So, I have bought this camcorder last year, and I was soo excited about it. Everything worked just fine until the sad truth blasted me. My first 1080i movie was playing quite well on the camera but on the PC? No. I have to convert each 1080 movie from interlaced ... Read full review
So, I have bought this camcorder last year, and I was soo excited about it. Everything worked just fine until the sad truth blasted me. My first 1080i movie was playing quite well on the camera but on the PC? No. I have to convert each 1080 movie from interlaced to progressive... I liked the fact that it can take stills while shooting movies, but the still size is the same as the movie size: 480p movie, VGA still, Full HD movie, 2MP still; the only one which doesn't go on this rule is the 320p video on which a VGA still is shot, so it won't look very good if you do that. The good thing about it is that the screen doesn't freeze anymore... The video sound was great, it sounded so natural and crisp clear. 48Khz Stereo and mono speaker with L-R mixed output.You also have a sound recording option, and you can record clear AAC 48KHz stereo sounds.
Another thing about the camera, while shooting videos on a longer period of time, the inside plastic cover(on which the on/off button is) gets very warm, and the camera may easly slip or suffer an internal tepmerature rising.(not that i had this untill now)
After I had a look in the menus, I discovered: 4M-H(the low compression but bigger in size 4M still) and 4M-S(the native resolution, smaller in size and normal compression), 3.5M, 2M and 0.9M wide options for stills, but don?t try them except for the 3.5M (because the details will be better anyway) ,a VGA and an 8MP(interpolated) still option. With a 2GB card you can get like 750 8M stills but at a range of a 2-3MB per still.
Video resolutions like 480p and 720p can be shot at 30 and 60fps a 320p at 30fps and Full HD at 60 fields/s.
After some ISO test, I discovered that the noise level is good until 800 at most. The ISO 50 is the best option and it frequently used even in ISOauto or 50 in bright light. In auto there isn't a fixed ISO, it can be any value from 50-200 auto and 50-3200 in manual option..
I did some color tests: there are 4 image settings: normal, vivid, soft and soft vivid. Now: in any of these, there is almost no difference: vivid gets a more intense colors, and soft vivid as well but not too much. The Sepia/B&W and cosmetic options weren't used so much, but they are good.
The colors aren't quite accurate in stills, I tried searching for the "ideal" white balance preset on the manual option, not to mention I pressed the set button like a half an hour and actually found something better.
Macro tests were great: The stills got so clear even at 1 cm , although, I don't recommend using flash at such a close distance because it will appear to bright on the upper side of the subject and dark, close to black on the middle and lower side. I was surprised of the Built-in DSLR flash which is very powerful, and it's flash range is very good..:it has an auto, Forced, RR and off functions. Caution: don?t try to photo your eye very close or put the finger on the flash when it's operating: It's hot.
There is also the aperture, shutter priorities as well as a manual option, and you can modify the shutter speed and set the aperture for the sun-starburst effect on any light... the 10x optical zoom is satisfying, coupled with a 10x digital zoom (4M or lower) You have a Face Chaser which can detect up to 12 faces in the frame, but because of interfering with some other options (digital zoom, noise reduction, flicker reduction) the Face-Chaser automatically turns itself off. Not to mention it does not work in movie mode. There are some blue lights around the buttons, to indicate video shooting AF, etc which can be disabled in the power save menu.. It has a lot of cables, for PC and HDTV, it?s battery resists quite a long time although it charge in like 2 hours, it's easy to hold due to the 105 degree camera angle, which it's demonstrated to produce the lower stress to the hand, and due the pistol-grip shape itself, it?s easy to carry, but I don?t recommend carrying it with a neck-strap because it?s heavy. It?s stills are good but the colors are unnatural (green, light blue, red, yellow, the violet looks like dark blue etc) the videos are good in low light, but they are grainy as well.
Sanyo HD1000 8MP stills with FullHD video 10x zoom and some strange things as well..
I had no problem with the joystick, because i already handled a xacti c4, and i'm quite familiar with the menus.
This camera is a good aquisition but there are some better as well..
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