This is a good looking digital video camera with a nice compact design. It appears to be very durable, and worked well right out of the box. It comes with Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0, which is a great product, and perfect for this camera; but be aware that it is woefully out of date and not upgradeable at a discount. The current version is 7.0. This will not affect you significantly if you run Windows XP. Just be aware that most software written for XP does not run well [or at all] on Vista.
Sanyo touts the camera's underwater shooting ability. Be warned: Maximum depth is 5 feet. You can't even take this to the bottom of most swimming pools. If you can limit yourself to snorkeling along the surface and shooting what's beneath [or if all your underwater video is shot in your bath tub] you'll be fine.
On the subject of waterproof: Because of this feature there are some compromises. The battery, connector and card are all inside a waterproof slot with a secure cover. You will have to open the cover to hook up the usb cable and you will have to remove the battery from the camera and use the separate charger [included] to re-charge the battery. The USB cable has a custom mini connector, so if you lose or damage the cable you will have to get another from Sanyo. Nothing else will work.
Also be aware that the camera will not stand up on it's own, so you will need a tri-pod for any un-attended shooting. The sound is adequate, but audiophiles will cringe.
I notice when I use video, the resolution for still photos drops to 2 megapixels. So if you are in the middle of shooting video you cannot snap off a high resolution photo. The Sanyo only has a 5x optical zoom. As with all digital cameras, Once you move into digital zoom video quality drops very quickly. There is a built-in flash for still pictures which works very well within the distance limits.
The camera also features image stabilization. It works pretty well and is essential for indoor or action shooting. Stabilization and flash are off by default and have to be turned on through the menu. Also, be aware that stabilization has to be turned on separately for still photos and video. While you are in menu mode you might also want to turn off digital zoom. This will prevent you from accidentally zooming into digital and blurring an otherwise good shot.
The camera records in mpeg 4 [divx] format, which is a compressed format. The image is not as sharp as the un-compressed AVI format my digital camera uses, but allows you to record a lot more video on a given memory card. At a full 30 frames per second and 640x480 resolution you get about 18 minutes on a one gig SD card. The Sanyo supports SDHC so you can use cards up to 32 Gig. My Canon S5IS digital camera produces exquisite video, but one gig is only good for a bit over 7 minutes.
Bottom Line:
The underwater feature is a bit of a gimmick. The quality of the video, particularly indoors is about the same as VHS--maybe. It has a nice screen and a compact form. But for essentially the same money, I am starting to see 720p hi def cameras out there. And, if you can live without the underwater feature, for about 125 more, you can get a first rate digital camera like the new version of my Canon [SW10IS] that shoots very good video and has greater [12X] optical zoom. Get more detail about Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and 8 MP Digital Camera (Blue).
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