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: #202 in Camera & Photo
• Size: L 7.00 in. x W 5.25 in. x H 5.00 in.
• Color: Black
• Brand: Sanyo
• Model: VPC-CG10BK
• Dimensions: 5.00" h x 5.25" 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.

One heck of a review
[...]
I have read many many reviews about this camera and have looked at countless videos on YouTube about it. Radio Shack has a lot of reviews about it too.

Hopefully I can say something that hasn't been covered yet about this camera. First of all, there is a video cable that connects the camera directly to a HDTV. The number of the cable is Sanyo VCP-CPNT01U Component Output Cable for Sanyo WH1, TH1, CA9, CG10 Camcorders, and Amazon sells it for $[...]. The cable is shown on page 159 of the manual.

Turn OFF the NOISE REDUCTION. To do this go to MENU 2 under the WRENCH MENU. It is actually the 5th MENU down. Go to NOISE REDUCTION, push SET, Then select OFF for both VIDEO NR and PHOTO NR. Push the MENU button to get out of there. I have never found a Noise Reduction on any camera that makes the pictures better. It usually degrades the quality of the pictures.

As others have said, put the FOCUS MODE to SPOT.

A good software program is AVS4YOU. Search for it. It is free to try and does a good job of playing and converting MPEG4 files to AVI or whatever.

Here is what I like about the camera:

You can join clips or cut out video with the camera in the playback mode. Manual PG 104-112.

You can take up to 11 pictures in sequence in the 10mb Photo mode. Pg 85 in the manual talks about that. To be direct, go to MENU, PHOTO, hit SET, Scroll down to 10mb burst mode, which is down past the .9meg picture selection. Just keep going down till you see it. It works great. Be advised it does not work with flash.

You can also put SEQUENTIAL (I don't know why they don't call it BURST) in your SHORTCUTS MENU. Page 128 in the manual. To do this go to MENU, then scroll down on the left side to MENU 2 under the WRENCH MENU. That is actually MENU 5 down from the top. Select SHORTCUTS, then SEQUENTIAL and push the SET button. Now once in the camera mode all you have to do to get Sequential is push the SET switch up. Pushing it up again puts you back in normal photo. Be advised if you have the photo set to 10mH (High) once you come out of the Sequential Mode the camera will go back to 10mS (Standard). To fix that you must go back to MENU 1, PHOTO, then select 10mH again.

You can take a photo just by pushing the PHOTO button while shooting video. Pg. 67.
It may not be a big photo file, but it works.

You can delete 1 picture, selected pictures, or all pictures in the camera. You can print from the camera. You can use the camera with the cable as a card reader. pg 145 of manual

I have found that using all the optical zoom, you can use 1/3 of the digital zoom and still get a good looking picture. I took a picture of my wife at 125 yards and could read the lettering on her shirt using the optical zoom and digital zoom at max. I am not saying this is the best thing to do, but in some situations that is the only way to get the shot. Optical and digital zoom max is 60X. The quality wasn't all that bad.

Macro goes down to .39 inches. You do have to set it to SuperMacro focus in the menu though.
To do that go to MENU, FOCUS, then select SUPERMACRO. Then push MENU to get back to the camera mode.

The ISO goes from 50 to 1600. Your best picture will be in the 50 to 100 ISO range. The higher the ISO, the more the noise in the photo/video. I noticed leaving the ISO in Auto is sometimes a mistake. I was going to take a picture and I knew the flash would go off. It was somewhat dark, but not very dark. When I looked at the screen the picture didn't look all that great. It was grainy and I could tell the Auto ISO setting was pretty high. I manually set the ISO for 100 and it totally cleared up the screen. I took the picture. It came out great. It was a little darker than I wanted, but the picture looked clear. I brightened the picture up with Photo software and the results were outstanding. While looking at the screen, you can adjust the ISO and instantly see how it is going to affect your picture. In some situations it is better to take charge of he ISO and set it manually.

In taking a photo, pushing the button half way down causes the camera to focus. Pushing it the rest of the way causes an almost instant shot with very little delay.

You can use the camera as a PC camera (like a monitor camera for your computer). Pg 150

In watching a video in playback, if you pause the video an image can be taken by pushing the PHOTO button. Pg 73.

There are a couple of things I don't like about the camera. One is the battery, but you can buy them on EBay. Search for "DB-L80 Battery". I found them for just over ten dollars for two. They are cheap and in most cases it also includes shipping. The battery that comes with the Sanyo is a 700mAh (Mili Amp Hour) battery. The two that I bought on Ebay are 980mAh. That means they are stronger and will play longer. They work great. So the battery isn't really that much of a problem after all.

The camera has a flimsy latch that covers the SDHC card. It is really flimsy. As a result, I just use the supplied cable and plug the camera into the USB slot on my computer to download files instead of taking the SDHC card out. The camera asks you if you plan on using it as a reader when you plug it in. Just click SET on that and the computer sees the drive instantly.

The last thing I don't like about the camera is the lack of a strap. I don't like holding a camera without something keeping it from hitting the ground if dropped. I found a couple on Amazon just doing a search under CAMERA STRAP. Nikon AN-CP14 Replacement Strap or Canon Metal Neck Strap 1 for All Elph Cameras, 34" Length. The cost is real cheap for either the metal necklace or the wrist strap.

Well that is it. I hope you enjoyed my review. Take care and get the camera. It is awesome for the price. I wish I could afford the Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 "Dual Camera" with 8MP & 10x Optical Zoom "Full HD" 1080p Pocket Video Camera.. Wow, what a camera, but for $[WOW!]?

Oh, one last thing, the case. I found a really good cheap case for the camera. It is a Tamrac Explorer 15 (Model 5415) Compact camera case for slim-line cameras. The price is small and the shipping is free. The case is small, but the Sanyo fits in it perfectly. The front pouch is big enough for extra batteries.

At night, set the ISO to 1600, and the Sensitivity to HIGH. That is the best this camera can get in low light conditions. With the lights on in the house the camera did ok. The video was bright and looks good.

At night another accessory might be the answer. It is a video light. I have one and it works really great. Sima SL-20LX Ultra Bright Video Light (Silver). It works for about an hour before giving up the ghost. In most cases that is plenty of time. It comes with a bracket that mounts to the Sanyo. I found that mounting it catty corner (about 45 degrees) on the left side of the camera works really well. It is not in the way of the screen but right out there to provide the quality of light you need. Mounting on the right side interferes with your hand in holding the camera. Mounting it on the left side will not let the screen open fully. You have to mount it at about 45 degrees on the left side and then all works great. The light is really bright. I found that setting the ISO on 100 gives a great picture but the light only lights up clearly about 7 feet. If you need more lighting than that, set the ISO higher. Setting it at 1600 made the light really bright, and it made the whole area bright for the video. Maybe 1600 is the best place for this light. You have to experiment with it.

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.