Product ReviewsDigital cameras
When we saw the Sanyo Xacti C1 camera we didn't know whether to marvel or laugh. The small, curvy silver shape is almost cute, and the fold-out screen makes it look more like a mobile phone than a camera - albeit one with a small barrel lens moulded into the top. However, it's actually a 3.2 megapixel digital camera and a VGA-resolution (640x480 pixels) MPEG-4 video camera rolled into one. The screen isn't particularly large, but it's crisp and bright. It rotates through more than 270 and flips the image automatically when turned to face the front. The camera is designed to be held in the right hand, and the controls are grouped where the thumb rests on the back; the still photo button is on the left and video on/off button is on the right, and the zoom slider sits in the middle. The zoom goes to 5.8x in optical mode, then up to 10.3 in digital mode, with a pleasingly clear indication of which you're in. The power button is tucked behind the screen. Startup time is fairly brief, at roughly two seconds, but as the camera goes into standby mode when the screen is closed and wakes up in about a second when it's opened again, you'd rarely bother to switch it off. The only way to use the camera is with the screen open and active, but we didn't find that the life of the lithium-ion battery pack was unduly short. We managed to shoot and preview stills and video until the 128Mb card was full without running out of power, although this was starting with a full charge. The full 3.2 megapixel images take roughly 1Mb of space each, so you'd get around 130 on the bundled 128Mb SD card. The image quality of the JPEGs is reasonable, although admittedly not exceptional. If you're looking for the best photographic results, you'd be better off spending your money on a dedicated digital stills camera. However, the shots weren't bad; we've seen better, but they're perfectly good for general use. The video
Leading edge A copy of Ulead PhotoExplorer is supplied, but the camera is, fortunately, recognised automatically by iPhoto and mounts on the Desktop in Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X as a regular storage volume. Of course, you'll need to copy any video clips across yourself, as iPhoto only deals with still images. Once the clips are copied to your hard drive you can drag them into iMovie 3's Clips pane for editing. The camera comes with a small, circular USB docking station that can remain permanently attached to your Mac and to the power supply. It stands upright in the dock, and a button on the docking station switches between charge mode and camera mode; the first simply recharges the battery in the camera while the second mounts the camera's memory card on the Mac's desktop. Sensibly, it defaults to the standby/recharge mode rather than 'PC connection mode' (as the camera's built-in voice calls it) when the camera is inserted, making the dock a good place to store it. Sanyo also includes a miniature dock that is small enough to rattle around inside a matchbox and has sockets for the USB and power cables at one end and a plug for the base of the camera at the other. Charging and connection modes with this are set by closing and opening the camera's screen. In the loop A semi-rigid shell case with a belt loop is included, but the Xacti's size and streamlined shape means it fits into pockets (even in regular trousers) surprisingly well. Sanyo's Xacti C1 is a clever hybrid device. Part digital camera and part video camera, it manages to be attractive, compact and useful. If you're keen on shooting and mixing video a lot this may not be enough, but it's a neat solution for grabbing the occasional sequence and taking 3.2 megapixel photos. On the quality front it isn't quite a challenge to the best of similarly priced still cameras, but the form factor makes it very easy to slip into a pocket. By Keith Martin |
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