We got quite a bit of snow last night, it's Nov.16th. I wonder if this stuff will stay now. Here is a quick video shot in low res.

First off I'd like to say that I'm not claiming to be any kind of camera/video expert. That said I decided to do a simple review of the Sanyo Xacti CG9 Video Camera. I was in a bit of a bind when I picked up this little unit. The big family vacation was coming up and I found out my camcorder model JVC GRD-30u had decided to die on us. We weren't happy with this as we hardly ever used the dam thing and now that we had our big road trip to Disney coming this is certainly not what we needed!

After searching the web for camcorder info I finally decided to go with a video camera that used flash memory. I never have liked the tapes even the small mini dv ones that I previously used. I also didn't like the idea of the mini dvd disc cameras. So what I was looking for was something that would record decent video on flash memory.

The Sanyo CG9 looked like the camera for me. The camera features a 9.1 mega pixel camera for still shots and boasts a video recording capability of 60 fps. The flip out screen is a 2.5" TFT LCD which worked like a charm even in the bright florida sun. This was a nice surprise to me as Ive always had trouble shooting outside on bright sunny days with my other digital cameras. The camera has a built in flash, and built in 40 mb of memory. It takes regular sd flash cards as well as the high capcity sdhc cards which is what I ended up getting for the trip. The camera is also equipped with a 5 x optical zoom which was more than adequate for the dolphin shows at Sea World. It also came with a 3.7 volt battery and charger.

You can choose from 5 different video settings with 2 specifically for web videos @ 320 x 240 @15 fps or @30fps. Or you can go as high as 540 x 480 HF @ 60 fps. I ended up using the TV SHQ 640 x 480 @ 30 fps for my movies as I found that at the highest setting the playback had an audible noise to the movie. This was a little bit of a disappointment for this little camera at first. However I found the setting I used had pretty much the same video quality without the audible noise on playback. The best I can describe the audible is similar to that of a geiger counter used to detect radiation. Perhaps there is a way of changing some of the video settings to lose that audible but for now Im content with the current setting that I'm using.

One of the nicest things about this camera I found was the size and style. Now I read somewhere on another review that they hated the size and style and found it awkward to hold. I can tell you that I did several days of shooting and found the camera to be very ergonomic and extremely handy. There was one thing that I wish it did have was a place to put a carrying strap. Prior to the trip I rigged up a carrying strap by using a screw which I fastened along with a clip onto the base of the camera where you would normally attach a tripod to. It did the job but I really wished this camera would have been equipped as such. I found that Sanyo made a waterproof model very similar to this one and they had designed it with a carrying strap mold at the base.
(If I had know about that waterproof model I would have bought that one! )
All in all I give this video camera a thumbs up. It gives decent quality movies in MPEG-4, H.264 Digital Video . It's easy to use , the menu is very intuitive. You can even take still photos as you are filming video though it bumps down the resoulution to 2 mega pixels in this mode. You can even do simple edits to your photos such as remove red eye all while your picture is still in the camera. The flash memory format is something that I really liked. Looking through your pictures and movies is fast and easy unlike the old tape system. Battery life is decent , though I never actually timed it. I picked up 2 generic battery replacements from ebay and was able to use them with the Sanyo charger no problems. I had read that others had problems using non Sanyo branded batteries such as not being able to charge them on the Sanyo charger etc. The camera did get warm at times when I was filming for extend periods. For example when I was filming the dolphin show at Sea World or the parade at Disney the camera did get warm, the shows were at least 30 minutes long probably longer. If you are looking for a handy little camera that takes nice video and good photos you would probably enjoy this camcorder. I went on my trip with this camera and my canon powershot and ended up giving the canon to my wife to hold while I used the Sanyo the whole trip. Below is a sample of a video using the low setting
320 x 240 for web videos. It''s my chocolate lab puppy Oakley. Keep in mind this is the low resolution video. The video below doesn't look that great now that Ive posted it here , however the same video hosted on facebook looks so much better. I guess the quality is restricted by bloggers video engine?