Customer Reviews

Sanyo VPC-CG102 High Definition Camcorder and 14 MP Camera w/12x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I have some initial impressions of the ultra compact CG102 cam. I will write a more complete update later. I'm quite impressed with this little wonder. The build quality is very good. However you have to use a supplied lens cap. No built in lens cover like higher priced cams.
There is no video editing software included. You have to download the manual from the Sanyo website. So that is where you see the cost cutting. This is why I gave 4 stars instead of 5
The website refers you to Arcsoft, Adobe Premire, or Nero as editors you can use on a PC. If you are a Mac person, this is supposed to be compatible with iFrame and iMovie. I haven't tried it on my iMac yet. Only on my PC laptop with Arcsoft.
I'm pleased so far with the lens and performance of this little cam. It has a dual range zoom that you switch between a 40-240 and 80-480mm (in 35mm camera focal length). The picture is very detailed, benefiting from 11mp video resolution. The still camera function is 14mp but limited to the 40-240 range of the zoom unfortunatly. This cam will realy shine in outdoor daylight conditions, but it does a reasonable job indoors and artificial light.
There is a 1/4 screw mount for tripod work. It doesn't use a pin in conjuntion with the screw mount like most video cameras. But given the very small size and light weight, it's not going to be needed by most. Another unusual feature is charging method. Rather than pluging into the camera to recharge, there is a seperate battery charger. So you must remove the battery to charge up. The upside is that charging is very quick. It also means if you have a spare battery, you can be charging it while using the cam. I don't know as yet how long a charge will last. That maybe a downside to the pistol grip layout verses its larger brother the GH2.
Anyway, a very positive first day of use. I will update as I gain info on this little guy. This maybe an excellent alternative to a "superzoom" still camera. 14mp stills and good quality video to boot. Carry it in your jacket pocket or purse. With a very reasonable price. The Sanyo site [...
UPDATE 1 : The cam does work well with iMovie. Very easy to use with the iMac.

To answer some questions left for me. The 16gig SDHC card is good for 2 hours of full HD video. In the box are a USB cable and a USB to RGB cable. There is a HDMI port, but not a HDMI cable. The LCD screen doesn't flip backwards to video yourself. That would take an external moniter. The spec to look for for low light ability is sensitivity measured in Lux. The lower Lux # the better or more sensitive. Of course manufactuers may use different standards. The Lux rating for the Sanyo are not as good as the HD Canons ($500) but are not bad compared to the HD Sonys and Panasonics in the $500 range. When you then compare to Flipcams and the like. They're not in the same leage as the Sanyos specs or abilities.

UPDATE 2: I stand corrected. The screen does flip backwards. Operatoer error.

This is my first camcorder. I bought it to film HD vids for the grandparents of my newborn first son. For the reviews that say the color or brightness or white balance is off, those users need to visit the Sanyo site and click on the "Let's Shoot More Movies" tab/picture. There are dozens of tips, hints and video examples.

This little cam is fantastic. I've been using it non stop for the past 4 weeks. I've captured about 5 total hours. It's very comfortable on the wrist and convenient on the hip. I keep it on my belt in an old pouch I had. I had bought the Targus small expedition and the Swiss Gear Sherpa medium, but neither of them fit. I ended up buying a Lowepro Ridge 30 from Amazon and it fits great (plus cheaper than anything at Target or Walmart). Returned the other 2 bags.

Size was a big factor for me. I just know that if it's not unobtrusive, I won't carry it, and thus won't be able to use it, and the camera would just be a waste of money. This thing is the smallest. I went to see a similar model at Radio Shack before I bought it. I decided on the vpc-cg102 because it had the higher optical zoom for only about 15% more.

I considered the Samsung with the ergo angle, but it's a little bigger and the HD model is $400+. This little Xacti wins against Sony and Panasonic which only do proprietary AVCHD. I'm no camcorder expert, but it seems like not many editing suites can do AVCHD natively (requiring more horsepower and time on your PC to convert and then edit) and since every DVD and Media player box out there is MPEG4, why would I make life difficult for myself? And if it's not easy to edit, I'm not going to sit for hours at my PC in frustration. IMHO the Sonys at BestBuy are outpriced with the lowest HD capable model around $450. The JVCs they had a BBuy were on the clunky side. Samsung was the only real size competitor to the Xacti.

I bought the Patriot Class 4 SDHC 32GB card (low cost with $10 rebate and a review said it writes at 17+Mbs (which I have not verified). But I can say empirically, it does keep up with this Xacti's 16Mbs highest rate for full 60fps HD when in the camera recording. It records 5+ hours at 1080p/30fps (a lot). And this cam also accepts SDXC cards for future flash upgrade.

I also bought 2 batteries and a travel charger shipped from Hong Kong on eBay for less than $20. And I can report they work perfectly. So the complaints about battery life are inconsequential if you know how to shop. The batteries are ultra thin and tiny (smaller than a book of matches) so carrying 2 spare all charged up is not an issue.

Cons: Tough to find a case that fits the non standard dimensions. Battery life is about 60+ mins, but who cares if you've got 3 batteries? Picture focus lock takes about 1 min of practice to master. Auto focus is a little slow and can be fickle until you master it. Definitely not was fast as even an old Canon S41 (from 2004) sensor. But once u have the touch of the half-press then full press of the picture button it's 100% predictable. Just be prepared if you give the camera to a stranger who hasn't practiced for a quick shot. They will mess up and the picture will end up blurry. Also, the gun design absolutely requires a tripod for handless shooting. The camera will not stand up without it. I bought one of the cheapie $2 mini tripods with bendable legs off Amazon, but it's not nearly as good as the Joby gorillapod style. The metal covered legs have a springy memory property to them that makes it a pain to level the camera perfectly and have it stay. I got a "gorillapod" look-alike off eBay shipped from Hong Kong. It is 99% identical to the real Joby and it was under $4 (and yes, I have a real Joby to compare it to).

Pros: Pictures can be shot at 12M widescreen 16:9 or 14M 4:3. I prefer to leave it in 12 widescreen. The auto flash has a red-eye feature that only flashes once extra, so it doesn't totally blind the subjects. And it seems to be intelligent in sensing faces so it can save battery power and not flash when it doesn't sense a face. Love the timed picture delay feature countdown of big red circles. You flip the screen around to face the subjects and can see yourself when you jump into the picture. It has 4 red circles that count down and tell everyone when it's going off.

If you want a camera you can actually use and take with you to capture impromptu moments of life, this is Xacti is the One to get. If you're looking to do more setup (tripod, etc) and get better stability, microphone hookup, 80x+ zoom, 5 hour battery, etc, then look for a bigger, higher priced barrel type unit with more features.

Sanyo also makes this same camera in a flatter non-gun type body. It's called the vpc-gh1 and vpc-gh2. But the gun handle body is one of the best features.

Cons: It's not as high quality as other cameras in the $400+ range. The plastic is thin, especially the battery door, but it's not an issue. And the controls are not as tactile as a $1500 Sony. Photo pictures aren't as sharp as with a Canon elph, but the convenience of just having a camera and camcorder in one makes up for it. Auto focus is comparatively slow to the best compact quickshot cameras (about 1.5 secs).

I just got this puppy and it really is a beautiful piece of work... as far as looks goes, but the performance does lack in a few areas. Overall the Sanyo VPC-CG102 HD camcorder works well in outdoor daylight surroundings, but it lacks in low light situations (there are adjustments in the settings that may improve the low light capabilities (white balance/exposure/etc), but so far I haven't tried them). The 14mp camera does work nicely and you can take photos at the same time you shoot videos. The battery life is minimal, say 2-3 hours on the supplied 700mah battery (but I've already ordered 2 extra 1000mah batteries from ebay for $12). I've owned a few Sanyo cams and as for the stabilization system it performs poorly, but this has been the same for most of the sanyo cams..

Video Size Example: I took a 9 minute video and the settings were at the maximum (Full HD 1080, 60i Video (1920 x 1080), The size for the 9 min video was 1.3GB & it took a little over 2 hours to upload to YouTube with an internet connection speed (ISP) of around 18mb.

Video Recording Modes:
-----------------------
Full-HD 1920x1080 60fps
Full-SHQ 1920x1080 30fps SHQ
HD-HR 1280x720 60fps HR
HD-SHQ 1280x720 30fps SHQ
TV-SHQ 640x480 30fps SHQ
Voice Recording

For a very small DUAL-Mode (camcorder/camera), that shoots Full 1920x1080 HD and fits in your pocket for easy access when you on the go, this product I think is a keeper, (normally I would sent back every camera and camcorder that I've purchased the past 2 years, because they've never met the majority of my expectations). Because of a bad stabilization system and low light recording I am giving it a ranking of 4 stars

Pros
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Low cost, just over $200, so you cannot complain to much with its faults
Very small, It fit nicely in my pants pocket.
Easy to use menu
Has a tripod mound & allows access (cables, sd card, battery)
Full HD 1080, 60i Video (1920 x 1080)
14MP Photos
12x Dual Range Zoom Video
5x Optical Zoom Photo
2.7" Wide LCD Monitor for HD Playback
High Speed Sequential Shooting
Video and Photo Face Detection
Mini HDMI Output
SDXC Memory Compatibility (over 64GB SD cards) (If u can find one)
MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 Movie Recording Format
super fast start-up and shooting
The battery size is very small (Nice for transporting extra ones in the pocket)


Cons:
-----
Terrible in low light situations (but it allows for better adjustments in setting)
Weak Video Image Stabilizer
No supplied editing software included
No remote control
No HDMI cable included
No place to connect the lens cap cable
Battery life could be better (I upgraded to 1000mah batteries)
Nice display, but can be hard to see in sunlight (very dark compared to the video shot)
A lot of manuals are included, but the camera information is not explained well
A very short USB cable is included (maybe 2' long)
The mic picks up bad wind noise
No audio-in connections
No hot shoe for lighting

After a full month with this camera, I can comfortably put (virtual) pen to paper about my experience with it. First, let me say what drew me in.....its' pistol-grip form factor and overall size. This thing is small! But, not too small. It feels right in the hand. I have always been attracted to the Xacti line for the pistol-grip, can't really comment on why, but I have been.

Video quality on this thing is pretty decent for a $200 camera. It can record 1080p at 30 fps (wish it did 24 fps) or 1080i at 60 fps. A trick I learned from Alex Lindsay at Pixel Corp (Google him, he is an authority on video processing) is to shoot at 1080 (i or p) and then re-encode to a lower res. It takes the best of the available data in the video and actually looks better than the original footage. Weird, I know!

The bad. Terrible, terrible, terrible still images. Can't emphasize that enough! In a pinch, better to have it than not, but I think that my 3.2 MP iphone takes better images than this thing by a factor of 10! It is bad!

The only other knock on the camera is that it generally has a plastic-y feel to it.

Otherwise, it is great for my wife, who carries it in her purse for when the baby does something funny, which she usually is!

Everytime I purchase any electronic product, I do a decent amount of research before choosing it, as I did before buying this camcorder. Some of the important features for me were:

- External drives to store videos
- Video quality
- Photo quality
- Video/photo quality in low light settings
- Flash for Photo
- Camera Lens size
- Cosmetic design
- Batter life
- Ability to shoot yourself, while seeing how it shows on the video
- Price

The contenders were:

- Flip line (UltraHD, MinoHD)
- Sanyo Xacti line (CG-102, CG-20, etc.)
- Kodak line (Zi8, PlaySport)


All of the above had pros and cons.

Flip: I didn't choose Flip because it didn't have ability to have external storage, limiting # of hours I can shoot, and I also read their camera feature sucked.

Kodak: Kodak Playsport was the cheapest with $130, and it was really durable. But it was ugly. It also lacked stereo audio, and bad Camera feature. Zi8 looked much nicer, but it lacked good Camera feature. Both were bad in low lighting.

Sanyo: CG102 was the best. It had the biggest lens of all of the choices, zoom levels were not even comparable as it was so good compared to other choices, you stored everything on the SDHC card, and it had full Camera feature, such as abilty to control ISO, and shuter speed. Some had complained about it not begin good at low lighting, but this one being the only camera with ability to control ISO, I don't know how other camcorders can be any better. Also, you can flip the LCDs back and forth, so you can watch yourself while filming yourself, which is great. It also has "real" flash, not the stupid LED ones, for the Camera. Neither Flip nor Kodak has "real" Flash. CG102 also has stereo mic. One of the major downside, however, is that CG102 was the most expensive of the bunch with $230, which was almost twice the cost of Kodak Playsport.

At any event, CG102, blew the ballpark out when compared against any of its competitors. I have been using it for past few days, and I love it, and it's everything I needed in a camcorder/camera combo.

[[ASIN:B0036TH6XG Sanyo VPC-CG102 High Definition Camcorder and 14 MP Camera w/12x Optical
This is about my 5th Camcorder bought over the past 15 years. I am not a pro, but an amatuer enthusiast.
I wanted an inexpensive camcorder, with a decent optical zoom (at least 10x) that would be easy to use, easy to travel with, have good image quality, rechargeable battery that could be removed from the unit.. so I would have minimal downtime. I also wanted the Camcorder to havea camera, and use SD memory cards. This camcorder fit the bill perfectly in all respects~! I had tried the VPC-CS1 but it was just too small and difficult for my fingers to manipulate.


As a camcorder ...in this price range..it excels. Zoom is smooth, focus reasonably fast and well. Excellent color rendition.Very intuiitive and easy to use controls and menus. I used the enclosed AVI cables and the Video clips looked quite good on a 19inch HD TV. I have not yet tried it on HDMI.No tranfer problems of files to my computer or edit problems as a friend of mine advised me he had with an Optimum unit he had purchased last summer. The camera function, however,is slow to focus and has shutter lag... but images are satisfactory. Sanyo should have included a handstrap, but I had one around that I am using.
This review and rating is not meant to compare the camcorder to much more expensive units... that may have built in lights,etc. high end software (none is included), but to let you know that for the money (under $250) your getting an excellent little unit with many features that make it an excellent value.

I was looking for an HD camcorder that would shoot good video in both 1080/60i and 720/60p, but that was small enough for me to carry around in my cargo pants pocket. I've had this for about two months now. This camcorder certainly fit the bill, and more. One outstanding feature is the dual zoom. When engaged, it basically puts a 2x telephoto lens into play, allowing everything from wide angle to 12x zooming without going into digital zoom, and without making the lens look like a gun barrel. There are also controls for ISO, white balance, exposure, and manual focus, among others. The learning curve is a little long, but if you take the time to learn about them and experiment with the different settings in different conditions, you can take outstanding video. I recorded my son's soccer game in 720/60P. Admittedly it was outdoors in bright sunlight - ideal conditions - but the video quality was jaw dropping. It even impressed my videographer friend. The stills are very good as well, but I haven't been able to get them to come out as nicely as my 8 MP Canon Digital Elph.

To keep the camcorder at this price point, Sanyo left out some essentials, like a mini hdmi cable, software, and a user's guide. You have to go online to the Sanyo website to get the user's guide in pdf format. The usb port is proprietary, and the included cable is literally 23 inches long, so you'll need a usb extender cable in addition to the mini hdmi. You can get both online for a few bucks plus shipping. It also does not include an AC power cord. The included battery charger does not connect to the camcorder. It charges the battery outside of the camcorder. I picked up an extra battery, as the battery lasted less than an hour on a full charge. You'll also need an sd card class 6 or better. For software, if you have Windows 7, the latest version of Windows Live Movie Maker can edit the video and burn it to DVD. I use multiAVCHD and ImgBurn (both are free) to burn AVCHD video to a regular DVD and watch it in full HD on my PS3 and Samsung blu-ray players. Consider a tripod as well. I have a tough time holding it steady. I picked up a monopod for $20 at wally world.

Bottom line, if you're looking for an easy to use camcorder, there are better options. If you're looking for a reasonably priced HD camcorder that shoots outstanding video and will fit in your pocket so you can actually take it somewhere, look no further.

I waited two months before submitting my review. Now that I've used both this Sanyo camcorder for a while and have figured out its nuances, I am happy to report I am quite pleased with this product. I bought a 32G card to use with it, and have had plenty of room for filming.

Things I like:
- fits in my back pocket of my pants. When we're traveling to Disneyland or elsewhere, I like that I don't have to keep track of a camera bag or otherwise hold it in my hands the entire time. The compact size is perfect, and it easily slips into one of my pockets. I just have to be careful not to sit on it too many times.

- HD quality. The quality of the video is better than my last, larger and more expensive camcorder.

- pistol grip. Easy to hold onto while filming. Image stabilization works well - hardly ever any shaking in the video. I don't use a tripod.

- Zoom works great. Decent video even at full zoom.

- face regognition. Pretty cool to see the focus automatically centering on each person's face when you film. Works well.


Things I don't like:
- ISO adjustment. Other reviews complained about the brightness (or lack of brightness) in the video or pictures. This is true - the images to come out dark....unless you adjust the ISO settings. Now I have it down to a science - before filming I make sure the ISO settings are at 800 or so to ensure proper brightness. When taking pictures I adjust it down to 200 or 400. It takes 2 seconds to change the settings once you figure it out. It's lame that I have to do a manual override when switching from photo to video, but really not much hassle now that it's routine. Both my photo and video quality look great.

- Lens cap. It attaches in a strange place and pops off too easily. It doesn't really get in the way during filming, but just doesn't rest in a natural place.


Overall, I gave this 4 out of 5 stars. I would have given this 5 stars is not for the need for manual ISO adjustment.

I agree with the first reviewer. Very nice camera, nice zoom. The first reviewer said the LCD screen doesn't flip backward to video yourself, but it does. Just turn it downward and around instead of up, works great!

I did a lot of research and homework before buying the Sanyo VPC-CG102 video camera. This video camera will take lousy video/photo in a dim or dark environment. The Sanyo VPC-CG102 can and does take great video/photo in a well lighted environment. I use this video camera only for outdoors video/photo and am very please with the results. Viewing the video on a HD wide screen television is just outstanding. The video camera comes with a HDMI port without the HDMI cable being supply. I brought a HDMI cable for only 97 cents and it seems to work alright. The supplied 700mAh battery last me for approximately 1 hour of video on a 16gb SDHC Class 6 card. I brought 2 spare 1100mAh batteries from Amazon.com which gives me enough batteries for a day of shooting video. There was no video editing software supply with the Sanyo VPC-CG102 camera but Sanyo recommended three software packages. Adobe Premiere Elements 8 being one of them and it is an video software package that I have installed on my computer. I had no problems editing, processing and burning a DVD-R video disc. Windows Live Movie Maker also can be use to process and burn an video disc. This video camera uses the MPEG-4 codec and it's video files has the extension of .MP4. No manual came with this video camera but Sanyo directed the user to a web site that have an emanual for the Sanyo VPC-CG102 that I downloaded to an USB flash drive. I highly recommend this video camera for anyone who likes to shoot video in a well lighted area. I do not recommend this video camera for use in any dim or dark area. Because I am using the Sanyo VPC-CG102 only in a well lighted environment I gave it a rating of 5 stars as the video view on a HDTV is just outstanding, the best that I have seen from any HD video camera.