Sanyo VPCFH1A Full HD Video and 8 MP

Does what I wanted it to do. Not a nikon or canon, though.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I bought this camera because you could record 1080p HD video and at the same time snap pictures (if you so desire). The options in the menu are plentiful enough to adjust to the lighting situation you may have (you just need to know how to use it). The video is pretty decent HD. The only con is the autofocus needs a little more refinement. But for the price (under $400), it’s a good camcorder/camera to have. It’s already paid for itself with the videos and pics I’ve taken of my newborn daughter.

Loses 10 seconds of video every 22 minutes
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
As others have pointed out, the Sanyo VPC-FH1 (and VPC-HD2000) will lose about 10 seconds of video every 22 minutes (or so) when the file size hits the 4Gb limit for the FAT filesystem. At this point, the camera opens a new file and loses about 10 seconds of video in the process.

Other camcorders (Canon, Sony, etc.) don’t seem to exhibit this issue. One way manufacturers work around the issue is to buffer the video input during the switch over so that no frames are lost. I’m assuming that, given the price, Sanyo had to cut corners here.

I like to set up my camcorder on a tripod and just let it run for the length of an event. If I’m filming a recital, for example, I don’t want random 10 second chunks missing. For me, this is a deal breaker.

A few problems, but I like it
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I purchased this a little while back, and finally got a chance to put it to use over the holidays. I took it to Disney World and it did a great job. I used it on Big Thunder Mountain, and even though it felt like the camera was being shaken really hard, the video came out smooth. It did great on the low light areas inside the ride as well. I also used it to film the opening of presents on Christmas morning, and everything looked and sounded great. The battery life did just fine, and I love dealing with SD cards instead of tapes.

I agree, it does seem to miss a little time if you run it continuously, but I found most of the time there was nothing going on exciting during that time anyway. It makes me take better video, because I shoot shorter, more important video, rather than shooting continuous boring clips.

Good but not perfect
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros

Superb low light response.

Excellent Mac compatibility

Reasonable price

Generally good set of options in the menu.

37mm threaded front lens so it it is compatible with a large assortment of attachments

Reasonable HD performance

Also functions as a pretty good and easy still camera

Cons

Zoom speed cannot be slowed or controlled in any way. (I stand corrected on this point – read below)

No mic or audio line input.

General Discussion

All things considered, this is a fine product. If you are a Mac person this will save you many hours of work. The MPEG4 file format is very mac friendly. But there are a few things to keep in mind.

This camera has an unusually large aperture; as such this has some interesting consequences. On the positive side, this produces stunning low light capabilities. Furthermore, one can isolate the subject from the background very easily by carefully controlling ones exposure and focus; few other consumer camcorders have this ability. However this places great strain on the auto focus. If one is simply wishing to place it in an auto mode and leave it there, it tends to have a lot of focus problems.

The zoom speed is too fast. Aside from the fact that I feel, that it is aesthetically unpleasing, in every case except bright sunlight, the zoom is faster than the auto focus. Therefore almost any attempt to zoom in while shooting will yield out-of-focus pictures. Consequently you must consider the zoom on this camera to be essentially useless.

For some inexplicable reason, they chose not to include an external mic/ audio in jack. This severely limits its usability.

David Courtney

Houston, TX

This is indeed a great Camcorder
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pros.

Have considerable high optical zoom.

Quite good low light performance.

User-friendly interface.

Very competitive price against $500-$700 range Camcorder with similar features from other main brands.

Cons.

Auto focus a bit slow (hope it can be improved by adjust some settings)

VPC-FH1 Sample Video Clips
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have owned the Sanyo VPC-FH1 for 6 months and have used it to shoot fast action sports at both 1080p and 720p with great success and results. The key is using a proper monopod for stability. I have also used this great little camcorder to shoot high-definition stock footage video to sell online.

There are 8 categories of Sanyo VPC-FH1 online preview clips at this Footageworks link:

[...]

All shot with the Sanyo VPC-FH1 Camcorder at 1920x1080p and made into mp4 files.

This Sanyo VPC-FH1 is a great camcorder and I recommend that you buy it. If you have any questions about the camcorder and need help, feel free to contact me directly.

-Jay

[...]

Sanyo VPC-FH1 HD 1080p Flash Memory Camcorder w/ 16x advance zoom (Black)

Not good indoors
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
This camcorder performed poorly in low light indoor conditions. Perhaps it does better outside on an overcast day — if that is what you call “low light” — but it was miserably bad in my house. The only room that produced acceptable video was my kitchen, while standing under a double fluorescent light with a bright incandescent light in the adjacent eating area. Other rooms, with 40W incandescent lamps were a blizzard af digital noise/speckling in the daytime.

I went through all of the ISO settings and high-sensitivity lamp mode with no significant improvement. They brighten the overall room lightness, but dark areas were still heavily speckled.

I even purchased a video light that was designed for use with Sanyo Xacti camcorders. It brightened people’s faces, but dark curtains, furniture, etc. were still speckled.

Fianlly, the zoom autofocus is terrible indoors. It barely works at all and that is being kind.

I found this camcorder totally unacceptable for indoor use. I primarily record the grandkids’ birthday parties and family holiday gatherings; so this won’t work. I consider this product to be defective based on their sensitivity claims, poor low-light performance observed and a dysfunctional zoom autofocus.

I returned it to Amazon this morning and when I receive my refund I’ll probably buy the Sony HDR-CX500V.