Product Description

Conveniently capture life's important moments. The new Sanyo Dual Camera Xacti CG10 records High Definition video (720p, 30fps), and up to 10 megapixel digital photos with 5X optical zoom. All of these features are contained in a very stylish, sleek, upright design. Videos, still photos and the various settings / menus can be easily accessed with the user's thumb. The CG10 easily fits in your coat pocket and makes sharing videos and photos via social networking web sites, portable video devices like iPods, TVs and computers, easy.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228 in Camera & Photo
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sanyo
• Model: VPC-CG10BK
• Dimensions: 4.80" h x 5.20" w x 7.00" l, 2.85 pounds
• Display size: 3

Features

• Capture HD digital video (720p, 30fps) and up to 10-megapixel still photos
• 5x optical zoom; 3-inch widescreen LCD
• Face Chaser technology (can detect up to 12 faces for photos and videos)
• Built-in still photo flash; High-Speed Sequential Shooting (7fps)
• Capture video and stills to SD/SDHC memory cards (not included)

From the Manufacturer

Conveniently capture life’s important moments. The new Sanyo Dual Camera Xacti CG10 records High Definition video (720p, 30fps), and up to 10-megapixel digital photos with 5x optical zoom. All of these features are contained in a very stylish, sleek, upright design. Videos, still photos and the various settings / menus can be easily accessed with the user’s thumb. The CG10 easily fits in your coat pocket and makes sharing videos and photos via social networking web sites, portable video devices like iPods, TVs and computers, easy.

Sanyo Xacti CG10 Highlights

Style Design Made Simple
The Dual Camera Xacti CG10 packs cutting edge technology into a small, stylish, easy to use camera. Designed to fit perfectly in the palm of your hand, the Dual Camera CG10 features an easy to navigate menu which make it a great choice for the beginner and the more advanced user. It is the perfect blend of style, performance, and ease of use.

Large, 3-inch Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
The display flips out from the camera and rotates up to 285 degrees on an axis that allows you to take great video or still images from otherwise-difficult-to-view positions, proving to be especially useful when shooting in confined spaces.

10-megapixel Still Image Quality
In addition to HD Video (720p 30 fps) the CG10 takes amazing 10 megapixel still photos. With a 10-megapixel (effective) CMOS image sensor the still images can be interpolated to reach 12-megapixel still image quality.

5x optical zoom
The CG10 lens provides a zooming range of F=38-190mm (35mm equivalent). Combined with the 12x digital zoom, the CG10 offers a total zooming range of 60x.

12 Subject Face Chaser Technology
Recognizes up to 12 faces for videos and still pictures and optimizes focus and aperture settings to ensure all subjects are in focus.

Sophisticated image stabilizer
Using a proprietary Sanyo algorithm, the CG10 automatically compensates for distracting up-and-down or side-to-side camera movement, keeping your subject steady and easy to follow. It accurately distinguishes between unintentional camera shake and deliberate camera movement. This handy feature operates in both wide-angle and telephoto modes.

Sequential photo mode shoots up to 7 frames per second
Take pictures like the pros with sequential shooting up to 7 fps, or a total of 14 photos (2MP). The perfect solution for action photography.

Highly-advanced MPEG4 AVC/H.264 video compression
This feature optimizes the file size and makes sharing movies on social networking sites, or e-mailing them to friends and family, even easier. In fact, the file size can be up to 25 percent smaller than that of typical MPEG-4 cameras.

Easily transfer video and still images to your video capable iPod
Import video and still image files directly into iTunes software and then port them to your video-capable iPod. Share your latest masterpiece with friends and family.

Record over 5 hours of full motion video
Using a 16 GB SDHC memory card users can capture over 5 hours and 43 minutes worth of video in standard definition or approximately 3 hours and 51 minutes in HD video mode.

Capture still images while you’re shooting video
The CG10 enables simultaneous shooting of video clips and still images with a simple press of the shutter button during the shooting of a movie clip. You will never need to miss another precious photo opportunity. (Depending on the mode used to take still images, simultaneous video clip shooting may be interrupted. While shooting video clips, using the digital image stabilizer may change the angle of view for still images.)

Super-fast start-up
Reduce your chance of missing the perfect shot. The Dual Camera Xacti CG10 is designed for super fast start-up and shooting. With its tapeless design, the CG10 eliminates the need to queue up a video tape, allowing it to begin shooting in as little as 1.7 seconds! When the CG10 is powered on, closing the LCD display puts it in standby mode. Simply open the display and the CG10 automatically powers up and can begin immediately recording in as little as 1.7 seconds.

Includes a high-capacity Sanyo brand lithium-ion battery
The DB-L80 is a high capacity battery designed to work with the Sanyo Xacti CG10 camera and delivers approximately 70 minutes of video record time. High-energy density design minimizes the battery size and weight, making it perfect for use in the Sanyo Dual Camera Xacti CG10. The DB-L80 is designed to resist memory accumulation so it provides a full charge every time.

Easy playback of recorded video directly on a TV
Connect the CG10 to a DVD / VCR Recorder, or to a computer, to back-up copies of recorded content. Still images and video clips are played back continuously and in chronological order. When connected to a PC, simple drag-and-drop operation makes it easy to save recorded video clips and still images onto a computer's hard disk for emailing, editing or archiving.

Customer Reviews

Rich in features, Poor in picture quality but Best Bang for the Buck
I picked up one of these locally, intending to replace my MinoHD with it. This camera ended up being a disappointment to me. I really want to like it, but the reality is that the picture quality disappoints compared to the MinoHD.

PROs: LOTS of really nice features
- Compact pistol-grip design that's comfortable to hold
- Large, easy to view 3" LCD screen with rigid plastic screen to protect it
- Uses SD/SDHC memory cards up to 32GB
- Stereo audio
- Standard h.264/AAC codecs compatible with Apple's iMovie '09
- 5X optical zoom, able to change zoom range while recording
- Focus auto-adjusts while recording (not all cameras do this)
- Ability to take decent 10MP still shots without having to switch modes
- Has a flash for still pictures
- Easy to navigate menu system with customizable shortcuts accessed by the joystick
- Easy to operate joystick with positive click feedback that doesn't intrude while recording
- Manual adjustments (full manual, shutter priority, aperture priority, noise reduction, auto-focus mode, exposure measure mode, etc.)
- Comes with a lens cap to protect the lens
- Tally light is on the top of the camera to the rear where the person holding the camera can see it and not where it's distracting to the person being recorded (VERY important when recording small children)
- Easily accessible battery compartment / Battery cover is tethered by a plastic tab so it can't be easily lost
- Standard tripod mount on the bottom

CONs: Picture quality requires a lot of tweaking in the manual settings to make it decent.
- Low light performance is poor even for this class of camcorder
- Electronic stabilization tends to soften the picture, sometimes to the point of making it appear to be out of focus
- Color saturation results in a visual pleasing picture but inaccurate color reproduction
- Focus and Exposure reaction seems to be fairly slow as well
- Proprietary USB/AV port (I hate it when manufacturers eschew standard ports in favor or proprietary solutions. I'd rather have the camera be a little bigger to accommodate a mini-USB port as well as a mini-HDMI)
- Proprietary HD Component cable NOT included
- SD slot cover seems a bit flimsy
- Camera cannot be used as a live camera with Macs, only with Windows PCs
- Camera draws power from battery when used in card reader mode instead of drawing power from USB

Before I bought this camera, I did a lot of research on it, including viewing uploaded footage from this camera on Vimeo.com. Even though I've only had the camera two days, I've done a lot of testing with it.

[...] Keep in mind that I'm not saying the MinoHD is the best camera out there, but it is certainly better in my experience overall. I simply compared the CG10 to the MinoHD, because the MinoHD is the incumbent.

I gave the CG10 3 stars because I love all the features that Sanyo put into it, but the picture quality is such a disappointment. One of the major features is the electronic stabilization, and I found it to reduce the picture quality more than it improved it.

I think that a camera's auto/program settings should produce a good basic picture that serves as the camera's baseline, and then any manual controls should serve to tailor that picture to your artistic needs or to make a good picture great. The Sanyo's auto/program settings produce a sub-standard picture that's soft to the extent that it looks out of focus, it suffers from serious motion blur, and in the end simply looks like widescreen standard definition. The manual settings only serve to make a bad picture look good if you can find the right settings for the shooting conditions. Having said that, I don't find this camera to be good for capturing those precious surprise moments that young children present us because you can't expect a good picture by simply pulling it out, turning it on, and starting shooting.

I think Sanyo should spend some more time with improving their stabilization, 9-pt auto-focus, and exposure measuring algorithms. Out of the box, it just doesn't perform, and the plethora of features simply cannot make up for that.

UPDATE: I still stand by my initial assessment of the VPC-CG10's picture quality, but after spending quite a bit of time playing with various settings, I believe I have found a good setup which probably should have been Sanyo's starting point in its auto/program modes.

1) Turn off the stabilization: While this helps a little bit in extreme tele situations, it actually seems to hurt picture quality otherwise, resulting in a blurry picture that appears out-of-focus. Turning off the stabilization does result in more shake and/or jitter, but the picture is quite a bit clearer. I personally do not believe that there is any decent alternative to optical image stabilization. They could drop this feature from the camera altogether, drop the price a little more, and then I would probably bump this camera up a star even.

2) Enable Single-Point AutoFocus: The 9-point AF algorithm spends a good deal of time "hunting", i.e. trying to find a focus point even when the camera is not moving. The single-point AF does a much better job of providing a clear focus. While still providing a softer picture than the MinoHD, it is a vast improvement over the 9-point AF's performance.

3) Set Exposure to Aperture-priority with f=3.5: This is the camera's widest aperture setting and will let in the most light through the lens. It will then adjust the shutter speed as necessary to provide a decently exposed picture. Fine tuning can then be adjusted via the EV adjustment, which can be assigned to one of the joystick shortcut positions.

With the above settings, I have been able to record some footage that I think is close to the MinoHD's quality, both in bright light and indoor lighting. If they either ditch the electronic stabilization altogether or replace it with optical IS, address the 9-pt AF's poor focusing algorithm, and either lock the aperture at 3.5 or put in a faster lens, Sanyo would have a very impressive camera on their hands.

One distinct advantage that the Xacti has over the MinoHD is its optics. At full wide angle, the Xacti has a much wider field of view than the MinoHD, whose fov is significantly narrower when compared even to its SD sibling, the FlipVideo Ultra.

After using this camera for a couple weeks along with the MinoHD and Sony's DSC-T900, I have to say that the Xacti VPC-CG10 is probably the best bang for the buck. I'd maybe bump up the rating by another star, but I don't think any of these pocket HD camcorders really deserve 5. And yes, I kept the Xacti and sent the MinoHD and T900 back.

Great cam for what it's trying to be
I just bought this dual-cam recently and it's been great.

#1 it's made for portability - I'm a guy and this fits in a pocket just fine.

#2 features - unbelievable what Sanyo fit in this thing. 720p (vid quality is as expected for the price), photo during recording, Av/Tv priority, 7fps burst, built-in flash, in-camera editing, frame-by-frame in-camera playback, 5x OPTICAL zoom, (cheesy) image stabilization, focus/exposure lock, selectable iso, face recognition...etc etc

#3 build quality - amazing - it's a solid, well textured and designed little unit. It fits natural. The lcd is bright / clear / fast and its hinge is very strong. Feels very high quality, unlike my previous zi6. All parts are tight and smooth. The SDHC slot feels floppy though.

#4 for the $149 deal, it smokes anything else in its price range: zi6, flip mino hd, insignia, rca, vado as far as being a complete package.

It records just short of 4 hours on 16gb sdhc card at 720p. VGA / Youtube shooting is practically endless (12hrs?). eBay has some 900mah replacement batteries ~$5 each that get you ~50 mins video time per at 720p.

I got it mostly for golf swing videos - the sports mode and 60fps 640x480 fits my needs perfectly. But I'm completely confident in bringing this camera to anything else and recording great videos no matter what they might be.

Good Camera for a great price
For the price, this is a great little dual camera. It is just the right size (easily fits in a pocket) takes good standard and HD video and acts as a servicable point and shoot digital camera.

Here are some cons:
* Proprietary USB - What's up with that? Sanyo - stick with micro or mini USB like every other camera on the market!
* 5X Optical Zoom - Ok, I know you'd need a bigger lens for more zoom but for me I'd like a little more (12x would be fine).
* No HDMI cable with it - I would have thought it would come with one
* Battery needs to be taken out to be charged.
* Camera sucks the battery down when plugged into the computer and it does not charge while plugged into the computer.

Here are some pros:
* Form factor - I've never had a pistol type camera and I really like it.
* Controls are very simple and easy to use
* Love that you can snap a picture while recording video
* The 720p HD video is very good
* It speaks well with my Mac thanks to mpeg-4. Plug the camera in and it opens up my camera right in iPhoto '09
* Good flash for such a small camera
* Price and features for price paid

So I bought this camera to take quick video and it has not disappointed. I have been looking at this for a while but could not find it available anywhere until May 1. I purchased my camera at Radio Shack for $149 but even at $199 it's a good value. I tried an Apitek and Insignia and hated them both (and they were a pain to get to work with a mac). They were priced comperable and I don't think they hold a candle to this. I've heard good things about Flip Mino but I just don't like them.

So far so good. I highly recommend this camera to anyone looking for a dual camera that can be carried around in a pocket or purse for quick use when needed.