Pick up a Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10 for just $109

I don’t normally go in for deal tracking here at mediageek, but this is one I have to pass on. Thanks to Scott Eggleston at the Frugal Filmmaker, I just learned that B&H has my favorite palm-sized camcorder, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG10, on sale for just $109. That’s a good 40% less than what I paid about sixteen months ago.

Although Sanyo has released several newer models in the pistol-grip Xacti line, none of them appears to be much of an upgrade over the CG-10, which was Sanyo’s first HD camcorder coming in under $200. What I like about the CG10 over similar palm-sized camcorders from Kodak and Flip is that it offers manual control over exposure, focus and ISO. You do have to work a little bit to get these settings the way you want them, and you can’t change them while shooting. Nevertheless that modicum of control permits the more serious videographer to squeeze more performance from this camcorder than its competitors.

To get better video performance in a similarly small package I think you have to step up to one of Sanyo’s high-end HD palmcorders costing more like $400, or get a high-end point-and-shoot digital camera like a Canon G12 or Panasonic LX5.

At just $109 the CG10 really can be the kind of camcorder you don’t worry about throwing in your bag or putting in your pocket to take just about anywhere. Remember, often the best camcorder is the one you have with you.

Making the HD Camcorder Leap with Sanyo’s Xacti VPC-CG10

Over the last three years I have not been shy about airing criticism of the newest wave of low-cost flash memory camcorders shooting alleged high-definition video. My critique has largely rested upon video quality being lower than established tape-based HDV camcorders and the difficulty of editing footage shot in the highly compressed AVCHD format.

The last time I posted on the topic was about a year ago when I took on Kodak’s entry into the field with the first HD camcorder priced under $200 the Zi6. I started to warm to the concept based upon the low price which then also makes higher quality videography more widely accessible. I never had a chance to get my hands on a Zi6 until very recently when I was in a store to check out a different model of inexpensive HD camcorder, which I’ll get to in a moment. The Zi6 takes on the Flip camcorder style form factor. That is, it’s shaped like a bar-style cellphone, with a lens on one side and a screen on the other. The controls are largely limited to record, stop and play with the intent to keep operation simple and easy.

Finally this year I began seriously to consider taking the plunge with one of these small HD camcorders. There were two motivations. First, I realized that I barely used my miniDV camcorder any more, bogged down by its relatively large size and the hassle of having to capture tapes in real-time. Second, I tried to make some videos using my digital camera. While the camera’s specs say it shoots video in a resolution equivalent to full standard definition DV (640×480) I found the resulting footage to be really lacking in quality. On top of that, the video files were recorded in a relatively inefficient and obsolete format.

Although the simplicity of the Flip-style camcorders hold some appeal for me, I’m really not sure I can be satisfied with their lack of manual adjustments, zoom and other basic camcorder settings. I recognize how the average user probably doesn’t care and doesn’t miss them, and that the Flip brand camcorders have succeeded because they deliver good video with absolute operational simplicity. But I’m a bit more of a power user than that.

Then I got wind of Sanyo’s newest and least expensive camcorder in their Xacti line, the VPC-CG10. I was enticed by both the price, under $200, and the fact that it has a real optical 5x zoom. Sanyo advertises the model as a “Dual Camera” because it is both a 10 megapixel still camera in addition to shooting 720p HD video. I learned that the Radio Shack near work had the Xacti and a few other low-cost HD cams in stock and stopped in on my way home to check them out.
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Film’s not dead, either

Oh, no. I’m not ready to give up on the anti-planned-obsolescence rant just yet…

The world of photography has been much less chaotic than the worlds of audio and video over the last century. There’s really only been one significant technological disruption–from film to digital. Yes, there have been multiple formats of film over the century, but they mostly boil down to differences in size. But it is nevertheless the case that you can still buy new film for the vast majority of film cameras made since 1909.

Digital, of course, was supposed to be the death knell of film, but things didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, digital photography sparked new public interested in photography as an art and hobby, which ended up leading a lot of folks back to film. Like the vinyl LP vs. CD debate, there are plenty of passionate photographers ready to argue that one or the other is inherently superior. As one of those people who never took a strong interest in photography until getting my first digital camera, my perspective is that is has less to do with better than different–qualitatively different.

Still, the film business isn’t at all like it was a decade ago, when digital cameras were $1000+ investments yielding the kind of resolution you now get from a $10 keychain digicam from the drugstore. But there still is a film business.

The Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle recently published a story about a local business you might have heard of, that’s still hanging on to the film business: Kodak. The article quotes Kodak’s marketing manager for professional film, Scott R. DiSabato:

“We call it the ‘and’ world,” DiSabato said. “We know the professional use will be significant enough the next couple years, we’ll get the investment (into those film lines) back.”

In fact, Kodak introduced a new color film formulation this past year, a time when film still makes up a third of the company’s gross revenue.

Again, I’m not arguing against technological innovation. I have nothing against digital cameras, and I own several. I also own a pile of film cameras (that I picked up for next to nothing). I’m just pointing out again that obsolescence is a business process and a social process. That is, there’s nothing inherent in film that should make it obsolete, so much as that the combination of the need to find new products to sell, the fact that some of these new products actually do offer new and significant benefits and a social shift to embrace that new technology.

The social element is important–Kodak is still making and selling film because people are buying it and using it. They’re finding value in it, whether it’s due to nostalgia, the belief that it is superior to digital, an affinity for film’s aesthetics, or simply because using disposable film cameras when you need them makes more sense than dumping several hundred bucks into a digital cam.

If people choose not to accept the supposed inevitability of obsolescence in significant numbers, then we can interfere with that process. Moreso than with VHS videotape, film has a certain unavoidable market dynamic — someone has to manufacture the film stock and developing chemicals if the medium is to stay alive. I’m certain that the medium can survive even with smaller “boutique” manufacturing, but film’s not something the vast majority of people are going to be able to make at home. So a certain critical mass of buyers and users has to be maintained to keep film viable as a non-obsolete, if niche, technology.

Videotape, on the other hand, is reuseable. Certainly if all manufacture were to stop today eventually the tapes in use now would eventually wear out. But the true death of the medium would come more slowly than if film were to be no longer manufactured.

As (electronic and chemical) media makers we are still dependent on a consumer economy, but that doesn’t mean we are utterly subject to its whims, nor without feedback mechanism. We do not have to buy up every new so-called innovation because it’s supposed to be better, nor do we have to abandon a technique, method, medium or tool just because the industry, press or blogosphere now declares it dead. In fact, fantastic personal innovation, ingenuity and creativity can be sparked in the continued embrace, or reembrace of a reportedly obsolete technology. Whether it’s audiocassette, VHS, film, vinyl LP, laserdisc, minidsc, 8-track or daguerreotype, it’s not dead for you until you don’t want to use it any longer.

Thanks to Ken Rockwell, the most entertaining photography writer on the internet, for pointing me to the Kodak article. For more about practical, technological and qualitative strengths of film, read Ken’s essay, “Why We Love Film.”

Flip weighs in with pocket-size HD

The folks who brought you the original pocket-size, one-button Flip camcorder have now released their high-definition version. For the last couple of years I’ve expressed skepticism at both tape-less video recording and the true viability of HD in inexpensive cameras. But recently I’m coming around to the idea, primarily because the cost (under $250) is starting to jive with both the utility and convenience of these camcorders for all sorts of independent media production purposes.

Kodak made the first salvo in the pocket HD-cam arena with their Zi6, which has received decent reviews. Flip’s new Mino HD camcorder just received praises from the New York Times’ gadget reviewer David Pogue. The reliable Camcorder Info also gives it a positive review, ranking it ahead of Kodak’s HD cam.

While it doesn’t seem to offer HD on par with what you’ll see on DTV or with one of the HD camcorders from a major player like Sony or Canon, both reviews emphasize the higher quality than any of the standard-def pocket cams. One strange design choice that both reviews note is that there is a video out jack for standard-def video, but not for high-def. So you can watch your videos directly on your TV, but not in HD. To view HD you have to download the video to your computer.

Each time I write one of these posts I say something like, “I’m going to have to check one of these out.” But I’ve yet to do so. Maybe the holiday season will lead to some super discount deal online that I can exploit, though buying a camcorder is not high on my list at the moment.

Since there is no manual control or microphone input, these cameras are best for recording video in situations where a typical camcorder would be too unwieldy, inconvenient or impossible. However, I think that paired with one of the new-generation digital audio recorders (like a Zoom H2) you might be able to do a decent job recording a lecture or similar event. Just put the audio recorder up close to the subject (or near a PA) speaker, then sync the sound in your editing application, like iMovie or Premiere. Sure, the audio recorder is one more thing to carry. But together with the camcorder they’re still smaller than a typical miniDV, DVD or hard drive camcorder alone.