Rating

I bought the VPC-CG20 two months ago at Radio Shack. I was looking for an alternative to the “Flip” camera at about the same price.

PROS

Excellent digital image stabilization at normal focus. This was the main selling point: Flip cameras provide no image stabilization, so slight shaking of the hand, especially when panning, is a problem. The Sanyo camera will give you better quality video at a similar price.

CONS

Image stabilization, while excellent at normal focus, is ineffective when you use the digial zoom (up to 5x), so videos will appear very shaky even with slight movement. The camera will have to be stabilized on a tripod if you’re using the zoom feature.

If you’re a novice (as I am), Sanyo xacti cameras will require a bit of a learning curve. This is why the Flip line of camcorders is so appealing: they come with their own editing software and are basically plug-and-play.

Note that video on Sanyo cameras is saved in mpeg4 format which means (since there is no included editing software) you’ll need to convert the files to WMV or another format if you want to use Windows Movie Maker to edit the file. (Any version of Movie Maker for XP or Vista will not work with the mpeg4 format.) If this is your situation, AVS sells an inexpensive video format conversion program which is simple to use.

LCD screen doesn’t show well in bright light.

Quality of still photos is poor, but that’s not unusual for a camcorder. This won’t replace your digital SLR camera if you’ve got one.

I’ve chose to swap this camera for the Panasonic HDC-TM55 which at a higher price tag (about $450) provides an optical (rather than digital) image stabilization feature that will keep the video stable even when you’re using the optical zoom. I’ll give the Sanyo to a relative. It really is a excellent camera for the price, and its digital image stabilization does work reasonably well at normal focus.

Rating

The PLUS

I was very surprised by the quality of the footage. It came out very very nice.

The camera is simple enough to use. The menu is very intuitive.

The LCD screen is very helpful.

The miniHDMI output is a nice feature.

I am glad I bought this camera.

The MINUS

As soon as you go the camera, the footage becomes very shaky, even with the stabilization option turned on.

Scan lines also appear on moving objects.

1080 is WAYYYY to much resolution for everyday folks. 1 min of footage is over 100Mb, which means that a 5 minute video is over half a Gb, which is huge if you want to post to youtube. It’ll upload, but it’ll take for ever!

So be ready to use a professional software to compress these files.

But again, fantastic camera for the bucks!