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Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG20
by adslatham
A couple of months ago I was looking around to find a new video camera for my videos that runs in 60 frames a second meaning smoother videos and HD format. Well if you want your camera to work really well in low light conditions then carry on looking because this is not the camera for you. If you want it for HD daylight pictures then ... look no further! This camera is HD, it is portable, it fits in your pocket, it records to SD card, it runs at 60 frames a second format, and takes up to 12 megapixel pictures all on one unit! For £130 this is a steal!!
The battery life on this camera is not great. You can look at about a hour MAXIMUM battery life from what I have found. This is from experimentation in 720p HD format though. If you want to go to full HD 60fps then it could be reduced further? There is no denying that in that full format though the pictures are fantastic. You can see almost every detail and because it is so portable I can keep it in my pocket and pull it out whenever I need to!
So to conclude, if you are looking for a portable HD camera to work in high lighting conditions then this is great. The lack of external mic can sometimes be an annoyance but the in built one is not actually too poor. Great camera for a great price then!
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Panasonic SDR-S7
by Lions
I don't know what you are looking for when you buy a video camera. Personally, when I do I am expecting something that I can make use of in almost any situation. If you are also looking for that, do not buy this camera, it's not what you're looking for.
I read another review of this camera, already written here on DooYoo. ... It stated that it was a good, lightweight, "holiday" type of camera. I try to be creative but they pretty much nailed it right on the head there, that is EXACTLY what this is. Now for me, that wasn't good enough, but like I said before, I don't know what your camera wants/needs are, so I'm just going to basically list off the pros and cons and you can make the decision as to whether this works for you.
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.:Pros:.
-Lightweight.
This camera is super light, you can easily film with one hand without being a body builder.
-Small.
I guess you would expect this with it being lightweight and all, but just in case you didn't realize by now, this is one of the smaller video cameras on the market right now. If you're a woman, this will fit in even the smallest of purses without a problem.
-Pretty good quality video.
It's not like you're filming in HD or anything, but the video does come out very nicely, especially when you consider that this is a much cheaper camera than most of the stuff you see out there these days.
-Very easy to use.
Just pop in an SD card and you can start filming/taking pictures. Viewing your videos or pics on the camera itself is also a breeze, as well as transferring the media files onto your computer. There are only really a couple buttons on the whole thing so learning how to film with it is easy as well.
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.:Cons:.
-The "stop recording" button.
It's in quite the awkward place. You would think they could just have it somewhere where your finger is naturally going to be when you are holding the camera, but instead it's like at the bottom of the camera, and near the front as well. The button to start recording is placed at the perfect spot to click it easily with your thumb, but for whatever reason they picked a weird spot for the stop one.
-Too dark.
You have to make sure you are filming in a very bright area. If you are in a room that is even relatively dark, your view upon playback will be significantly dark, even if it indeed is only slightly dim.
-Eats up charge.
I suppose all video cameras have this problem. Just noting that this one is no exception. If you go on a trip, make sure you've got the charger with you.
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.:Conclusion:.
All in all this is still an okay digital camera, but the whole problem with it being too dark has been a really annoying problem with me on multiple occasions. If you plan on using this only a few times a year (like 10-20 for holidays or maybe musical recitals for your children) than this camera could work for you. But if you want to use this as a serious video camera, I recommend you just put in the extra $50-100 and get something a bit more heavy duty. This isn't anything hardcore right here, but then again, it doesn't really have the hardcore price. Like I said in the beginning of this review, it all depends on your needs.
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Panasonic SDR-S7
by rjs123
I bought this camera from Amazon for about £150 last summer to take with me on holiday, as it looked relatively cheap and looked simple to use. I also had bought Panasonic products before and trusted the brand, so that influenced my purchase as well.
The first thing you notice about the camera when you take it out of the box ... is how truly tiny and light it is. It really is a pocket camcorder, and I wouldn't say you even need particularly big pockets. It looks sleek but also well made, and you can get it in silver and black ( I have the silver one). It has a relatively big fold out screen that can be tilted 180 degrees, so you can see yourself if you are filming from in front. The camera does not have touchscreen controls, but the controls that it does have are quite easy to use, however maybe a little sluggish for some. There is a "prerecord" button at the back which I feel is a handy feature: the camera remembers two seconds of live recording constantly, so that if you miss shooting something but still pointed the camera in the right direction you can press this button and you will still get the previous two seconds footage.
The camera does not however have a viewfinder, which is a bit of a pain if you are outside in bright sunshine and the sun reflects off the screen. The manual controls are almost unusable too, as it is really hard to judge when something is in focus or not in manual mode. For this reason it's a good thing that the autofocus is quite quick and relatively accurate.
The actual video quality is alright, but by no means fantastic. The camera doesn't do hd, it is slightly grainy in low light and it takes time to adjust brightness, but the overall quality is ok. It's good enough for home movies and capturing family moments, but I wouldn't use it for shooting a short film or anything. The still image mode is so bad that it's not really worth talking about, and to be honest I don't really see it as a "feature", more something Panasonic thought they ought to put in but didn't spend much time on.
The camera takes SD memory cards, which is convenient for just slotting it into a computer and does make the camera lighter, however it does mean you have to spend some extra money. For a tenner of Amazon you can get a 4 gig memory card which will store about two hours of footage.
In terms of optics, the camera has 10x optical zoom (ignore digital zoom when you're looking for cameras as all it does is magnify pixels), which is fantastic for such a tiny camcorder. The lens is covered by a sliding lens cap which means there is no way of loosing it (for forgetful people such as myself).
I like this camera for its portability and build quality, however the quality of the video really isn't great. I would recommend this camera for holidays or home videos as it is really easy to use and has a good zoom, but if you want some professional looking video go for a more expensive hd camera with an electronic viewfinder and better manual controls.
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