March 28, 2005
Unmediated Sanyo Xacti C5 Review
Kenyatta just got his hands on a Sanyo Xacti C5 and I've been non-stop bugging him for feedback. The Xacti is a hard-drive based camcorder that's being used by some in the videoblogging community. I was literally about to order one on eBay, but Kenyatta told me to hold off- giving the camcorder a 3/5 (5/5 = best). So here's our conversation and Kenyatta's review of the C5.
Transcript of AIM IM with Kenyatta (KC) and Eli (EC)
9:55 PM 03/28/05
KC: here's the skinny on the xacti: good size, nice lcd... mpeg4 compression was adequate in fast moving shots with lots of color... the different quality levels were nice... extremely poor low light performance...EC: hmm
KC: poor ergonomics... too top heavy and one thumb operation was actually a hinderance with such a small camera...
EC: yeah. little camera syndrome.
KC: anytime you went to zoom it shook the shot...
EC: built in mic audio decent?
KC: no manual controls whatsoever. NO gain control (!)... zoom slow but adequate.
EC: no shutter speed?
KC: mic was actually decent... shutter speed control but buried behind at least five menu
movementsclicks to change it. (Too many to be handy.)EC: yikes. so it's great for daylight, hanging with friends in bright areas.... bad for concerts, bars, and all the fun stuff...
KC: yep... i tried the mic out at the corner of atlantic and 4th ave in bklyn at rush hour... did a decent job of picking me up.
EC: nice! pointing camera at yourself? or from behind
KC: at self and away.
EC: great
KC: mic is on backside of lcd
EC: yikes
KC: yeah, so if you're shooting yourself.... well, it does pick you up well under low pressure (sound) conditions, but a little harder when having a conversation with someone walking down bway in soho
EC: hmm
KC: mpeg4s were easy to transfer. quicktime player had a problem with the
mp3mp4 audio if you triedcuttingcopying and pasting. (It likes cut and paste.)EC: huh... how's file size?
KC: you had to save it as a mov file to work... file size is decent. the image quality makes sense for the file sizes.
EC: that's good... you try editing? splice splice splice
KC: about 5MB per min. spliced the vid. didn't try it with imovie or fcp yet.
EC: cool
KC: i have lots of sample video to post as well... hang on. let me check notes for other stuff...
EC: to be honest, it should be great for peru... it's a travel camera.. outdoors, pretty pix..
KC: agreed. and with an hour of 640x480 on a 1GB SD card, it'll be a welcome relief from a PDX10 and pounds of DV tape... did i mention the weird weight balance?
EC: yes... but give me an example... like when you're adjusting zoom, tpaping through menus...
KC: it's too top heavy, causing my wrist to wobble a lot more (when zooming) than if it were evenly weighted (or bottom biased)
EC: try shooting upside down
KC: i did!
EC: ha!
KC: and it was a steadier shot
EC: can the people who design cameras please come see us- paging sanyo product marketing and development!
KC: and it was probably just for the reason you mentioned - when your thumb is applying so much pressure to the top half of the camera, you have to overcompensate by pulling back with your index finger, more or less.
EC: is there a tripod screw?
KC: there is.
EC: you could add weight
KC: sure. good idea. first thing i'm buying, though, is a mini tripod... that's the other criticism of the industrial design... because they made it so thin, you can't sit it on a table on it's own.
EC: lame!
KC: i mean, none of it's competitors do it either (the sony M1, Panasonic AV100, etc) but if it included a small "travel base" besides or instead of the large round platter that ships with it, it would come in very handy.
EC: bubble gum works
KC: so many videobloggers use still cameras for shooting video...
EC: yeah, good form factor... people are comfortable with them as 'still' cameras.. more social devices than futuristic super 8 cameras.
KC: sure. problem is they do video poorly or don't handle well when shooting video (high compression AVI, can't zoom in while capturing video)... what bothers me about a lot of these small video-first solid state cameras is that they still seem like interesting gadgets first and video cameras second... it's like they're being marketed to the Sharper Image crowd (who look for cool toys) and not the user-generated content folks.
EC: yeah, at least cameraphones are often good phones... and their cameras are getting better all the time...
KC: you know, the ones apple, microsoft, and the like already have in their sights?
EC: right.
KC: speaking of which - have you looked at any of the reviews for these small solid state video cameras?
they're almost exclusively by still digicam sites.EC: interesting
KC: and they spend paragraphs talking about the still image performance, and then leave, like, maybe a graph or two to the video performance.
EC: nice. gimme a link
KC: i'm looking through steve's digicams and dcresource right now.
EC: does the xacti remote do zoom? could be a workaround
KC: yes it does... which is why i was going for the mini tripod first.
EC: ahh... i'm looking through dpreview
KC: http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/sony/dsc_m1-review/ review of the sony M1... maybe i shouldn't expect digital still camera reviewers to scrutinize the video on these things, but the manufacturers have to start sending the video-first cams out to videobloggers to test.
EC: we can be the source! let's do it.... hey, check http://www.dpreview.com/news/0501/05013101casioexp505.asp sounds hot
KC: a resource is born.
EC: casio. mpeg4. still
KC: reading it now. interesting... oh yeah, about the build quality of the C5... looks and feels solid with a hard plastic shell and a nice metal band around the edge of the thing. good construction. but i fear for the life of the LCD screen. I've only had it four days and it already feels a little loose... and (here's the part that kills me) all menu navigation and option selection happens with two buttons: a menu button, and a five way "Set" joystick (five-way meaning: up, down, left, right, and push)
EC: sheesh
KC: i can tell you now that the set joystick is gonna take a beating. besides being near to impossible to find the sweet spot when pushing in the set button, after a weekend of use, it's already got a bit too much play in it.
EC: wow... you're moving me from 3 out of 5 to 2/5
KC: which means that it's already feeling unresponsive at times and frustrating to use... well, what keeps it at 3 is that there are a lot of things it gets right for videobloggers... the daylight performance is excellent, the built in mic is better than i expected, and the size is incredible.
EC: and battery?
KC: battery wasn't bad. i was able to fill the card shooting about 1hr of video over a 12 hour period, keeping it in standby mode in between takes.
EC: nice
KC: (card was a 1GB SD)
EC: nice. ebay? cost?
KC: (card didn't come standard.) bought the card at j&r. (gotta fill out that rebate form)... i paid $650 for it but i overpaid. you can get it from one of the HK ebayers for about $550+shipping... sanyo is selling a special edition blue one through the sharper image here in the US for $800.
EC: ooooohhh.... ((((suckaBlue I think it's called))))
KC: i wanted one that wouldn't look like a video camera, so i figured blue would work. and it did.
EC: nice
KC: everyone i showed it to didn't realize it was a camera until i told them. (after I shot a good amount of video first, of course)
EC: heh
EC: i think this is good.. i'll edit and post
KC: cool. we should do all of our reviews this way.
EC: i was thinking a conversation between us is more valuable than a straight write up, and easier
KC: cool
Here are some examples Kenyatta shot:
xactiC5_lowlight.mov 10.3M
xactiC5_mic_flatbush.mov 2.5M
xactiC5_movement640.mov 5.7M
xactiC5_mpg_flowers.mov 2.6M
xactiC5_night.mov 4.9M
I played with that xacti unit at the CEATEC show in Tokyo last Oct. the demo's they were doing with hip-hop girls looked pretty cool.. but I found if you zoom in (>_<) the quality 'Really' lost ground fast. Been using an Olympus C-770 instead and it's not bad for a handy little digi-cam. in a jam.
Posted by: Lars at March 30, 2005 05:02 AMhye guys, some people might wanna know why the C5 is worse in low light conditions than the C4, well here's why....if you SIMPLY LOOK at the specs for both...you'll notice how the C4 has a wider aperture than the C5 (the biggest disadvantage the C5 has is its smaller build, sacrificing the bigger aperture, its the same as comparing someone looking at an object with their eyes wide open, as compared to someone squinting), so in my opinion if you're willing to cope with the SLIGHTLY bigger C4 and the 4 mp sensor for stills, its a better choice, also a lot chaeper than its new replacment, as for the slightly bigger screen on the C5, i can do without the 0.2" extra. A future upgrade for the C6 (six) would HAVE to be a nightshot mode, but i think SONY has a patent on that TOO BAD! I'm a F717 Sony user check out my pics if you have a chance....
Posted by: Sebastian at April 28, 2005 04:37 AMim buying my first dv camera and want digi pics with it too. I have no professional aspirations at all. I just travel alot, and love the C4's design, size etc. but im a bit freaked by the cons ppl are writting. should i buy ? does it suit the user who wants to record travels and take good pics ? and will def edit later ?
any similar competirors that dont have the cons of the C4?
cheers
M
I just won this camcorder in some sales contest with Sprint so when i get it in a couple weeks i'll post what I think, Im used to a Sony Digital 8 so i think i'll like it.
Posted by: James at June 26, 2005 05:13 PMAdata makes low cost ($50 new from ebay)150x 1G SD. I am bidding one right now. I hope those will work with my new Sanyo C5. These Adata SD can do 22.5MB/s read and 15MB/s write, much faster than those other SD that you pay for a higher price, I heard that if you use 1x SD, then you will get choppy video, forget about DVD 30fps video. I will know better next week how everything comes together (or comes apart). Comments welcome if anyone has experience with SD vs C5 compatibility.
Posted by: Eric Chan at August 15, 2005 03:18 PMEric I didn't know that SD cards have an 'x' factor. Like DVDs there's a speed that needs to be considered? I've been looking into the C5 or the Sony M1. There are features of the C5 I like but I didn't give any thought to speed w/the SD. Do I need to consider the speed compatibility for this device or any other? Pardon my ignorance but I'm glad I read your comments. Does anyone else out there have any other important things to consider? Thanks
Posted by: Hale at August 19, 2005 11:37 PMI just picked up the Sanyo Xacti C5. Sharper Image dropped the price to $700 and it includes a 512Mb card. What I like about Sharper Image is they have a 60 day no-hassle return policy, so I'm putting this camera thru some serious scrutiny. I'm blogging my findings, using the technorati tag "sanyoc5". Would love to hear any more follow up thoughts
Posted by: deeje cooley at September 15, 2005 12:35 AMthis is the best review i've found of the Xacti C5, it answered the exact question i had: what does shooting in the dark look like with this thing? it's grainy and shitty but looks just fine compared to the current concert footage i'm grabbing.
is there a similar page for the xacti C4, since it should technically shoot low-light better? a comparison would really help me decide. it sounds like the specs are almost identicle otherwise ...
if sony's got a patient on nightshot why is this missing on their M1 recorder?!
Posted by: starpause at October 11, 2005 06:41 PM
95% of what i post on my site is shot with the earlier Fisher version of this camera. It has a lot of problematic issues but the size, ease of shooting, unimposing, etc. etc. easily make this my choice of choices. I hope it stays crappy though. The less people that own them for now...the better. I edit with it in FCP and iMovie. No problems. I have very little problem with getting it to steady and can get very smooth pans out of it. No problem on the thumb work either. Also, I only shoot at 320x240 with it. Only for the web. I feel like a smartmob text messager with it. I can run it with my eyes closed. Don't buy this camera. It sucks. It really does.
Posted by: Shannon Noble at March 29, 2005 12:10 PM