A slightly different episode of Tech Tuesdays this week. I’ve been doing some cleaning and came across the first ever Full HD camera I ever bought. It also happened to look like the ideal Vlogging camera. Despite being more than ten years old, the specs suggest it could do a decent job even today. So I tested it out…
Sanyo Xacti HD2000: https://amzn.to/2IHtAun
TRANSCRIPT
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Whatup nerds? I’m Jay Shareef. Welcome to
another episode of Tech Tuesdays. Normally
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I’d be telling you all about whatever gadgets or
tech I’ve bought in the last week. However, this
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episode is going to be a little bit different,
because I’ve been doing some spring cleaning,
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And I happened to come across some old equipment.
Including the first HD camera I ever bought,
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more than 10 years ago. And it’s still in the
box, obviously. Because that’s the kind of nerd
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I am. Whenever possible, I always keep the box and
the accessories. Because you never know when you
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might need to sell your old equipment. So this
is the Sanyo HD2000 which first came out in 2009.
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And I distinctly remember when and where I got
this. Back in 2010 I was living in Kent – about
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an hour away from London – but commuting to my
offices at Trafalgar Square. Now my job involved
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a lot of foreign travel. And I decided I wanted
to buy a new camera to document my travels,
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and to record some family videos as well. It’s
hard to believe it now but back in 2010 online
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shopping wasn’t normal. People still didn’t quite
trust the idea of ordering from a website. I mean
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I still read online reviews. I still did my
research online. But when it was time to buy,
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I went to a shop. And my favourite destination for
gadgets and tech was Tottenham Court Road. Where
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they had row upon row upon row of electronics
shops. And maybe they still do have them. But
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we live in a very different world now, and
I suspect a lot of those shops don’t exist
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anymore. Anyway, I loved to browse the tech and
gadget shops in central London. And one day,
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in the summer of 2010, off I went to browse
the shelves for a new camera. I was basically
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looking for a good all-rounder that could take
great photos and record high quality video too.
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And that’s when I spotted this Sanyo HD2000. The
salesman was kind enough to show me a display
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model. And I absolutely loved the look of this
thing. The big selling points for me were that it
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has two big buttons – one for photo one for video.
It has an articulating screen that you can use for
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selfies as well. It takes photos at 8 Megapixels
- which seemed like a lot back in those days.
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And it records video at full HD at 60 frames per
second. Which was quite a novelty at the time.
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And, finally, from the outside it looks like
it has a massive lens. And I assumed this meant
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it delivered excellent picture quality.
At the time I was very naive and I knew
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nothing about the importance of sensor
size. In fact, the sensor on this thing
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is only… 1 / 2.5 inches. In other words,
it’s less than 25 square millimetres. That’s
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absolutely tiny! Anyway, I bought it straight
away, for the very reasonable price of £500 GBP.
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So let me give you a quick rundown of the
specs on this camera. It records in full HD,
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widescreen, at 60 frames per second,
at a rate of 24 Megabits per second.
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Photos can actually be taken at 12 Megapixels –
via something called “interpolation” – but I think
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that’s only possible in the 4×3 aspect ratio. For
widescreen images, in 16×9 format, the limit is
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8 Megapixels. It saves your footage to an
easily removable SD card – up to 32 gigabytes in
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size – with photos in jpeg and video in mp4. And,
by the way, it’s worth keeping in mind that when
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this camera came, out back in 2009, SD cards were
not yet the standard format for camera storage.
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The HD2000 weighs about 310 grams, including the
battery and SD card. The removable battery has a
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capacity of 1900 milliamp hours – which is pretty
impressive – and it’s supposed to be good for
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90 minutes of video recording. Unfortunately
there’s no USB charging. You have to charge
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the camera from the mains supply. However, it
does come with a dock, which acts like a stand
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so you can plug this into the mains and record
video at the same time. Which I can see being
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very useful. It has an internal mic built-in as
you’d expect. And it claims to have electronic
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wind noise reduction. However, you can also
plug in an external mic. Unfortunately, it
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doesn’t have a standard 3.5mm socket. Instead you
have to use the bizarre 2.5mm microphone input.
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And I think I do have a converter so I might
give that try later. The HD2000 has a standard
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headphone socket at the front, so you can listen
to whatever you’re recording. It also has a HDMI
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output in case you wanted to connect this to a
monitor or a projector. In addition, it also has
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component, composite and S-video outputs. And I
expect most of you don’t have a clue what any of
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that means. But back when I first started making
short films S-video was a really important part of
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my process. But now that everything is digital …
that’s all meaningless in this modern world. The
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view screen is 2.7 inches in size. This is a TFT
screen, which is a type of LCD that was popular
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at the time. And it looks reasonably good for a
device from 2009. Now, as I mentioned before ,it
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has a tiny tiny sensor just 1/2.5 inches in size.
However, if you didn’t know that, you could be
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fooled by this large-ish lens here into thinking
it had a much better spec than it actually does.
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Obviously, with a tiny sensor it’s going to
have poor low-light performance. However,
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there is a small pop-up flash built into
the camera body. Which is fantastic.
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But doesn’t work with video. That’s to be
expected. The battery would die pretty quickly
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if this flashlight was used continuously.
However, there is also a cold shoe mount
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at the top of the camera. So, if I wanted, I could
attach my modern LED light onto the top of here.
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There are a few different modes included in
this, such as: landscape mode, portrait mode,
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sports mode, a macro mode, a night mode, and
even a fireworks mode. However, what’s really
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interesting is the beauty mode. Yes, the “beauty
mode”. Nowadays, a lot of cameras have a beauty
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mode, specifically pandering to the vanity of
vloggers. But I was genuinely surprised to see
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it in a camera from 2009. Does it work? Does
it make your skin look soft and smooth? Well…
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we’ll test that out later. As you can see, there
is a small hook here for attaching a wrist strap.
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Which is always a very useful feature.
And should stop the camera from falling
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if I ever lose my grip. You can mount the HD2000
onto a tripod quite easily, because it has the
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standard quarter inch hole at the bottom. However,
it’s not really designed to be used with a tripod.
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The “pistol grip” design is obviously there for a
reason. Basically, you’re supposed to hand hold it
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like a gun and point it towards whatever you want
to film or photograph. And it’s just as easy to
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turn the gun on yourself – for some vlog style
video or if you want to take some selfies. But
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keep in mind that the internal microphone
is behind the screen here. So if you’ve got
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the camera pointed at yourself then the mic is
on the wrong side and the sound quality will be
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much worse. Also worth noting is that the lens
on the HD2000 has an equivalent focal length of
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38mm at its widest setting. In other words,
this camera has a maximum viewing angle of about
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50 degrees. Which probably isn’t wide enough
for handheld vlogging. Now, personally,
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I think a 90 degree angle of view is the best
choice for vlogging. And that would be a full
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frame equivalent focal length of about 18mm.
Anyway, that’s enough talking. I think what we all
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really want to know is: how does this thing
perform in the real world? And how does it
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compare to a modern camera? Now i’m not going to
put it up against a modern day mirrorless camera.
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That would be stupid. But it might be interesting
to compare it to something like my GoPro Hero5
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Session. Mainly because the image sensor in this
four-year-old GoPro is exactly the same size as
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the sensor in this 11 year old Sanyo. Let’s start
with some photography. But keep in mind that these
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two cameras have very different lenses. The GoPro
has a 3mm lens. While the Sanyo has a 6mm lens. So
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the GoPro photos will always have a wide angle
look, and will always have image distortion.
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So this is an image taken by the Sanyo. it looks
pretty good and it’s probably good enough for
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posting on social media. Now here’s the same
photo taken by the GoPro. And I think it’s
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pretty obvious it’s an inferior image. And when
you zoom in the difference becomes even clearer.
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Now obviously these two cameras are about
six years apart in age. And a lot can happen
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in six years. And the technology world moves very
fast. However, lenses can make a huge difference.
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Also the Sanyo takes images at 12 Megapixels.
Whereas the GoPro tops out at just 10 Megapixels.
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Here’s another photo taken with the Sanyo. Again
it’s decent. Nothing to write home about. And it
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doesn’t even come close to what a modern compact
or mirrorless camera can achieve. But at the same
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time, it’s good enough for posting online.
And here’s the same image when recorded by
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the GoPro. And, again, it’s not even close to the
same quality. Which is a bit disappointing, but
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not really a surprise. And once again, when you
zoom in, the differences become even clearer. And,
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again, this isn’t a surprise. OK, so it looks like
the Sanyo has the advantage over the GoPro when
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it comes to photography. But the Sanyo has a much
wider aperture. So maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.
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Next, let’s check the video and sound quality.
That is going to involve a trip outside. And
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i’m going to put both the Sanyo and the GoPro
at the end of a long monopod. Also keep in mind
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that I’m setting both the cameras to Auto Mode.
I’ll be filming at full HD, 30 frames per second.
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It’s raining outside. So I’ve had to take shelter.
Anyway, the youngsters out there might well be
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wondering: “what the hell is a Sanyo?” You might
even suspect it’s like one of those cheap knockoff
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brands that are so common in China nowadays.
Actually, Sanyo was a highly respected and very
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successful electronics company back in the 1980s
and the 1990s. They were based out of Japan, and
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produced all kinds of products. Including cameras,
camcorders, projectors, audio equipment and a hell
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of a lot more. Things started to go wrong for
them in the early 2000s. However, by the time
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I bought this camera in 2010, they’d already been
taken over by Panasonic. And, not long afterwards,
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the Sanyo brand was retired. Panasonic then went
on to be quite a major player in the camera world.
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And they were instrumental in the success of the
Micro Four Thirds format for mirrorless cameras.
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Anyway, how does this sound? I’m now going to plug
in an external mic, so you can compare the two.
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And I’m going to switch on the “beauty mode”
and set the Sanyo to Aperture Priority F1.8…
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Right, so here we are on beauty mode, aperture
priority at 1.8. Now what’s really interesting
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is that Sanyo produced quite a lot of these
Xacti cameras in the pistol grip format. What
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I didn’t know was that they even produced some
waterproof versions. And you could literally
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take them swimming with you. They weren’t
rated for diving. But you could take them
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down about five feet and they’d cope just
fine. Unfortunately, none of the waterproof
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versions were full HD. The best you could
hope for was 720p. Nowadays, of course,
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the GoPro cameras are waterproof straight out
of the box, all the way down to about 10 metres.
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So… there you have it. The Sanyo
HD2000. My first ever HD camera. And,
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in a way, this was my first ever vlogging camera
too. Even though I’ve never done a day of vlogging
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in my life. I’m not a vlogger. I’m an artist.
The disappointing part of that video footage was
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the very poor autofocus capability of the Sanyo. I
actually filmed quite a lot while outside and the
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face tracking feature does work… but most of the
time it doesn’t. I will say this: the Sanyo camera
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does have some impressive features for a device
so small. Firstly, it has some decent slow-motion
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credentials for its age. It can shoot slow motion
down to 240 frames per second. Not in HD, but it’s
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not too bad under the circumstances. You can also
record slow-mo at 600 frames per second, but the
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quality of that video is absolutely atrocious. The
HD2000 also has an inbuilt 10 times optical zoom,
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which is quite a feat considering how small this
is. It’s also supposed to have inbuilt image
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stabilisation, and face detection autofocus. But
neither of those seem to work very well in video
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mode. In case the camera nerds were wondering…
yes you can shoot in full manual mode if you want,
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with full control over Aperture, Shutter Speed and
ISO. The ISO can be set as low as 50 and as high
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as 3200. You can also shoot in Shutter Priority
and Aperture Priority. Incidentally, the aperture
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range goes from F1.8 all the way to F8. And the
Shutter Speed can be varied from 4 seconds all the
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way to 1/ 10,000 of a second. Now Sanyo advertised
this very prominently as a “dual camera”. And it’s
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definitely capable of shooting photos and video.
There is a catch though. Being a camera for both
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means it’s not particularly good at either. Its
video wasn’t as good as an equivalent camcorder
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of the time. And its photos weren’t as good as a
dedicated stills camera from back in the day. The
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more experienced photographers and videographers
are likely to notice barrel distortion, vignetting
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and purple fringing, due to chromatic aberrations.
Which is disappointing considering this camera
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cost me £500 GBP. And right now, in terms of
quality, this Sanyo is clearly one of the worst
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cameras I own. However I can’t bring myself to
sell it. Because I’m quite nostalgic about it.
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It did travel the world with me. And the
Sanyo brand doesn’t even exist anymore. So
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i like having this in my collection. The good
news is there are plenty available online if
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you want to buy one for yourself. They are all
second-hand, of course. And you can pick one up
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for about £50 GBP on ebay. However, in my opinion,
it’s much safer to buy second-hand camera stuff
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from Amazon rather than ebay. So I’ve put
a link in the description for you, in case
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you were tempted and willing to part with £170
GBP for this. However, for that kind of money,
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you can easily pick up a used DJI Osmo Action. And
the Osmo Action is an absolutely brilliant little
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machine – a hundred times better than this.
Anyway, this has been another episode of Tech
0:16:39.360,0:16:44.400
Tuesdays. And a much more nostalgic one than
you’re probably used to seeing. Thank you for
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joining me on this trip down Memory Lane. I’ll
be back again next week with more. Later nerds!
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