Danteb 0 #1 February 25, 2010 Hi, just wondering if anyone has had any free fall time with the Sanyo VPC-FH1 & if you have how it worked out for you. Seems to be quite an interesting CX100 alternative, same size/weight, cheaper, full 1080p 60fps. just wanted to see if anyone had any time in the sky with it b4 I strap one to my head. tx guys Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
humbled1 0 #2 February 25, 2010 Not sure how well it works but it is not cheaper than a CX100. The cheapest I can find the Sanyo is $370 but the CX100 is on Amazon for $317. My suggestion is just get a CX100, but then again if you are feeling adventurous pick one up and let us know how it goes. whatever you decide, best of luck if you find a price on either one that seems too good to be true be sure you research the seller, there are some shady video/photos places online. "Tell ya the truth, I don't think this is a brains kind of operation." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danteb 0 #3 February 25, 2010 317 for the cx100 that sounds pretty good, tho I hear they are launching the cx110 in a couple months for a lower price. another plus for the sanyo is lack of optical stabilization, so no shake...tho you can't conect a cameye to it...1080p 60fps sounds too sweet...damn will i have to be the first..c'mon someone must have tried it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
humbled1 0 #4 February 26, 2010 Yeah I jump a HC5 and with the SteadyShot off it doesnt shake at all. I bought a CX100 a couple of weeks ago for $335. I got it last week but I have not opened the box for 2 reasons. 1. I don't NEED to jump it right now, I am used to my HC5 and its working fine. 2. I don't want my wife to see it! It was hard enough to explain the great deal I recently got on a Rebel XSi!!! "Tell ya the truth, I don't think this is a brains kind of operation." Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tripleflip18 0 #5 February 27, 2010 Hey, i had FH1 that i gave a friend to film me and test it out. First jump went all great and the camera performs excellent. 60fps at 1080 is beautiful. 2nd jump on the exit on our count up/down/up exit he jumped into the ceiling rail of a skyvan and it broke off/fell off the helmet i don't know. And so it went skydiving on its own. That one one expensive jump for me :) The only thing is you have to have the screen closed with screen facing out to have it recording. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danteb 0 #6 March 1, 2010 sad, the screen probably uses a magnetic switch, easy enough to remove. only thing stopping me is the buttong layout on the back, would be a bitch to turn it on with gloves on & it doesn't take a cam eye Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunnelfly 0 #7 March 1, 2010 I use it, and it works fine for me. But I had to make the box myself and also built my own "cameye" for it. I'll post details about my setup soon. If you are interested, you can download a 1 minute original file of a jump in Puerto Rico from my server. It's FullHD and 60p, with an Opteka 0.3, but it's 184MB and it'll only be there for a couple of weeks. But if I had to buy a camera especially for skydiving, I would probably buy the CX100. No.1 reason NOT to be an astronaut: ...You can't drink beer at zero gravity... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Danteb 0 #8 March 2, 2010 I'm facing that verry decision. why would you choose the cx100 over the sanyo? how did you make the cam eye? what did you not like about the VPC-FH1? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Idgy 0 #9 March 2, 2010 I jump with the Sanyo Xacti HD1010, not quite the same camera but very similar - pretty sure they share most of the same components just a different form factor. It is superb, very high quality. The fact that it doesnt fit the cam eye is no problem at all, I just turn it on before I gear up on the way up and crop off anything I dont need later. Its really not a problem at all. with digital. As for the screen opening out, I made my own bracket which has a plate to protect the screen, but for the top mount you could easily fashion a cover from a neoprene beer cooler or laptop bag etc. which would give it enough cover. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunnelfly 0 #10 March 2, 2010 Quotebut for the top mount you could easily fashion a cover from a neoprene beer cooler Perfect fit... No.1 reason NOT to be an astronaut: ...You can't drink beer at zero gravity... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunnelfly 0 #11 March 2, 2010 Quotewhy would you choose the cx100 over the sanyo? Because you can buy off-the-shelve accessories, and don't have to do it all yourself ... Quotehow did you make the cam eye? photodiode over camera's status led, connected to two comparators with trimmers, to blue and red smd led. Circuit inside the helmet, powered by the modified stills cam... No.1 reason NOT to be an astronaut: ...You can't drink beer at zero gravity... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
raceface 0 #12 March 3, 2010 Quotephotodiode over camera's status led, connected to two comparators with trimmers, to blue and red smd led. Circuit inside the helmet, powered by the modified stills cam... do you use skylite/skylite2/skylight2 or something you built for yourself? btw nice setup...my pictures Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soulbabel 0 #13 March 3, 2010 I jumped the pistol shaped version a few times, and I thought the quality was pretty crappy especially when using the 60 fps mode. The footage had all sorts of rolling stutter when I watched it back on my PC, and just to make sure it wasn't a playback issue, I stepped frame by frame through it. I'd avoid it and go with the CX100, CX110, etc. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tunnelfly 0 #14 March 3, 2010 I've built it myself, but it works the same way. No.1 reason NOT to be an astronaut: ...You can't drink beer at zero gravity... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Idgy 0 #15 March 3, 2010 QuoteI jumped the pistol shaped version a few times, and I thought the quality was pretty crappy especially when using the 60 fps mode. The footage had all sorts of rolling stutter when I watched it back on my PC, and just to make sure it wasn't a playback issue, I stepped frame by frame through it. I'd avoid it and go with the CX100, CX110, etc. @Soulbabel - Are you sure this wasnt your PC's video card not being able to handle that amount of video data? I cant replay the HD at full quality on my (older) macbook, the poor mac just cant handle the rendering and it looks really stuttered, but my works computer (new iMac) does just fine. Now I just watch the footage via HDMI connection from the camera straight into my TV and its stunningly good quality. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
soulbabel 0 #16 March 3, 2010 Oops, looks like I meant rolling shutter and not rolling stutter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolling_shutter Specifically, I'd see the wobble or jello effect on my footage, and this was evident even when I stepped through frame by frame. The method I used to step through the video frame by frame is different than what most people do. Basically, I demuxed the video file into its elementary streams, and loaded the video stream into VirtualDub by using Avisynth. This allows me to see each frame as it actually exists in the stream, without being affected by the capability of my videocard. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DSE 5 #17 March 3, 2010 Very few NLE systems use the video card at all, and the ones that do (aside from Mercury or proprietary cards) aren't to be trusted because of widely varying gamma. The "jello" you see is what I don't like about most of the low-cost MPG4 cams...Rolling shutter should almost never be an issue for mid-level skydiving cams, simply because the shutterspeed isn't high enough to worry about. Usually. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
