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GEAR REVIEW: Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Video Camera |
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Video Cameras
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Written by Adventure Online TV
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Saturday, 07 November 2009 15:33 |
GEAR REVIEW: Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Video Camera
The VPC-WH1 was released in 2009 and claims to be the first lower cost HD waterproof video camera.
Starting with the recording medium, the camera has 43 MB of internal memory that could be used for taking stills, but for the most part your going to be using SD or SDHC cards for recording video. The camera can support an SDHC card up to 32 GB. When shooting HD (12080x720), 16 GB will give you just about 4 hours of recording.
Next, lets talk about the recording format, which is AVC/H264. This format is the latest compressed video format providing higher quality with reduced file sizes. AVC/H264 video can be edited when stored at a high enough bitrate (aka bandwidth). The VPC-WH1 records around 1 Megabyte per second, not really good enough for most high quality video editing applications. The specs show 9 Mbps, but thats bits, not bytes (1 byte = 8 bits).
So, if you are buying this camera for fun purposes you will be impressed, just realize the video quality doesnt compare to semi-pro cameras.
What about being waterproof? Well, it really is waterproof, at least to 9 feet. We tried it and it works! Pretty cool for such an inexpensive camera. Based on the way the panels seal, Adventure Online TV would not recommend using this camera in a situation where it would be exposed to spraying water. In that case, Adventure Online TV recommends wrapping it in plastic or something to reflect the direct spray.
As far as the zoom, it includes a 30x optical zoom. This feature is impressive, especially for the price of the camera. One thing to keep in mind is that with such a zoom, you are going to need a tripod. Adventure Online TV tried to hold the camera still against our chest and you could see our heartbeat shaking the image at 30x! If your not going to be zooming in that much, you will have less of a problem.
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READ MORE AND WATCH SAMPLE VIDEO FROM THE VPC-WH1
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