Relying on SD Cards for storage, Sanyo's Xacti VPC-C5 shoots stills at 5 Megapixels and records video in at VGA resolution - with good results. A review by Jørgen Sundgot.
Review summary of the Sanyo Xacti VPC-C5:
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 A jack of all trades, the Xacti VPC-C5 does not excel in any one area - yet this strange, two-headed beast has its allure. Whilst imaging performance is only adequate, its small size and simple operation will appeal to any consumer who want to record their experiences with a minimum of hassle. Professional amateurs, on the other hand, will find themselves annoyed by the lack of more advanced configuration options and features. Unless recording video in the evenings (oh, get your mind out of the gutter) or monologues in quiet yet varying surroundings are of primary importance, the VPC-C5 comes recommended.
Pros: Miniscule size; marvellously merges still, video recording; simple operation
Cons: Underperforms in poorly lit conditions; clumsy interface; noisy lens motors
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Full Sanyo Xacti VPC-C5 Review:
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Taking its third stab at creating a hard drive-less digital camcorder which relies solely on memory cards for storage, Sanyo presents an interesting offer in the VPC-C5 - despite its marginal improvements over its most recent predecessor, the VPC-C4. With a 1 Megapixel resolution bump, slight visual makeover and a few software improvements, there's a possibility this might be a case of not breaking what already works - and there's nothing wrong with that.
Hallowed hybridity
Fitted with a 1/2.5-inch, 5-Megapixel CCD, the 108 x 68 x 23 mm Xacti VPC-C5 weighs in at featherweight 145 g sans battery and memory card. A 5.0x optical zoom lens delivers a comfortable f/3.5-f/4.7 aperture and shutter speed ranging from 1/2 to 1/2,000 seconds, backed up by a 9-point autofocus and 15-step manual focus. ISO sensitivity, meanwhile, ranges from 50 through 100, 200, 400 and 800, and the camcorder also provides exposure correction in the 0±1.8EV range.
For exposure correction, light weighting can be set to either multi-spot, center weighted or spot mode, with the VPC-C5 also offering five white balance settings to choose from, one of which -thankfully - is user adjustable. Adding to the line-up of features are three filters which can be applied to both stills and video; Cosmetic, Monochrome and Sepia - all operating within the VPC-C5's minimum focus ranges of 10 cm in standard mode and a highly impressive 2 cm in macro mode.
Void of an optical viewfinder, the Xacti VPC-C5 is equipped with a 2-inch, 65K colour transflective display with 210K pixels which is admirably clear and crisp under the vast majority of conditions. Placed on the left side of the camcorder, this tilts out and swivels 275 degrees to handily allow for the lining up of vanity and self-timer shots. Given an unusual upward slant for the lens itself, however, it takes a little practice to get used to having to tilt the camcorder slightly forward to get a horizontal alignment.
So what does this button do?
Considering its very limited amount of real estate, the entirely back-mounted navigational array of the VPC-C5 is a very pleasant matter to navigate whether left- or right-handed, although lefties might find their hand bumping up towards the viewfinder a bit more often than they'd like. A minor drawback is the lack of an icon signifying the Delete function, but this niggle fades in comparison with noisy lens mechanics: having autofocusing enabled or adjusting the optical zoom whilst recording will invariably yield a rather distinct and clickety sound to the audio track that takes a certain level of ambient noise to drown out.
Moving around to the front, we find the flash unit placed straight beneath the non-protruding lens, offering Auto, Forced and Off modes. Also present is a plastic lens cover affixed to an eyelet atop the right side of the camera with a cord, and turning our attention quickly to the bottom we find the proprietary cradle connector and - surprisingly - a tripod mount, albeit in plastic. Direct USB connectivity and charging are possible by means of a bundled dongle; not too surprising, yet slightly disappointing. In contrast, the ability of the VPC-C5's charger to power the cradle whilst simultaneously charging a spare battery is warmly welcomed.
Kicking the tires
Getting the well-built VPC-C5 up and running proved a pleasantly straightforward affair, with its power-anemic, viewfinder-controlled standby mode a particular highlight. When in ready mode, the user interface is uncluttered and informative, however an ever-present battery indicator would have been greatly appreciated. A less than intuitive menu for accessing settings also proved to be something of a hassle, and there's also a few more irks on our list.
For instance, when activating the prefocus sequence, the LCD view invariably shifts to a wider-angle shot, yielding careful pre-shot alignment an annoyingly futile excercise. Still, its accuracy in displaying the final capture in prefocus mode is appreciated as the VPC-C5 lacks an optical viewfinder. Another minor niggle, resuming from standby took upwards of one and a half second, followed by a 0.5 second delay between pictures, both of which are all but impressive.
There's also no burst mode, and the inability to set aperture or shutter priority along with lacking autobracketing for exposure and white balance are all signs that the camcorder favours point-and-shoot simplicity over control. Fortunately, zoom performance proved nimble and quick, traveling its entire range in little more than a second; quite satisfactory. Also favourable was overall picture quality with excellent colour saturation and rich hues, however signs of purple aberrations and slight white-burn out were evident in particularly high-contrast shots.
Can you see me now?
Unfortunately, however, the comments above regard daylight performance. Under poor lighting conditions, the autofocus of the VPC-C5 quickly proceeded to become less accurate, with visible noise rapidly sneaking into still shots and recordings alike. To the camcorder's credit, the flash worked very well indoors, and there's also praise to be lavished on the excellent macro functionality that produced superb results even at the minimum 2 cm range.
Stored as JPEGs, stills from the VPC-C5 range in resolution from 0.3 MP up to 10 MP, however the latter format is merely interpolation of 5 MP shots, which is the highest obtainable resolution. Video, on the other hand, reaches its lowest resolution at 176 x 144 pixels, 15 FPS and 256 Kbps, and in contrast peaks at 640 x 480 pixels, 30 FPS and 3 Mbps.
Stored in the MPEG4 format, video quality also proved overall good, yet with slight blur and compression artifacts produced from (too) quick movement. On a related note, the electronic image stabilizer performed with aplomb, proving vital to the process of shooting enjoyable video. As previously mentioned, lens noise generated by auto focusing and zooming does impact audio, however the stereo microphone of the VPC-C5 otherwise proved adequate at its task.
Also capable of still and video playback to a NTSC or PAL TV courtesy of its bundled cradle, the VPC-C5 impressed us with its inclusion of an infrared remote to simplify the experience of sharing, well, experiences, greatly. In fact, the box contents of the VPC-C5 are among the more generous we've seen, including the USB 2.0 cradle with charging; belt-mounting soft case; the aforementioned infrared control; S-Video and Composite video out cables; a 128 MB SD card and Sanyo's Software Pack 7.2, the latter of which is a well-rounded suite of software for picture and video management.
Lastly, on the note of battery life, the VPC-C5 performed closely on par with Sanyo's claims of being able to record up to one hour of video in highest-quality video and taking up to 113 images by the CIPA standard.
Availability
The Sanyo Xacti VPC-C5 is at the time of press shipping in Europe in the €650 EUR range.
Price and availability
The Sanyo Xacti VPC-C5 will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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