 an electronics device that actually exceeded my expectations |
| Review Date: July 9, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A. Edwards, Columbiana, AL |
This camcorder exceeded even my highest expectations. I have only had it a little over 24 hours but so far it has been incredible. the interface is very intuitive, the movie quality is, as far as I have seen, unsurpassed in a camcorder this size and price, and is everything its advertised to be (and then some).
Pros:
light weight
intuitive menu system
REALLY good screen
4MP digital camera
full HD camcorder
can take still pictures while making a movie (I love this feature!!!)
the WOW factor, because every-time I pull it out to use everyone around me goes WOW, what kind of camera is that. no one believes me its a HD camcorder!
so light and small it can fit in your car/purse/back-pocket/pez dispenser.
cons:
price - for me this wasnt a issue. I was able to replace my camera and add a HD camcorder for a reasonable amount.
grip - I would like to have seen the grip area be a bit larger. I have found a way to make it ft nicely in my hand, but if the grip was either larger or came with, say, a plastic extender maybe that you could put on the bottom it would be great. I have put the camera in 6 different peoples hands and they all said it felt nice after holding it for a few minutes. You just have to find a way that it is comfy for your hand size.
screen rotation - the one and only thing , if I were the designers of the HD1010 that I would change (and now you'll see how nitpicky I am being). If the viewing screen would rotate to the front I could hold the camera in front of me, look at the screen and know I'm in focus / in the shot, and make a quickie recording. Sort of a looking at the camera, blair witch kinda shot. It only rotates to the top and bottom, not to the front. just a wishlist thing. thats the absolute worst thing about the camera so far.
Comparing it to all of the complaints of the HD1000, I can say everything that was complained about in the HD1000 has been fixed. Sanyo even admitted that this is not supposed to be a whole new model, only a upgrade to the HD1000. By that I mean all of the autofocus issues I read about with the HD1000 have been resolved. as a matter of fact I couldnt MAKE it have a focusing problem. I've tried low light, bright light, moving subjects, even the fan in my living room. everything focused perfectly.
The camera takes great pictures also. They turned out better than any digital camera I have ever used, albeit I have always used more of the personal point and shoot olympus / nikon type. Dark rooms, outdoors, inside with fluorescent bulbs, you name it the pictures have been better than what I expected.
Like I said, I have had 6 other people try using it, from my girlfriend with really small hands to a guy I work with who is 6'7" and has Andre the giant hands and they have all loved it. I have not told anyone how to use it. Just handed it to them and said 'I just got a new camera, try it out and see what you think.' With no instructions everyone has taken both movies, pictures, and had smiles while doing it. Its rare to find something electronic that anyone can use with no instructions given and the HD1010 is something you can use straight out of the box. It really is fun to use.
bottom line, if you are looking at getting a camcorder, this one deserves a close look. I am very picky when it comes to electronics, and I am amazed at what they have done with this camcorder/camera. Everything I expected when I ordered it has been greatly exceeded. Great camera, ease of use, quality of the product overall, and in the end quality of the movies it makes... you cant go wrong.
UPDATE
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thanks to everyone who mentioned you can rotate the lens to the front. I was wrong about that, you can! well, that pretty much zero's out the thing I wanted them to change so, my new complaint is that it doesnt come with Kevin Smith to make better movies with it :) |
I love it - I am a simpleton
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| Review Date: November 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Rowe Rowe, PTown |
The reviewer "A Edwards" really did a great job on the review. When I read it, it swayed me over to make the purchase and I am not sorry.
Now, I'm not the best video shooter on earth but NONE of my shots so far have been shaky at all. Image stabilization is not an issue for me. I am a simpleton though. I do take basic videos of the kids at the park, driving my car (don't ask) and chasing the dog around the house.
The images look great on my 52" Samsung TV and no one gets dizzy or sick. The HD playback is *stunning* and really is the best video recorder I have ever owned. I shot a blair witch simulation and I gotta say that the pores on my face never looked so good. WOW does it get the detail!
Some of you complain that your computer cannot handle playback. I did notice a strange behavior when I used quicktime to playback my videos. It seemed like every 59th frame would skip ahead to frame 65 resulting in a chop every one second. I fixed this by simply playing the videos using a FREE application called VLC. That fixed my problem 100%. Google it and install it. It's a trusted app. No malware, people.
My only issue is disk space. Seems like 1-2 minutes of full on HD@60fps runs about 200Mb. OUCH! The question is: What really IS deserving of recording at full HD? It's really a hard question. I mean, I want EVERYTHING I record to be awesome and HD but lets face it, its not worth the disk space. I lowered the resolution to 720@60fps and the size is much smaller with little sacrafice to quality.
My suggestion is: Shoot the wedding at full rez. Shoot the grand canyon at full rez. Shoot your dog running around at 720! Its up to you but even a 1Tb drive will fill quickly (6 mos or less) if you shoot it all at HD.
Not so long ago, I watched my brother-in-law purchase a Panasonic digital SD camera for more than the XACTI and he is hating life! Why? Because they chose a proprietary format to encode so each time he records, he copies to his computer and must decode each file individually to a format his computer can recognize. The XACTI is the opposite and something that was done right from the start. Record, pull the SD card, insert into computer, copy and watch! It's that simple. No hassles...No strings attached.
If you can afford this gadget, I cannot stress enough how well rounded it is. The only SERIOUS con is that it DOES Look like a gun and casually strolling around town with it will eventually get the attention of the local cops who might front you so be smart and holster this bad boy when in public.
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Brilliant camera
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| Review Date: August 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Rolando Montao Fraire, Mexico, DF |
Easy to use out of the box. Handed it to a nephew and he was filming in a minute. Brilliant quality image. Practical. Beautifull little camera. Easy transfer to the PC. Now i have to learn more about video editing.
(Never get the Xacti holster for it, it's absolute rubish. The camera simply does not fit and can easily fall out. Mine did and luckily nothing happened to it. The included black cloth bag is good. I later got a camera bag with zippers. Much better.) |
works as advertised
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| Review Date: August 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: tv webmaster, Chicago, Il. USA |
| This is an excellent consumer or even prosumer grade camcorder. Image quality is great and indoor light image quality is much improved over the first Sanyo HD 1 from 2 years ago. As some have complained about the image stabilization control, it is true to some degree. Walking while shooting will produce nearly as great a shaking image as not using the image stabilization. However, if your standing still and moving the camera in normal, non jarring movements, it will do a good job of stabilizing the image. This too is an improvement over the old HD 1 (which I still own), but I believe it's one area where Canon has an advantage, using optical instead of digital image stabilization. Sanyo's advantage for me is in the ergonomics of the design and the price.It comes down to what's more important to you.Finally, the free Nero editing/DVD/Blu-Ray authoring is very good for editing even 1080p HD footage. It could be more intuitive in its functions, but once you learn it, it's easy. |
99% satisfied
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| Review Date: November 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: buj, california |
i bought the xacti specifically for my 2 week vacation in japan... i'm very satisfied with the results...the video and pics are superb... i took 2 batteries...but only needed one for a full day of shooting... i took 2 16gb sd cards and used 80% of both...so...these cards are very adequate for the avg traveller...
i did a lot of filming while walking and the vids were jiggly...so...when i wanted to see something specifically...i'd stop walking and shoot still...this worked great as i'll be able to edit out a lot of the boring walking parts... while filming in the car...the vids came out much much more stable. i did use the still pic mode too...they turned out great...
the nero that came with the cam is out of date...but...i was lucky that nero 8 came out with a $[...] buck rebate...so...it cost me $[...] bucks to upgrade...i believe nero 9 is out now... i also have a new laptop and it has all the right stuff for hd playback... quicktime doesn't work...it distorts the vids...
so...i highly recommend the xacti hd1010...bon voyage... |
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