Review on 📷 Sanyo Xacti VPC-C6: 6MP MPEG4 Digital Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom - Discontinued by Manufacturer" by John Caldwell

This is a camcorder made for the digital age. Tiny, feature rich and flexible. No old technology magnetic tape. Like any innovative product, there are many disadvantages. Let's skip the obvious. This device is compact, versatile and simple. The best picture quality can only be achieved with a dedicated mini DV camcorder and a dedicated digital camera. In fact, buying a separate camcorder and still camera is probably cheaper than the Sanyo C6 and still delivers superior quality. The overall image quality can best be described as "good". Poor zoom and lens speeds are better for a $100 digital camera than a $400 device. The flash is weak and doesn't illuminate many scenes that any other camera could. Since the flash is not offset from the lens in any way, the red-eye effect is virtually guaranteed at any distance. This isn't a problem with digital retouching, which is common practice, but plan to touch up more often. Low light conditions drastically degrade the image quality in film mode. Almost any digital camcorder at any price will outperform the Sanyo in video mode in any situation, but a bit of daylight goes a long way in improving video quality with the Xacti C6. To be clear, the video quality is still better than anything seen in the best analog camcorders. Despite all these shortcomings, convenience can really be revolutionary. The tiny VPC-C6 can be worn around the neck all day. This is leading to an amazing shift in attitudes towards video. Since the Sanyo is so compact, no one will think of taking it on a small trip. Being relieved of the chore of "packing" a camcorder means being willing to take the Sanyo with you on many other occasions, such as going to the park and not just weddings and birthdays. And while it takes a Mini DV camcorder an hour to transfer an hour of video to your computer, Sanyo transfers video as fast as an SD card and USB 2.0 interface will allow. That means five minutes or less to transfer an hour of video to your computer. This ease increases the desire to create videos and share videos. No more hesitation in unplugging the camcorder cables and manually starting the video transfer to your computer. With Sanyo, you simply place your camera in the docking station and your photos and videos are available to you like files on a USB stick. The importance of this convenience cannot be overestimated. Video becomes an everyday pleasure on demand and not a routine for special occasions. Putting that convenience above sheer picture quality makes this a product worth owning. This is an advanced product. To get the most out of this product, I strongly recommend the following: 1) Sanyo has made the updated firmware available on their website. This fixes a serious bug in the audio processing that some people notice as excessive distortion - this upgrade makes the sound quality competitive with other camcorders. Additionally, this firmware update adds 4GB SD card compatibility (without the update, the limit is 2GB). Thank you Sanyo for your continued support. (Note that the instructions are a bit garbled in translation - they should say to press the SET LEFT button to bring up the firmware update screen.) 2) The video is in MP4 format and will only be played played with QuickTime. For Windows users, this limits video editing to bundled programs or Quicktime-specific programs. There is a simple solution. First download the Divx codec (free commercial product) or the Xvid codec (free open source product - I prefer) or ffdshow (free open source product) - use the search engine of your choice to find them Find. Second, download a utility called "MP4CAM2AVI" (free, open-source software, easy to find with your search engine of choice). These two programs make the video compatible with any Windows program, including virtually any media player (e.g. Windows Media Player) and any video editing tool (e.g. Windows Movie Maker). I'm curious to see how this market segment develops. . The freedom from bulkiness and digital tedium is addicting and I'm sure the image quality will improve. For now, I'm happy to capture memories that would otherwise be lost if I continued to own a traditional, bulky, tape-based camcorder.