I never write reviews but depend on them heavily when making purchases, so I am going try to help someone else out. I was looking at a higher end xacti camera and was about to pull the trigger when this was released. I couldn't find any reviews but one Radio Shack in town actually had one of these cameras. My son had a baseball tournament that weekend so I figured I buy it and try it out. For $200 I wasn't expecting much and assumed I'd return it. I was blown away at the quality as was everyone else who viewed it. There are some gotchas though.First, you obviously can not buy plain old flash cards for this. I tried class 4 and it was useless at 1080p. Class 6 works much better but also has a problem. When filming a baseball game I set it on a tripod and the 1080 was amazing. When filming a football game I didn't use a tripod and I got a choppy mess. It cannot keep up with writing the video when panning at 1080 even with class 6. I have not tried the class 10 yet, but everything I have read tells me that no video camera needs class 10 memory. Having said that, I cannot see much difference between the 1080 and 720 quality except the video file sizes which are huge. The 720 setting is perfect on motion, panning, and quality. At 60 fps you have the ability to really slow down the motion while easily controlling it on a computer with the arrow keys. It is fantastic for analyzing a baseball swing or golf swing and see the point of impact.
The battery is the weak spot. Buy extras and have them ready. If you get over an hour of continuous filming, you are lucky. Research your flash memory based on user reviews from sites like newegg or amazon. DO NOT go to the local Best Buy and just grab something off the shelf. Never buy a class 6 stick over 8GB, and preferably nothing over 4GB. They larger sticks have many problems with corruption and you can spend a lot of money replacing these things. A reliable 4GB can be found for around $20 and get you 2 hours at high quality.
Power button can be irritating, and the record button can as well. Those are things you will work out though.
Simply put, you cannot possibly argue that the quality of this camera far outweighs the cost. It is the best purchase I've made in a long time, and I am a really difficult customer to please.
I tend to be overly verbose which is why I don't write reviews so I apologize for that.
I picked it up from Radio Shack for $199. The one I got is black in color with a plastic casing and feels kinda cheap but I expected that. Basically, this is your typical budget, entry-level point/shoot/share digital camera and HD video camcorder. I'm pleasantly surprised with what it can do and I am happy with it. It works as advertised just don't expect high quality. With an 8GB card will give you 61 mins of full HD or 1690 14MP shots assuming you do one or the other, less if you do both.
If you will do a lot of video/pictures, I suggest getting a 2nd battery and a higher capacity SD memory card. The battery can drain pretty fast. The SDHC card that I got with this camera is a Gigaware brand class 2 because it was all they had in stock. What a MISTAKE. You definitely need a class 4 SDHC card or better for HD video. Also, a bit of warning, indoor video is terrible even with the high sensitivity setting on (a setting that supposed to compensate for low light) decent lighting or outdoor HD video should be no problem. BTW.. I played the video on VLC, video was terrible. My suggestion is to make sure you have the proper codecs installed on your computer to view the video files.
Buy Sanyo VPC-GH2 High Definition Camcorder and 14 MP Camera w/12x Optical Zoom Now
Better than a Flip -this tiny pocket camcorder is packed with features you'd expect in more expensive camcorders. However, the only two significantly useful features are the electronic stabilization and swingout LCD. Compared to Flip-style camcorders or digital cameras with fixed LCD viewfinders you can shoot useful hand-held video from a variety of positions without the shakes.The auto-focus works great, giving you better composition compared to fixed-focus Flips. Turn on macro focus and you can shoot tiny bugs 1cm away.
The 5x optical zoom works fine but its little button is tough to control, especially during one-handed shooting. The GH2 is easy to operate with the right hand: flip the LCD with a pinkie, press the top record button with the thumb, shoot from the hip.
Audio is surprisingly good due to the microphone placement on the LCD cover, facing your subject.
The flash is great for taking indoor stills, with still picture quality comparable to other small digital cameras.
Battery life is ok, I got 1.5 hours in SD shooting (a static shot). However, in "field use" recording clips in HD, taking several flash pictures, and using focus and zoom, I get about 45min battery life.
Low light picture quality is average (as all camcorders are) but turn on the "high gain" feature and you'll capture usable video that most camcorders won't get.
Manual features available made me LOL! There's a lot. You'll have to read the manual a few times.
Picture quality is pretty good. Shots taken at 1080i setting viewed on a 52" 1080i TV look great, with good detail and color. The GH2 records 1080i video at about 17Mbits/s. You'll need a decent computer to edit HD files.
Webcam: Fixed at VGA size @15fps and no manual control it's a very basic webcam.
Cons:
Bugs: the GH2 locked up on me once -popping the battery cures it.
Construction: the GH2 feels like an large clamshell cellphone. Not as robust as a Kodak Zx1, for example. Just don't drop it.
Overall a great value in a convenient little package.This is a great little camera. The ability to shoot 16:9 wide screen high resolution images in addition to true HD video is a great plus.
The jpeg compression is a little excessive, compared to my Nikon camera, but the pictures still come out great.
Just remember that there is a bit of shutter lag, especially when using flash.
I did discover that I had to upgrade my computer before it would play the high resolution videos that I shot.
The battery life is right in line with spec at about 90 minutes of continuous recording.
The Sanyo power supply for the camera is unfortunately rather expensive, at about $50.-
In conclusion, there is a mix of good and bad. However, for the money I think this is a very good camera.
Want Sanyo VPC-GH2 High Definition Camcorder and 14 MP Camera w/12x Optical Zoom Discount?
This camera is much smaller than I expected from the pictures, just about pocket-sized for a guy. 1080i HD video looks great too. It has a ton of features for the price, optical zoom being a notable one. The camera claims to come with onboard memory, but don't expect to use it. It holds about 20 seconds of HD video. Don't let that turn you away though! Get a 16GB Class 6 SDHC card (like this one: Transcend 16 GB Class 6 SDHC Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC6E [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]), and you'll have 2 hours capacity. I'd make sure the card is at least Class 6 so as to minimize saving delays, this way you can rapid-fire several HD clips without waiting for the camera to finish saving.Saw elsewhere in the reviews that the manual is hard to find. It is indeed! Once you finally track down the PDF on Sanyo's site, that turns out to just be the shorter "User Guide". This directs you to download the full Manual, but neglects to tell you where!
Fortunately I managed to track down the English manual on the Japanese Sanyo support site. Edit: See comments on this review for the link.
The URL says GH1 but the manual is actually for all GH series cameras, this one included. Bookmark this for later if you order =)
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