Summary: No so good!

Comment: This camcorder has couple good thing like size and can't think any other so far...
Cons.: Antishake doesn't work and I believe is because the small size of the apparatus. Lotz of flare when object is bright and WORST for me is the HORRENDOUS and DISTURBING sound from the autofocus (chasing object) that you will hear in your movie so you better go for manual focus, "visual noise" if cam is set at 400 and more ISO.... you need to buy a software to edit your movie (about $60).I'm not a PRO but lack of quality electronics disgust me.
Overall this cam is over priced, with SANYO brand I was expecting better performance. It's just OK to capture some moments but just that.

Summary: Not professional video, but the most convenient!

Comment: I've been using this camera for about six months now. It makes shooting decent video so incredibly easy. The results are probably just good enough for both pictures and video that it makes it worth it for me. There is a trade off for quality here.

What makes it worth it is the most ergonomically pleasing camera I've ever had the pleasure to use. It fits perfectly in my pocket, including a protective camera case I got for it. There are just too many moments in life and I miss a lot less of them because it's so easy for me to carry around.

It's great for posting to YouTube. It shoots in mp4, which I just upload to YouTube. On the other hand, there are not tons of programs that can edit mp4s. I use Ulead Video Studio 11 and that works very well.

I had been using minidv for years, but the tape drive systems always let me down for a while and are just nowhere near as solid state as a camera like the CG9. After my second minidv camera went I vowed never more. I'm interested in harddrive cameras, but I'm not sure they take very good pictures and I just think that SD cards are the wave of the future.

For me the big draw is being able to write on SD cards. They are amazingly easy to use, except that your computer should probably have pretty advanced graphics/video capabilities. My laptop has a dedicated graphics card, and it's still a bit clunky to preview or edit videos.

I find the swivel lcd impossible to live without.

So overall I think it's a great camera. If you are really sensitive about picture/video quality, this is probably not your camera.

Summary: Good camera

Comment: Nice camcorder, very small and the video quality are great for everyday use. Taking pictures is very easy, but when you hit the shutter, there is a one second lag while the camera switches from video to picture.

My biggest complain is that it does not use the standard mini USB connectors, forcing you to carry one more cable. Other than that, I would recommend this camera or newer models to my friends.

Summary: Quality in a small package

Comment: I've had a miniDV camcorder for years (and have accumulated many hours of miniDV tapes that I never watch and haven't imported). I got the Xacti to be an alternative to the miniDV 'corder for more spontaneous shooting and viewing of my kids' activities; I intended to still rely on the miniDV for the longer and more "important" shoots. But the Xacti performs so well (with the addition of a 8GB HDSD 15mb/s card), I never use the miniDV anymore.

And I use the Xacti as a camera more than my regular digital camera (but only because of the convenience of carrying the Xacti vs. the 12x optical zoom camera; the quality of the still pictures is good, but not quite as good).

I carry it all the time, which leads to my only complaint: the lens cap is not secure enough -- it gets knocked off much too easily. But even that doesn't detract enough from this little wonder to knock a star off the rating.

Summary: Everything you need

Comment: This camcorder is compact and feature heavy. Anyone looking for a great entry level camcorder should consider this fantastic model.