. Neither Windows Media Player nor VLC had a prayer of playing this back on my Q9550-based desktop (that's 2.83GHz, quad core, 4GB fast DRAM, etc) on a 1200p monitor. Splash Lite did play it back, but used 65-75% of CPU power... that's all four CPUs. Using Nero Showtime with GPU acceleration enabled, I was able to play this video back with under 50% CPU on my desktop, and just about 100% CPU on my laptop (both using nVidia 8600 GPUs).

So when it comes to editing, you're in trouble. I don't know of a video editor yet that uses either multithreaded rendering or GPU acceleration during editing (most use the former for rending a final video... at least one also uses GPU acceleration). I opted to buy CineForm NeoVision for this. CineForm is an "intermediate CODEC"... you convert from your shooting format to CineForm for editing, then render to MPEG-2 or AVC or whatever you want for delivery. In theory, this means a loss of quality, in practice, nothing you can see. In fact, CineForm interpolates the 4:2:0 color of AVC to 4:2:2, so if you're doing lots of compositing and effects, the quality could actually improve. You need a ton of space for CineForm.. it runs over 100GB per hour of 1080/60p video.

The video format is MPEG-4 AVC in an MPEG-4 transport stream wrapper (.MP4). This is similar to, but not the same thing as, AVCHD, which is MPEG-4 AVC in an MPEG-2 transport stream wrapper. AVCHD is a full consumer standard, MP4 isn't, really. However, Sanyo's choices here should work with most software.. they're using MPEG-4 AVC at Level 4.2, and AAC audio, which is the usual MPEG-4 compressed audio format (AVCHD uses AC-3, formerly known as Dolby Digital, which is one of the Blu-Ray and DVD standards... the AVCHD standard really comes from Blu-Ray). I believe Sanyo has been making MPEG-4 camcorders longer than most companies, so they do have their act together here, even if they're not following the current popular standard to the letter.

I have not used still photo mode. They claim it's as good as a typical P&S still camera (that's the "Dual Camera" thing). I used my HV10 as a still camera, for about 300 photos, on a backpacking trip, and would have liked something better... I would be surprised if the Sanyo didn't do better stills. But it's not usually that important to me.

The battery is inside the camera, so you can't really get a much larger one. But unlike many kits, the stock battery delivers 150-180 minutes, which is ok. Also good is the fact this battery has been used by both Sanyo and Kodak for awhile... they didn't feel compelled to have to create a brand new cell here. So you can find 3rd party cells, chargers, and all.

The lens takes a 37mm filter/accessory, which is fairly standard. I was able to fit a polarizer from my Canon and a wide-angle lens from an old Sony SD camcorder... all good. There's no automatic lens cap.. there's a real lens cap that stows in the cloth handle when not being used.. fine with me. Those mechanical shutters generally break.

The image stabilization on this is digital (like my Sony), not optical (like my Canon).. that means it's inherently not as good. Optical these days always wins. With that said, optical can get confused by vibrations, and it can break if you drop the camera (so can other things, but that's one of the first to go). I usually shoot video from a tripod or monopod anyway, so this wasn't a big deal for me.

If you're buying just one camcorder, and plan to use it for video and audio, you probably don't want the VPC-FH1 (you might consider the VPC-HD2000, which is much the same, only in Sanyo's pistol form). The reason is simple: the mics are built-in, no plug to add an external mic. Microphones built-in on camcorders are general bad. The FH1's aren't noticably better or worse than anyone else's, they're just typical built-in mics. Not very sensitive, no wind screen, and ... well, at least they won't pick up tape noise like similar mics on similarly small DV and HDV camcorders. I have a Rode mic for my Sony that cost nearly as much as the FH1... you can imagine it does a bit better on the audio than any built-in. But it you're using this as a "B" camera, or using a field recorder for audio, that's not such a concern. The mics are located just below the lens, which is a superior location... many small camcorders put them on top somewhere, where your fingers will undoubtedly antagonize them no-end.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: J. Percilla| Date:2009-10-05

This is just a short one,
I own this camera. Love the image quality. TRUE HD and can take a single picture while taking video.
Just be sure your computer can process 1920x1080 HD images. File format works (.MP4) with quicktime, no problems, so can be used on any computer (pc or Apple). This is the one thing I had problems with when I had a Canon FS100. MPEG-2 format, could not view in my iMacs, problems finding a "free" modifier to view in my pc's and no way to merge video files together. I just wanted a simple file format so it could be put to DVD, viewed in ANY computer and simple like my old Sony 8MM video camera. This is great. Worth the money. I bought it somewhere else and not going into price comparisons but I got it when it first came out too. Now it is NOT water friendly, if you want that, get the Sanyo's that are. If you want a product that does not have many moving parts (that will break down) and great pictures, this is it. I got the 32 GB Top Ram card from Amazon, CLASS 6 (important on file transfers) and it is great. I can take 2 hours worth of FULL HD video no problems. Use the HDMI plug in and view it from the camera the video on your HD tv, or transfer to your pc/Apple, edit and make a DVD. I recorded in the 240 FPS and the 600 FPS for the slow mo and super slow mo (resolution degrades and you do NOT get sound) but the pictures are great. I recommend this camera.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: J. Paulley| Date:2009-10-01

Well we have had this camera for about a month, and we love it. It takes great pictures and video. I love that even with a shakey hand the video still comes out looking great. My husband was worried about this cause his hands seem to always shake, but the video doesn't even show it. I love the 8 megapixel camera on it also. I have been using it on our pug and the pictures come out GREAT!!!! This is one hell of a camera for the price. I looked around for about a month before deciding on which one to get. The only reason I went with HD is because of the price of this one. The next one that compares to it retails for about 1200.00. So to get this one for only 400.00 was a STEAL. I do have HD TV and everything and when we hook this up to it, it looks great. I can't wait for my daughter to get here so we can start filming her on it. Great camera for the price.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: 2005 Astoria user| Date:2009-09-25

I thought of sharing with others my findings on which laptop and software can properly display videos shot at 1080P with 60FPS - which I believe is or should be the main reason to buy this great camera. Below are the laptops I've tested - with their corresponding naming convention to facilitate this review. I'm putting specs where needed otherwise you should be able to find those in the internet.

HP D: DV7-2185DX, Q9000, 6GB Ram, 17.3'' 1600x900
COMPAQ: F730US, 1GB Ram, 15.4'' 1200x800
ASUS: G71GX-A1, Q9000, 6GB Ram, 17'' 1900x1200
GATEWAY: P-7809u, P8700 2.53Ghz, Nvidia 9800M GTS with 1GB, 1440x900
SONY Z: VGNZ790DLX, P8800, 256MB Nvidia 9300M GS
SONY F: FW490, 2.8Ghz, 1900x1080, 4GB Ram, 1GB ATI 6450
SONY A: AW390, 2.1Ghz, 1900x1080, 4GB Ram, 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT

My sample video is shot at 1080P, 60FPS and it's 250MB. It's not an action movie although I was walking fast while shooting it with some background sound. Below are the softwares I've tested in all of the above laptops.

CYBERLINK: Cyberlink PowerDVD 9
SPLASHLITE

And below are additional softwares I've tested on Compaq, my own personal - and rather out of date - laptop.

VLC: VLC media player
MPC: Media player classic with CoreAVC
ARCSOFT: ArcSoft media theatre

First, let me share the good news, i.e. combinations of laptop+software that display the video flawlessly:

ASUS+CYBERLINK (best picture quality)
SONY Z+SPLASHLITE (didn't try Cyberlink)
HP D+CYBERLINK
GATEWAY+CYBERLINK

Not sure what to conclude from the above and the fact that the rest of the laptops did not play the video 100% smoothly. I think that Quad Core plays a large part to it unless you have a really advanced graphics card like Nvidia 9800M GTS with 1GB and above. What is apparent is that Cyberlink outperforms Splashlite.

The latter can be confirmed by COMPAQ where Cyberlink was the best video player and allowed me to view the video
with a reasonable performance. Other smaller videos actually played almost 100% smoothly on COMPAQ which is pretty encouraging to know.

What I can't explain is the performance of SONY Z with a low spec graphics card and processor.. It far outperformed SONY F and SONY A which have better specs. Not sure why is that.

In terms of best value I would go with HP HDX 18t Quad Core and 1GB graphics. If I had more money I would definitely get ASUS. I really liked the look and construction of SONY AW and I haven't tried it at 2.8Ghz yet with Cyberlink yet to test its performance - and probably won't since it has such a great price difference with the HP HDX 18t.

Review from Review from Amazon

Reviewer: Matthieu Hausig| Date:2009-09-16

This camcorder has almost everything, HD, small form factor, good storage capacity. Its just missing improved imaged stabilization to make it a top choice. It takes very steady hands to avoid getting a shaky picture and a tripod is a good investment with this one. Focussing is also a bit slow. The software is decent but not great. Some minor incompatibilities when trying to play back raw video files without using the software are an annoyance. For the price its a good deal but it could be worth it to spend more and get better stabilization

Review from Review from Amazon