Sanyo VPC-C40 -- The Guerilla Multimedia Tool for Online Journalism

Original draft - February/March 2007

A few years ago I had a Canon S230 digicam that also included a movie mode. I eventually sold the camera because it was too small, and in the days before image stabilization, too hard to hold steady in low light. I experimented with the movie mode, which was pretty decent except for the sound, plus the amount of time you could record was limited and it saved the videos in AVI format, which is a memory hog. The camera also only shot at 15 FPS, but up to 640x480. There was no zoom during filming and the exposure was locked at the moment of filming.

Fast forward a few years and I was looking at some of the video clips I made with the camera. I realized how nice it was to have them, as they are the equivalent of a video snapshot. They were just little clips of friends, the cats or my car rolling over to 200,000 miles. Here a shot of a Goodyear Blimp flying over Akron shot with the Canon S230.


Sanyo C40 - 69x106x34mm, 152 g

Viewing them made me realize I wanted that ability again so I kept my eyes open for the tool I had in my mind. First, I wanted the camera to save the clips in MP4 format and I didn't want to be restricted to the size of the individual files in terms of size or time. Also, no tapes. I wanted a device that recorded to a memory card. I have the use of a Canon GL1 and I wanted something that was very small and so portable I could take it anywhere, anytime. Oh, and I wanted something inexpensive, ideally under $300.

Early on in my search I was intrigued by the Canon S3. It had a reputation for good video quality, decent sound and the ability to zoom while recording. I came close to buying one but held off. It still wasn't what I wanted. The big drawback was the AVI mode in which it recorded.

So I laid low and kept one eye open.

I ran across a site dedicated to the PXL-2000, a toy camera made by Fisher Price in the late 1980's. The camera has a cult following in the way the Holga has for the still photo community. That lead me to the Mattel Vidster, which is an XPL-2000 for the new age. Here's a video shot with the Vidster on an airplane when a guy got up and sang a song to a woman he loved. The song is Terry. The camera produces a raw image that is compelling in the right circumstances. But this still wasn't what I wanted.

Finally I came across the little cameras from Sanyo. The one that caught my eye was the C40, mainly because it was the least expensive model in their lineup. It records in MP4 format, takes SD cards, which also happens to be the card flavor used in my DSLR, a nice bonus. It also takes 4mp still photos and can act as an audio-only voice recorder. The only limit to the file sizes is the amount of space on the card or how much juice is left in your battery. I don't think the C40 is SDHD compatible, but that's not much of a concern to me. No need for a fast SD card. I use low-end Kingston cards in mine and it's fine.

Some poking around the web revealed that Radio Shack carried these units for $200. Amazon.com sells them for $288 and even B&H was higher at $275, but the camera has since vanished from their site. Radio Shack, unbelievably, has the lowest price I can find anywhere online or in a brick and mortar store.

After reading all I could find on the camera I decided that the price was too low not to take a chance, plus Radio Shack has a 30-day return policy, so what did I have to lose?

My Radio Shack had their unit priced at $99.99 in the display case. Surely that was incorrect, so I played stupid. They would not sell it to me at that price as the manager explained that they print the the tags in the store and someone goofed and left off the one in the price. I pressed them a bit and wound up settling for a free extended warranty. At least it was a small bonus.

Ok, let's get to the nitty gritty. Is this thing any good?

For $200 it's more than good enough for online and personal use and much better than some of the complainers I was reading in forums made it out to be. I'll link to some examples at the end of this article.

Here are the good and bad points I've discovered after using the camera for a few months. I will go into more detail on some of these points:

The Bad:

The Good:

Sanyo C40 Samples

If your web browser will not play MP4 videos you will have to go to the directory listing and download the files via your browser.

Final thoughts and conclusion on the Sanyo C40

After using the camera for a few months I've settled on using the camera in Auto ISO mode all the time unless I'm in really poor light and then I will manually set the camera to 400 ISO. In auto ISO the camera will choose the best ISO from 50 to 200. I generally shoot at the best quality (640x480/30fps) unless I know it's going straight to web and time is a factor, then I shoot at 320x240.

I tend to use this camera at its widest setting and get right into the action. It's going to be hard to hold the camera steady once you zoom in on you subject. At times I use a little tabletop tripod when shooting video. I jam the legs into my chest which turns my entire body into more stable platform.

Again I want to stress that this camera needs some light to get a decent movie image. When shooting in auto ISO mode in twilight I get images that look like they were shot at night. If you are out shooting under street lights you may not get a useable images. With a prosumer 3-chip camera like a Canon GL-1 you would get an image that looks like it was shot at dawn. I am always amazed at how I can shoot with my GL-1 in what seems total darkness and still get an amazing image.

Leaving the camera in center weighted mode yields good exposures most of the time and its not fooled by strong backlighting. If you looked at the clip from the airplane or on the beach, which have have the sun in the frame, the camera's center-weighted metering does not get fooled. But it's also important to understand when NOT to use the camera is center-weighted mode.

Supposedly it's possible to set exposure compensation from -1.8 to +1.8. I've never been able to tell a difference trying to gain more light at 400 ISO, which is the times I'd use it, but it does make it darker when needed.

The microphone picks up sound from all over. The microphone is on the back of the flip out screen. It's quite good at picking up sound from any direction, even my voice while operating the camera.

Batteries for this camera can be purchased cheaply on Ebay. Look for Orphanbiker. I've made several purchases from him and never a problem. Two extra DB-L20 batteries are $8.98 plus a few bucks shipping. He also sells a wall adapter and car charger for the camera as a set for $8.99. Sanyo does not include a separate charger and you have to charge the battery while it's in the camera.

From a fully charged battery I am able to get about 35 minutes of recorded video. This was constant shooting without any time powered on but not shooting.

I use Macintosh computers. For simple edits and joining a few clips together I will use Quicktime Pro. For more complicated edits I use iMovie. I don't know what software works best on Windows systems for editing MP4 files. Let me know if you do and I will add it here. To play the clips on Windows on a PC either Apple's Quicktime for the PC or Video Lan Converter should do the trick. Both are free downloads.

In the final analysis it's hard to fault this camera at its $200 price if you understand the limitations. In one small package you have a tool that can act as a still camera, an audio recorder and as a video camera. While I may not be making 16x20 inch prints from this camera, the stills are more than adequate for online and even print use. The audio it records bests that of the Olympus DS-2 voice recorder. After looking at the video clips you can see that the quality is pretty amazing.

Every journalist should be carrying one of these. That's why I've dubbed it THE guerilla multimedia tool for online journalism.

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