Archive for September 13th, 2008
If you are a regular on tracyandmatt you’ll remember that I recorded the Palm Treo Pro launch event a few weeks ago. At the time I mentioned that the Camcorder that I was using at the time didn’t perform very well in the low light conditions at the event and that I was looking for a replacement.
So over in the last few weeks I started looking for a new camcorder that I could use to record our unboxing videos but that would also be small and light enough to take out to press events without contributing too much to my already overloaded kit bag. I for the sake of convenience, also wanted a camera that recorded footage on to memory cards rather than DVD or Tape (yes the still make DV camcorders). I preferred to have camera that could record HD but this wasn’t essential, it was the recording quality that mattered most as our videos would always be scaled down for web-streaming anyway. Finally I didn’t want to spend a fortune on the camera; about £200 – £250 was ideal.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of models to choose from within the requirements set out above and it was difficult to decide which one would suit me best. So I decided it would be a good idea to perform a group test of some camcorders that fit the bill. Not only would it help me to select the model I wanted but would also make for an interesting series of posts here on the site.
The models that we short-listed (and were able to get hold of) are the Sanyo Xacti HD700, Panasonic SD7, Canon FS100 and Toshiba Camileo H10.
All of the cameras record on to SD memory cards. The Sanyo and the Toshiba are capable of recording at 720p whereas the Canon and Panasonic record SD.
|
Sanyo Xacti HD700 |
Canon FS100 |
Toshiba Camileo H10 |
Panasonic SDR-S7 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Effective Pixel Count |
Approx. 7.1 megapixels |
1.07 megapixels |
10.48 megapixels |
0.8 megapixels |
|
Camera Element |
1/2.5 inch, 7.38-megapixel CCD (total) |
1/6" Interlaced CCD |
1/2.5 inch, 10.48 megapixel CCD |
1/6" CCD 800k Pixels |
|
Recording Media |
SDHC (up to 8 GB) |
SDHC (up to 16GB) |
SDHC (max cap. Unknown) |
SDHC (up to 16GB) |
|
Recording File Format |
Still: JPEG |
Still: JPEG |
Still: JPEG |
Still: JPEG |
|
Resolution (Pixels) Still: |
[10M] 3680 x 2760 interpolated |
1152 x 864 |
4608 x 3456 max |
JPEG size:640 x 480 |
|
Resolution (Pixels) Video: |
[HD-SHQ] 1280 x 720 (30 fps, 9 Mbps) |
standard-definition video resolution of 720×480
|
H.264 – 1280 x 720 – 30 fps |
640 x 840 XP (10Mbps/VBR) |
|
Zoom |
5.0x optical zoom lens |
37x optical zoom lens |
5.0x optical zoom lens |
10.0x optical zoom lens |
|
Digital Zoom |
Shooting: Max. 12x |
2000x digital zoom |
4x digital zoom |
10 – 700x Digital |
|
Focus |
Auto (Stills: 9-point AF), Manual |
Auto/Manual |
Auto |
Auto/Manual |
|
Sensitivity |
Still: Auto (ISO 50–400), Manual (ISO 50/100/200/400/800/1600/3200) |
1.7 Lux Minimum Illumination |
? |
2 Lux Minimum Illumination |
|
Self-Timer |
2 sec. or 10 sec. |
2 sec. or 10 sec. |
10 sec. |
No |
|
Flash |
Auto/Forced/Off |
No |
Auto/Forced/Off |
No |
|
Audio |
Microphone: Built-in stereo |
Stereo Mic |
Stereo Mic |
Stereo Zoom Mic, Wind Noise Reduction |
|
LCD Monitor |
2.7-inch, TFT color wide screen LCD, Approx. 230,000 pixels |
2.7” Wide LCD (123,200 pixels) |
2.7” Wide LCD (123,200 pixels) |
2.7” Wide LCD (123,200 pixels) |
|
Interfaces |
Via docking cradle: AV output (HDMI/component video/S-video/composite video, Audio: stereo sound), USB 2.0 |
AV output (S-video/composite video, Audio: stereo sound), USB 2.0 |
AV output (HDMI/composite video, Audio: stereo sound), USB 2.0 |
AV output (S-video/composite video, Audio: stereo sound), USB 2.0 |
|
Power Source |
Lithium-ion battery (1200 mAh) |
Lithium-ion battery |
Lithium-ion battery |
Lithium-ion battery |
|
Approx. Battery Life |
Stills: CIPA standard approx. 180 images |
TBC |
TBC |
TBC |
|
Dimensions |
73.7 x 109.0 x 35.0 mm |
58 x 60 x 124 mm |
56 x 117 x 65 mm |
41.0 x 59.0 x 102.0 mm |
|
Weight |
Approx. 189 g (main unit only), Approx. 214 g (including battery and SD card) |
260 g with battery |
340 g with battery |
Approx. 165 g w/o Battery |
|
Price (Amazon) |
£249.00 |
£215.00 |
£173.00 |
£228.00 |
Over the next few weeks, with Nigel’s help, we are going to be testing the four camcorders under real world, general use conditions as well as for the specific job I need them for. We’ll have an unboxing and a sample video from each camera as well as a short review and then we’ll have a final summary post at the end where we’ll pick the camcorder that we’ve decided to buy.
If you have any questions or comments along the way then please do get in touch through our contact page!
Part 2 of the group test is now live – check out the Panasonic SDR-S7 review!
Part 3 of the group test is now live – check out the Toshiba Camileo H10 review!
Part 4 of the group test is now live – check out the Sanyo Xacti HD700 review!
Posted by: Matt
Who’s leading in the market share for Q2 2008? Jkontherun has posted an interesting article and marketshare breakdown of smartphone adoption. The figures are surprising as RIM and Symbian were very much leading the pack in 2Q 2007 and have since managed to increase the gap. Have a look at the article after the break.
Steve Trotto over at Mobile Tech Moment has posted his latest podcast episode number 4. If you haven’t listened to it yet you should check it out. In this episode it’s all about the iPhone 2.1 update and early impressions of what it fixes and if it is the answer to our problems. He is joined by David Ciccone, J Doss and Bill all from Mobility Today. You can get all the details here.
The Kinoma Play software that we recently reviewed has received a second update to make it all run much smoother and faster. Check out our review here. If you are already using it then you can go to "Check for updates" and it will automatically install the update. If your not using it you definitely should give it a try as it is a great piece of software. Full list of fixes after the break.
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