Sanyo VPC-HD1 - Worlds smallest HD cam - should I buy?

Unsomnambulist

Unsomnambulist

Active member
A friend of mine just offered me a Sanyo VPC-HD1 for $300, half the original price. The marketing company he works for purchased a couple dozen of these for a project, and are now offering them to their staff.

I don't take the HDcam part seriously for a $300 camera, or even a $600 camera. But the size is very nice - possibly great to keep on hand for vlogging, or to use on music videos or reality show type projects - and it records to an SD card.

Online reviews indicate its a YMMV type of product, its usefulness depending on your needs... but I'm wondering if some crappy, slightly larger miniDV from Circuit City might be a better option for a discreet B-footage camera...

Has anyone tried this thing, or have any advice?
 
For $300 it would be worth it just because it's small and cool, but don't expect too much.

I have one and it takes pretty good pictures for such a small camera as long as there is lots of light. It (like many cameras) has a lot of trouble when shooting in situations with harsh shadow.

Most cameras need lots of light, but this one takes it to another level. I can shoot in my living room with all the lights on and it still picks up a lot of noise. Funny thing is that the noise doesn't look so bad to me...most of the time.

One thing I think this camera might work well for is doing staged interviews that are lit well. It's definitely a TINY chip, but I think it could fool people if staged right with lots of light and not much movement. If you hold it still and have lots of light it seems to pick up colors fairly well.

Here are two very good examples of how bad it can be in this situation. Keep in mind that this is pure daddy-cam stuff. All auto settings and i shot into light and then dark, etc.

Check out "Walking with Marracas" and "Austin Sitting in Sink". Those are the two shot with this camera.

http://www.babysites.com/sites/tarafrancois/default.asp?page=myvideos&seq=1

If nothing else it's good just to carry around in case you see a UFO or want to snap some still pics. :)

You'll also want to get a 2-4gig card.

Later,

J.
 
Ok, if you want to know more about this cam go over to DVinfo (sorry Mods) there they have a whole sub section about it, look out for the 31 shots (or whatever number it was) that was some amazing stuff shot on this little cam, as well as A a homebuilt lens hood that someone else is selling (with free editing software , and best shooting settings)

Hope that helps

Anhar
 
It's a neat little camera plus the price isn't bad either. I may just buy one for "stuff" and I can also use this as a replacement for DAT.
 
insanityfw - Don't think I've ever seen a baby, that age, walking before. Especially holding marracas and keeping perfect balance. ...I can't even do that at my age. :) You might have a baby genius in the household.
 
I think it's cool just to have a small cam that shoots to an SD card. I wouldn't pay SRP for that thing but the half price offer makes it more tempting.

I just piced up this for $50:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=1829857&sku=D15-5500

I'm sure whatever it shoots is gonna look crappy, but I just want it for fun -- something to keep in the car for those times when you just wish you had SOME sort of video camera.

I don't think I'd try to do actual production work with the HD Sanyo or the $50 toy I got... though could be useful for blog work etc.
 
PK Gillock said:
insanityfw - Don't think I've ever seen a baby, that age, walking before. Especially holding marracas and keeping perfect balance. ...I can't even do that at my age. :) You might have a baby genius in the household.
Click to expand...

Thanks PK. He must have gotten any skills or intelligence from his mother. the maracas are mine, however. :)

Thanks Anhar for the DVinfo tip. I think it would be fun to see what could be done with such a tiny camera.

These little cameras have even more constricted performance, because of their size, but imagine where we'll be in few years. Palm-sized 2k cameras.
 
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