ThinkGeek has a cute little digital video camera from LEGO that can be used to create stop-motion video or used as a normal video camera. The LEGO camera is bright and colorful and even has some LEGO block accents.  The camera is 3.6 x 1.6 x 2.6 inches, weighs about 14 ounces, and has a 1.5″ rotating display screen.   It has a macro lens that will let you do closeups.  The kit includes the camera, adjustable tripod,  LEGO Stop Animation Studio Software CD, and two LEGO mini figurines.   It’s for kids age 7 and up.  The LEGO Stop Animation Digital Video Camera is $79.99.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Geek Toys, News

Tagged: Digital Video Camera, LEGO, stop-motion camera

LEGO Stop Animation Digital Video Camera originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 9, 2010 at 7:56 am.

It’s summer! Today marks the first day of Summer 2010. It’s hot, schools out and the pools are open. Let summer time begin! Kodak has just the thing for catching all your summer fun with the Kodak Playsport HD Waterproof Pocket Video Camera.  This video camera is made for play. It’s waterproof up to 10 ft. and built to sustain a tumble or two.  Not to mention it shoots in 1080p, has a glare shield feature, 2-inch LCD screen, USB connection, rechargable Li-Ion batteries, SD card slot and color options (purple, blue, grey). The Kodak Playsport looks to be a good take along for beach vacations and summer days at the pool.  The Kodak Playsport is available for $149.

Filed in categories: Digital Cameras and Gear

Tagged: Digital Video Camera, Spotlight Gadgets, Waterproof

Underwater Video in HD originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 21, 2010 at 4:00 pm.

Are you looking for a really compact digital video camera that does even more than record video? How about one that can also take still pictures (ok, that’s not revolutionary in a camcorder), read ebooks, play MP3 music, take voice notes, and even play games. The Klegg Electronics V1803 has all of those features. Let’s see how well it performs.

Hardware Specifications

Image Sensor: 5.2 M CMOS(Micron)Sensor(Interpolated up to 11 mega Pixels)
Lens: F3.0 (f=6.0mm)
Focus Range: Macro: center 20cm; Portrait: 70cm~140cm; Normal: 140cm~infinite
Digital Zoom: 8x
Monitor: 3″ LTPS LCD(4:3)
Storage Media: Built-in 64MB Memory, SD/MMC Card Slot support
Movie Resolution: VGA 640×480 / QVGA 320×240, 30fps
Image Resolution: High: 3840 x 2880; Standard: 2592 x 1944; Low: 1600 x 1200
File Format: JPEG, AVI, WAV, MP3
Dimensions: 3.74″(L)x2.79″(W)x1.34″(H)
PC Interface: Mini USB2.0/TV in/TV out/Earphone

Package Contents

V1803 digital camcorder
Battery
Carrying pouch
Quick Guide
Software CD
AC Adapter
USB cable
A/V cable
Remote control
Earphones

Hardware Tour

In my opinion, the V1803 is the perfect size for a video camera. It’s so small and compact that it can easily go with you everywhere. I love the Samsung SC-HMX10C, but when I saw the V1803, I wanted to love it even more, if only for the size.

The V1803 is made of Black and Silver plastic. In hand, it’s pretty light weight, but solid. The front side has a small speaker built into the top chrome area. Below that is the lift up LCD display. On the back side of the camera, you’ll find a small Macro switch and battery cover.

The main set of user controls include (from Left to Right) a movie shutter button, picture shutter button, Zoom / OK button, Right and Left buttons, Record / Play button, AV Out / Earphone jack and a USB 2.0 port.

On the opposite side, you’ll find the Lens and IR receiver for the included remote.

On the top surface, you’ll find the power button and microphone. Once the device is initially powered on, opening the display will bring the camera out of standby mode for quick action.

A tripod screw mount is built into the bottom edge.

Popping off the battery cover reveals the battery and the built in SD card slot. The camera does have a very small amount of built in memory (~22mb), that you can save movies and pictures to.

The displays flips open to reveal a 3 inch color LCD and more user controls.

What’s this? It looks like a Gameboy controller… That’s exactly what it is as there are quite a few games built into this device. More about that feature in a bit.

The display rotates into an orientation that allows you to easily capture video. Holding the camera and manipulating the zoom and record buttons with your thumb is comfortable and intuitive.

The display can also open in a clamshell orientation that makes it easier to view video, play games, etc.

User Interface

When the camera is powered on, various information is displayed on the LCD. In both Movie and Photo mode, you will see how many images have been snapped, what resolution the images will be captured at (the stars), the status of the flash, resolution for capturing video and how many minutes of video have been recorded. The display is large and bright and easy to view in all but really bright sunlight.

Access to various settings happens when you press the Menu button. Navigating the menus is accomplished by pressing the gamepad navpad.

There are menus for movie settings, still image settings, Voice Pen (voice recorder), Digital effects and overall settings.

Navigating and changing settings is easy. The interface is not difficult to understand and use even without reading the quick start guide.

Press the Play button gives you the ability to play stored movies, pictures, MP3 files, voice recorder files and even ebooks (.txt) files.

Pressing the Game button brings up the built in games player. I was surprised at just how many games are loaded on this device. There are 20 of them, ranging from Tetris, Breakout, and racing games, to Mario style jumpers and maze games. In my opinion, more effort was put into this area of the device than to the other areas…

Capturing Images and Video

The box says that the V1803 is an 11 megapixel camera. The thing is that there’s a * next to that line. If you look closer, you find out that the camera is really only 5 megapixels that is interpolated up to 11. This fact is made clear when you look at the still images and video that the camera and camcorder captures.

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

As you can see, still image quality is pretty poor.

Click thumbnail to download .AVI video

Unfortunately, video quality isn’t any better. Very jaggy, with artifacts. And if that wasn’t bad enough, you might notice something else about those sample clips – there’s no audio. I don’t know if this is intentional, or a defect in the sample camera that was sent to me. I have an email to the folks at Klegg and will update the review with any information I receive. The thing is, voice recording works just fine… and music playback works too. So sound does work… just not in video capture mode. I noticed another odd behavior where the zoom stopped working while I was trying to record video. But when I would stop recording, it would work again. Go figure…

Conclusion

The V1803 from Klegg Electronics could be a great little digital camera. It’s the perfect size, that’s for sure. It’s just too bad that it is trying to be a jack of all trades and it ends up being a master of none. As it stands, I would be more likely to recommend this device as a small game player, than for it’s intended purpose of a camcorder. If you’re looking for a compact digital video camera, this one isn’t it.

Camera can be found at Amazon.com and other online retailers.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear

Tagged: Camera, Digital Video Camera, Video

Klegg Electronics Genesis V1803 Camcorder originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 4, 2008 at 6:00 pm.

In the two years since I reviewed the Sanyo VPC-HD1 camcorder, I’ve been using it as my main method of capturing video. I love it for its size and ease of use, but have always been disappointed at its low light performance. Since I don’t include a video spot in all the reviews I do, I just kept putting up with the Sanyo instead of replacing it. That changed recently when the folks at Samsung invited me to review their SC-HMX10C Progressive HD camcorder. I’ve been using this camera for several weeks now, so let’s take a closer look….

Hardware Specifications

Image Sensor
Sensor type – CMOS
Sensor size – 1/4.5″
Number of pixels – 1.56 M
Lens
F Value – F1.86-2.3
Optical Zoom – 10x
Digital Zoom – 20x
Filter Diameter – 30mm
Display
2.7″ Touchscreen LCD
Number of pixels – 230 K
Video
Signal – NTSC
Recording Format – H.264, MP4
Resolution – HD: 1280×720/59.94p, SD: 720×480/59.94p 720×480/59.94i (Line in mode)
Low Light Sensitivity – 15 lux
Photo / Still Image
Format – JPEG
Resolution – 1440 x 1080, VGA (640 x 480)
Memory
8gb built in
SDHC / MMCPlus memory card slot
Interface
PC – USB 2.0
Video – Composite, Component, HDMI
Audio – Earphone jack
Power
Battery – 7.4V 850mAh Lithium Polymer
Size
Dimensions – 2.42 x 2.66 x 4.63 inches
Weight – 0.7lb

Package Contents

SC-HMX10C camcorder
Battery pack
AC power adapter
Multi-AV cable
Component cable
HDMI cable
USB cable
User manual
Quick start guide
CR2025 remote battery
Remote control
Cradle
Software CD
Carrying pouch

If you pay much attention at all about video formats and terms, the word progressive, is probably familiar to you. It is a scanning method. A video frame is made up of many lines of video that are scanned onto a television screen so closely that they appear to be a solid picture. The scanning method can be either interlaced or progressive. Interlaced scanning (also used in today’s analog TVs), indicated by an “i” in the video format, fills in the odd number lines (1,3,5,7…) and then fills in the even number lines (2,4,6,8…) until the frame is complete. Progressive scanning, “p” fills in each line consecutively until the frame is complete, like a computer display. So, basically speaking, progressive is good. )

Hardware Tour

The SC-HMX10C has a small compact design that I really like. As you can see here, it’s about the same size as a can of Diet Coke. It won’t take up a lot of space in your gear bag.

The body is made of plastic, with both shiny and matte areas. Most of the case is Black, with some Silver accents here and there. It is solid and feels very well made.

The entire Left side of the camera flips open to reveal the 2.7 inch LCD display, which has the ability to swivel 180 degrees counter clockwise and 90 degrees clockwise. It’s important to note that this camera does not have an optical viewfinder. All of your framing will be done using the LCD display.

There are three buttons along the outside edge of the display. The top button launches the Q.Menu, which is a quick collection of frequently needed options. More about that later in the review. Below the Q.Menu button is a zoom button and a record button. There is a second set of zoom and record buttons elsewhere on the camera body. I actually prefer using the ones on the display as they are more comfortable for me to operate.

Opening the LCD display also reveals a collection of buttons and ports. The display / iCheck button has two functions. Pressing it will toggle the status info on the display on and off. Pressing and holding it, will bring up the battery and memory capacity status screen. Next to the iCheck button is the LCD enhancer button. Pressing this button will toggle brightness on and off for the display. Turning the brightness on helps you see the display when you’re outside in bright sunlight. It also helps to see details in darker images. This button will have no effect on your recordings, it’s just there to help you see them.

Below the buttons is a door that when flipped down, gives you access to an HDMI port, Component/AV/S port, USB port and a reset switch. I don’t like the location of the USB port and wish it was on the outside of the camera instead of behind the LCD and flip down door. I have found it a little awkward to access the port when I needed to connect the camera to a computer to transfer video.

If we turn the camera around to view the opposite side, we find the leather (it smells like leather…) hand strap. This strap can be loosened or tightened to adjust for various hand sizes.

It can also swivel approximately 160 degrees.

At first, gripping the camera and using the main controls with my thumb and index finger felt uncomfortable to me. No matter how I adjusted the strap, I had problems easily reaching the record button with my thumb. I did eventually get used to it, but for the most part I prefer to use the buttons on the open LCD display to control zoom and record.

The top of the camera has an indentation for your fingers to rest when you’re gripping the camera. Towards the back of the camera is the zoom lever and photo button. The photo button will allow you to snap a picture when you’re in photo mode.

Next to the finger group is a hidden door that slides open to reveal the battery compartment and SD card slot. The 850 mAh battery can power this camera for approximately 80 minutes of continuous recording without using the zoom.

On the back end of the SC-HMX10C, there is a Mode button, Easy Q button, Record button, Power switch, DC in port and Microphone port. The Mode button allows you to switch from movie mode, to photo and play mode. Each time you press the button, it cycles to the next mode. A small Blue LED above the button shows you which mode you are currently in. Pressing the Easy Q button in movie or photo mode sets all the main settings (focus, exposure, white balance, anti-shake and shutter) to auto mode. It’s just a way for beginners to easily record video without having to worry about various settings. The Power switch is a sliding switch. Slide it down for a sec to turn the camera on, do it again to power down. The Record button should be self-explanatory. The DC in port allows you to plug the included AC adapter in to charge the battery, if you don’t want to use the docking cradle.

Flip the camera around to look at the front and you’ll find the lens and built-in microphone. Above the lens is an LED recording indicator that glows Red while you’re capturing video. Next to it is an LED light and the sensor for the remote.

On the side of the lens is a the lens cover open / close slider switch. I found that the location of this switch to be a bit awkward as the hand strap is in the way. I think it would be better if this switch were either on top or on the bottom of the lens. Better yet, open the lens automatically whenever you power up the camera. I keep finding that I’ve accidently left the cover open.

A docking cradle is included with this camera. This dock can be used to charge the batteries along with transferring video to a computer via the USB port. There’s also an AV port, that you you can use to connect it to a TV to view video.

User Interface

One of my main measures when I’m testing a product for a review, is something I like to call, the newbie test. Can a complete newbie to a product pick it up and use it without reading a manual or even a quick start guide? If they can, then the product passes the newbie test. I’m happy to say that the Samsung SC-HMX10C camcorder passes the newbie test with flying colors. The interface for this camera is very user friendly, because it’s touch driven. You don’t have to figure out, which buttons scroll a menu, or which button selects an item. You just touch the screen. I love it!

When you power on the camera, by default it will be in movie mode. From here, you do three things. You can press the record button to start capturing video. When you are capturing video, you will see various indicators on the display that show features that you have turned on and other status information such as how much recording time you have left, and battery capacity. You’ll also see a zoom indicator when you use the zoom buttons.

In addition to recording, you can press the Play button in the lower Left corner to go into Play mode. Or you can press the Menu button in the lower right corner to bring up the settings menus.

Navigating through the menus is very easy, using the touch screen. The buttons that you press are large enough that even people with big fingers, should be able to comfortably move around and change various settings. I’m not going to include screen shots for all the various settings available to you, but some important ones include:

Scene Mode – Auto, Sports, Portrait, Spotlight, Beach/Snow
White Balance – Auto, Manual
Exposure – Auto, Manual
Anti-shake – On / Off
Digital effects – Off, Black & White, Sepia, Negative, Art
Focus – Auto, Manual
Shutter – Auto, Manual
Tele Macro – Off, On
Quality – HD Superfine, HD Fine, HD Normal, SD Standard, SD Economy
Windcut – On, Off
Backlight – On, Off
Fader – On, Off

The Memory menu allows you to switch between using an SD card or using the internal 8GB of memory.

If you remember earlier in the review, I mentioned an iCheck button and a Q.Menu button. Pressing and holding the iCheck button will bring up the display you see above on the Left. It gives you a quick battery and memory capacity check. You can see this same info when you’re in recording mode, but this way it is larger and easier to read.

Pressing the Q.Menu button will bring up the display you see above on the Right. It would be cool if these options were customizable, but as it is, you have the ability to quickly modify storage, focus, exposure, shutter, white balance and guideline settings.

The guideline feature is a useful shot framing tool. You can turn on turn lines on the display to view it in quadrants or with a center point.

Now let’s look at the Play mode. You can get in this mode by either pressing the mode button on the back end of the camera, or by pressing the Play icon on the button Left corner of the display.

Video clips are shown as thumbnail images that you can tap on to play. Once the videos are playing you have a normal set of playback tools at your disposal.

Image playback mode is similar to the movie playback mode. Images are shown as thumbnails, that you can tap on to see the full images.

Capturing Video and Photos

The SC-HMX10C has 8GB of flash memory built into the device. Flash memory is nicer in my opinion than a hard drive as you won’t have to worry about spinning disk noise creeping into your videos. 8GB can go a long ways. Check it out…

Movie Recording Times
HD Superfine – approx. 88 minutes
HD Fine – approx. 118 minutes
HD Normal – approx. 177 minutes
SD Standard – approx. 266 minutes
SD Economy – approx. 533 minutes

Photos
2048×1536 – approx. 7627 images
1440×1080 – approx. 15439 images
640×480 – approx. 78121 images

Captured video is saved as a .MP4 file using the H.264 codec. I was able to copy the files directly from the camera using USB or the SD card to my Mac. These files all played perfectly under OS X 10.5 using Quicktime and did not require any conversion. I had more trouble on a PC running Windows XP. Files would only play for 1-2 seconds before freezing the Quicktime player. If I tried to play them through Media Player, only the sound would play. The manual instructs you to use the supplied software to view the files (CyberLink). I did not test this software. I also tested playing videos through my TV by connecting the camera using the included composite cable. It worked great.

I’m not a video professional. Videos that I capture will either end up on my YouTube channel or as ‘see it in action’ clips in my reviews. So it doesn’t take a lot to impress me… Now for some sample video and photos. These samples were copied straight from the camera and have not be modified in anyway.

Video Samples:

These videos probably will not play smoothly in your browser until they are entirely downloaded due to the high bit rate.

	HD Superfine (1280×720, 17sec, 25.1mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	HD Fine (1280×720, 18sec, 17.3mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	HD Normal (1280×720, 18sec, 12.2mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	SD Standard (720×480, 17sec, 4.4mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	SD Economy (720×480, 19sec, 4.5mb) Click thumbnail to play video

I know my video samples aren’t all that exciting, but they give you an idea of what this camcorder can do. I’m happy with the results both shooting outdoors and indoors. It does a much better job than the Sanyo in both locales.

	Zoom With Stabilization Off (1280×720, 11sec, 18.9mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	Zoom With Stabilization On (1280×720, 13sec, 21.8mb) Click thumbnail to play video

I couldn’t tell a whole lot of difference with image stabilization on or off. As you can see, the video looks really shaky either way. I attribute most of this to the fact that I’m zooming all the way in and any small movement will be significantly magnified. BTW: the gas station price board does not blink.

	Backlight Off (1280×720, 21sec, 36.5mb) Click thumbnail to play video
	Backlight On (1280×720, 27sec, 45.6mb) Click thumbnail to play video

The backlight feature is pretty nifty for those times when you are shooting into the light. It makes the resulting video a bit soft and fuzzy, but it sure makes a difference if the only way you can shoot is into the light. I wish I would have known about this feature before I shot this video where my subject was in front of a big picture window.

Still Image Samples:

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

I am not all that impressed with the image taking capability of this camcorder. As you can see from the image of my cat Max, the auto white balance setting isn’t too accurate. Since I wouldn’t use this camcorder as my main camera to take pictures, the deficiencies in this area don’t really bother me.

Conclusion

For the non-professional point and shoot video enthusiast, the Samsung SC-HMX10C is a wonderfully compact and easy to use camcorder. Besides the built in 8GB of memory and the touch screen interface, this camera takes great video both indoors and out. After using it for several weeks, I didn’t find much to complain about and I have a feeling that it’s going to be my main video camera for quite a awhile.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear

Tagged: Camera, Digital Video Camera, Video

Samsung Progressive HD Camcorder SC-HMX10C originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 4, 2008 at 4:03 pm.

A couple months ago, I was been bitten by the video bug when I started watching Josh Leo’s Vlog. This guy makes some really great videos and they inspired me to try my hand at doing the same thing. Well, not really the same thing, because I didn’t start an actual Vlog. When I get in front of the camera I tend to look and act like a total goob. No one wants to see that, trust me ;o) Instead, I decided to do what I think I do pretty well; make reviews. Small video reviews to be more exact. Or as I have been calling them: “See it in action” spots. So far I’ve made 4 of these spots and they seem to be getting a little better each time.

My first video camera has been the Canon Optura 600. I thought my Canon was pretty darn good until Brando sent me the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 to review. High Def? Oh boy! But, does this device truly live up to the saying that good things come in small packages? Let’s see.

Hardware Specs

Effective pixel count: Approx. 5.1 megapixels
CCD: 1/2.5 inch, 5.36-megapixel 2ch-readout CCD (total)
Recording Media: SD Memory Card
Recording file formats: Still: JPEG (DCF, Exif 2.2, DPOF standard), Video: MPEG4 (ISO Standard), Audio: 48kHz Sampling,16bit, 2ch, AAC-compression (stereo)
Resolution (pixels): Still: [10M] 3680 x 2760, [5M-H] 2592 x 1944 (low-compression), [5M-S] 2592 x 1944 (standard-compression) [3M-T] 1536 x 2048, [2M] 1600 x 1200, [1.2M] 1280 x 960, [0.3M] 640 x 480
Video: [HD-SHQ] 1280 x 720 (30fps, 9Mbps), [HD-HQ] 1280 x 720 (30fps, 6 Mbps) [TV-HR] 640 x 480 (60fps, 6 Mbps), [TV-SHQ] 640 x 480 (30fps, 3Mbps) [TV-HQ] 640 x 480 (30fps, 2 Mbps), [Web-HQ] 320 x 240 (15fps)
Lens: 6.3 – 63 mm (38 – 380 mm on a 35 mm camera), 10x optical zoom lens
Open f/3.5 (W) – 3.5 (T), AF: 9 groups, 12 lenses, built-in ND filter
Photo range: Standard: 10cm (wide) / 100cm (Tele) to infinity, Macro: 1 cm (wide) to 100cm (wide)
Shutter speed: Still: 1/2 sec ~ 1/2000 sec. (Flash: 1/30 ~ 1/2000 sec., Lamp mode: max 4 secs)
Video: 1/30 sec – 1/10000 sec
Digital zoom: Shooting: 10x max
Playback: 58x max. ([10M] mode, depending on the resolution)
Focus: Auto (Still: 5-point AF/Spot AF, Video: Continuous area AF), Manual: (16 steps)
Program AE: Auto/Sports/Portrait/Landscape/Night View/Fireworks/Lamp
Filter function: Standard/Cosmetic/Monochrome/Sepia
Photometry: Multi/Center-weighted/Spot
Exposure correction: Program AE, +-1.8 EV (in 0.3 EV steps)
Video clip correction: Camera shake correction, Flicker reduction, Wind noise reduction
Sensitivity: Still: Auto (ISO 50-400), Manual (ISO 50/100/200/400, Lamp mode: Max 1600)
Video: Auto (ISO 200-800), Manual (ISO 200/400/800/1600)
Self timer: 2sec./10 sec.
White balance: Auto: Full Auto TTL, Manual: Sunny/Cloudy/Fluorescent/Incandescent/Sampling
Flash: Auto/Forced/Off/ Red-Eye (Slow, synchro mode possible in Night View mode)
Flash Range: 30cm-2.8m [Wide], 30cm-1.9 [Tele]
Audio: Microphone: Built-in stereo, Speaker: Built-in mono (L/R mixed output)
LCD monitor: 2.2-inch OLED, 210,000-pixels (coverage 100%, 4-level brightness), 285? rotation
Interface: AV output (Video: D4/Composite Video/S-Video, NTSC/PAL, Audio: stereo)
USB 2.0 High-Speed (Storage Class+PC Camera+Video Class)
:interfacing via docking station connecting adaptor
Languages: Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Korean, Traditional or Simplified Chinese
Power source: Lithium-ion battery (DB-L40/1200mA, included), Charging AC adapter included)
Approx. battery life: Video: 80 min.
Dimensions: 3.1″(W) x 1.4″(D) x 4.7″(H)
Weight: 7.4 oz. approx. (main unit only); 8.3 oz. approx. (including battery and a standard SD card)

Package Contents

Sanyo HD1 camera
Docking station
Remote controller
AC Adapter
Cable adapter
AV cables to connect to TV
Component cable
USB cable
Zippered case (not pictured)
Handstrap
Lens cap
Instruction manual
Quick guide
CD Software pack:
Motion Director SE 1.1 (Windows)
Ulead PhotoExplorer 4.0 SE (Windows)
Ulead PhotoExplorer for Mac 2.0 (OS X)
Ulead MovieFactory 4.0 SE (Windows)
QuickTime 7 (Windows)

The Xacti HD1 pretty much ships with everything you need to get up and running quickly and easily. Well that is except for an SD card. You’ll want the biggest / fastest card you can find because recording HD video takes a lot of memory depending which mode you set it to record at:

Before I really get started with this review, I have to say up front that I’m a digital video camera newbie. This is only the 2nd such camera that I’ve had the opportunity to use. So this is mostly going to talk about how easy this camera is to operate and my general impressions on the video quality.

HD stands for High Definition. That’s a term that is getting quite a bit of press these days given the fact that cable and network TV channels are really starting to broadcast more and more of their shows in HDTV (network TV is set to switch over completely by 2009). I purchased a TV that can view HDTV stations 2 years ago, and I absolutely love it when my fave shows or a movie is in HD. The difference in picture quality between HDTV and regular TV is like night and day. So, when I heard about the Xacti HD1 camera, all I could think about was recording video clips that looked as good as the stuff I watch on my TV. It’s not quite that cut and dry though. HDTV has several different formats and resolutions. The main ones are 1080i, which has a resolution of 1920 x 1080, and 720p which has a resolution of 1280 x 720. Both can be shown in 16:9 (widescreen) format and 4:3 format. The Xacti’s max resolution is that of 720p (1280 x 720) widescreen.

You have to agree that this camera is a real looker. It has a sort of a titanium colored plastic shell. There are metal parts too (I think).

Logo side up, the Xacti has a flip up, rotating display. On the outside of the display, is the stereo microphone. Right above the display and to the left, is the battery charging status LED. This LED glows Red when the battery is charging, and turns off when charging is complete.

On the top edge of the camera there is a pop up flash. A button on the opposite side of the camera pops open the flash when you need to use it when taking still images. Unfortunately, the flash will not pop open automatically when needed.

On the back side of the camera there is the battery compartment, external microphone jack and flash button. The front of the camera facing the lens, there is an eyelet for the lens cover, and the IR port.

The size of the Xacti HD1 is just right and it fits comfortably in your hand using a pistol style grip. All of the important controls are within very easy thumb press distance. Build quality feels solid and performing the good old Gadgeteer creak test yielded no flexing of the case.

In the image above, you can see the flip open display. It is a 2.2 inch OLED (organic light emitting diode) display, which is crisp and bright while not drawing as much power as a regular TFT display. The only slight complaint I have about the display is in opening it. There needs to be an edge or something better to grab on to. If you are wearing gloves or mittens, it’s pretty awkward to open.

Camera control is by way of 6 main buttons. Starting clockwise from the top, there is the spring loaded Zoom switch. Push up to zoom in and push down to zoom back out. The Xacti has a 10x optical zoom and a 10x digital zoom (which gives you a total of 100x). The next button is the Video Recording button. Press it once to start recording, and again to stop recording. Next in line is the Menu button. Pressing this button will bring up the on screen menu, and pressing it a 2nd time will exit out of the menu. More about the menus in a minute. The bottom button is the Record / Play mode switch. Directly across from the Menu button is the Set button. This is actually a mini joystick. With it you navigate through menus and settings. It will also allow you to change some settings while in video recording mode. The button across from the Video Recording button is the Shutter button. Like typical digital cameras, you press this button halfway to focus and then the rest of the way to take the shot. It is interesting to point out that you can take still shots even during video recording.

Below the main buttons is the SD card slot, which is protected by a spring loaded flip open door.

The only other control buttons are located under the flip up display. Here you will find the On/Off button, HD/Normal video recording mode toggle button and the Sequential / Single still image shooting mode button.

On the bottom edge of the Xacti, you will find a standard sized threaded socket to accommodate a tripod, and the docking station connector.

A nifty little docking station is included with the Xacti. The camera easily sits on this base and can be removed without the need to hold on to the base itself. The base has 3 connections on the back. One for the AC adapter, one for the USB cable or AV cable, and one the for the component cable. The AV and component cable are included so that you can connect the Xacti to your TV to view videos.

Now let’s take a quick look at the different menus and settings.

In the options setting menus, you can change set the clock, turn off the menu beeps and voice announcements. Yes, the camera talks, it really talks. In the options settings menus, is where you turn on the wind noise reduction and noise reduction features. What is the difference between the two? Well, one is for actual audio noise, and other is for visual noise. The wind noise reduction setting is just that, it helps you to make a good recording when the wind is blowing. According to the manual, you don’t want to leave this setting turned on when you’re not in a windy environment. Supposedly it will cause the audio to sound unnatural. I have not noticed this yet… One thing to be aware of is that once you turn the setting on, you’ll have to remember to go back and turn it off when not needed. Even turning the camera off will not change the setting. The other setting: Noise Reduction, is supposed to help guard against noise in your still images, enabling clearer snap shots.

The camera settings menu is where you have the ability to change things like still image quality, video image quality, exposure, ISO, white balance, etc. If you are the type of person that loves to tweak settings and is not content using the defaults for everything, you’ll love all the control that this camera will give you. You can even do some minor video editing right on the camera. By minor, I mean that you can ‘cut’ video clips and ‘join’ clips. These menus are also where you can turn on the image stabilization mode.

Ok, let’s get to the real world usage of this video camera. First of all, this camera is very fast to start up. If it is in standby mode, you just flip open the display and by the time you rotate it to the proper viewing angle, you’re ready to go. Thanks to the tapeless design of this camera, it is really that fast.

Most people would probably not buy this camera to use it for still images, but it’s nice to know that it does an excellent job with them. I guess it should considering it is a 5.36 megapixel camera with a 38-380mm range.

Click to see full-size still images (each one is 2592 x 1944 and approximately 1.5mb).

Like I mentioned above, you can also take a picture while you’re recording. In theory it sounds pretty awesome, but in practice, I didn’t get very good shots at all this way. It also caused the video to pause at the spot where I pressed the camera shutter button. The pix above were not taken while in video recording mode.

As a video camera, this little camera has the ability to do a really great job. At the same time, it can be very disappointing. At first I thought it was junk because all of my clips were so grainy. Then I figured out that this camera is super sensitive to light. If you try to shoot in a dimly lit room or even outside, you won’t be very happy with the results. This camera likes light and lots of it.

Here are some sample video clips taken directly off the camera with no extra modifications, compressions, conversions etc. I tried to keep them around 10 seconds or so in length due to the fact that they are quite large and I don’t want my web host getting too mad at me.

HD-SHQ 1280 x 720, 30fps, 9Mbps 13mb, MPEG-4 format. Click to watch video.

The video above was shot at the camera’s highest resolution setting and with no zoom. It was a gloomy day and the video quality doesn’t look too hot if you ask me. It’s actually a little blurry.

TV-HR 640 x 480, 60 fps, 6Mbps, 9mb, MPEG-4 format. Click to watch video.

Here’s another sample with more frames per second. Still not the sharpest picture.

HD-SHQ 1280 x 720, 30fps, 9Mbps 16mb, MPEG-4 format. Click to watch video.

Finally a video clip with crisp images. At least when the subject is close up… Those are my main gripes about this camera. It doesn’t seem to do well with low light and long shots. I can deal with the light issues. But the long shots will be a problem for a lot of folks. Not so much for me, as I’ll be using the camera to do my see it in action spots. Those are all close up for the most part. Maybe I’m expecting way too much from this camera. I don’t know. I guess when you read that something is HD, you just automatically think it’s going to be perfect.

I should mention a little about the sound recording quality. None of my video clips had much in the way of sound, but for the most part I’m happy with how the Xacti performs in this area. The microphone will be facing away from you when you are recording, so I found that the sound wasn’t quite as good as my Canon camera in this respect. The microphone location on the Canon is on the top of the camera. This can be remedied though by using an external mic. I’ll have to give this a try.

When it’s all said and done, the Xacti VPC-HD1 is a great little video camera. It has the ability to take HD quality movies given the right conditions. The tapeless design is pretty convenient. Yes, SD cards are more expensive than digital video tapes, but SD cards are also more compact, can’t get jammed and they let the camera power on super fast. Also, with SD cards, each time you record something, it will be saved as a new file on the card. I find that this makes it easier for me to do my editing instead of slicing and dicing longer clips to make shorter ones.

I’ve only had this camera for less than a week, so I plan to put it through some more testing until I come to the final conclusion as to if it will work as my new video camera. Right now I’m leaning towards yes.

Filed in categories: Audio, Video, TV Gear, Digital Cameras and Gear

Tagged: Camera, Digital Camera, Digital Video Camera, Video

Sanyo VPC-HD1 Digital Movie Camera originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 22, 2006 at 7:07 pm.