At first sight, this little machine looks almost perfect: an up to 10 feet waterproof, compact, dual camera/camcorder.
Unfortunately, there is grain of salt in almost every aspect.
First, I need to mention that I am a happy owner of an older Sanyo EX2 camcorder and, despite minor drawbacks, I really like it.
I can understand the good intention of Sanyo engineers when they ventured to create a new camcorder that would outdo the previous model in every way possible. The original EX2 was only waterproof up to 3 feet, not HD, and had mediocre battery.
In VPC-WH1, Sanyo engineers fixed and improved everything, but in the process they made several dangerous compromises.
Let's start with new ten feet waterproof rating. I would really adore this new feature if not for one small problem - all the o-rings are not user-replaceable and the manual specifically tells you that they are only good for one year. Well, if you are buying this camera to go underwater (snorkeling, of course), you know what an o-ring is and what happens when it leaks.
Another problem - the camera body has three(!) covers: one for the battery, another for the SD-card, and the third for the power port. I cannot say I am a designer of underwater equipment, but so far all underwater housings I ever used had only ONE cover... with user-replaceable o-ring.
So the camera seems to be waterproof for one year, but what about next year's vacation?
Despite these drawbacks, I was ready to forgive Sanyo because of the promised HD. Unfortunately, whatever it was they decided to call HD was not really "High Definition". The image is terribly over-compressed and has lot of artifacts. Yes, technically, if you look at the file properties, it is 720p, but only technically. I would not rate it above 300 lines of real resolution. It is hard to believe, but my old EX2 makes much better videos. I have compared the two side by side on a 52 inch TV and the difference is obvious. Even in standard resolution the old EX2 beats the new camcorder, which is slightly embarrassing...
Finally, this is supposed to be a dual camera. Well, almost a camera, because in WPC-VH1 pictures are limited to two megapixels. My old EX2 has an 8 megapixel sensor and it makes pictures as good as a standard 3 megapixel camera. The overall level of degradation from the old camcorder has not changed for this feature, so you can imagine how a two megapixel images from the new camera looks. Let's just say my cell phone does a much better job.
The only good thing is battery performance; it is actually decent now. I just do not know what to do with all this battery performance. My new stylish yellow WPC-VH1 is collecting dust now, while the old EX2 faithfully sits in a side pocket of my photo bag.
***
Frankly, I hate writing negative reviews. For a month I played around with the camcorder parameters and lighting conditions, shot underwater (and, I should mention, underwater footage is generally okay, just not HD), tried different video codecs, but nothing helped. Did I get a defective unit?
It should not be difficult for Sanyo to fix almost all the drawbacks. I would guess the video over compression problem may be fixed with a software upgrade. And a mail-in o-ring replacement service can solve the one year problem (the current manual tells you to go to your "dealer"; with all due respect, I am not sure Amazon would provide such a service). The remaining two megapixels still image camera seems hopeless, but this would not be a big loss after all...
Read More Reviews on Sanyo VPC-WH1 HD Waterproof Flash Memory Camcorder w/ 30x Optical Zoom (Yellow)...
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