Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA8

Last issue, we looked at the Flip Ultra – a cheap-and-cheerful digital video camera designed to slip into your pocket. It’s a great device but it has its limitations. If you’re looking for something capable of higher-quality video and able to take a few more of life’s knocks, consider the Sanyo Xacti – it’ll even let you film underwater.

Features
The main selling point of this camera is probably its water resistance. Though its capacity to withstand the elements is limited – it’ll only keep water out at depths up to 1.5m – there’s no doubt that capturing footage of your friends and family in the sea is much more fun if you’re in there with them. However, you’ll probably want to attach a lanyard to the handy moulded loop at the bottom to ensure the camera doesn’t slip from your fingers and drift down to unsuitable depths.

The camera will shoot video up to 640 x 480 pixels at 60 frames per second. It’ll also take stills up to 8 megapixels and has a built-in flash. Like most modern digital cameras, it has face recognition to improve focus on people in shots, individually tracking up to six faces in video mode and 12 in photo mode.

Performance
The video quality you get from this is excellent. We found the focus a bit soft in places, but it’s nothing you can’t fix if you don’t mind delving into the manual settings. The design of the device means that the 5x optical zoom is a little under-powered compared to many rivals, but it’s fine for most purposes – any more than this and you end up needing a tripod to keep it steady.

Finally, we were very pleased with how the camera performed underwater. You can dunk it while still filming and bring it out again, though it does take a bit of time to dry and clear the microphone of water. You can check out the results yourself in a short film we made while testing the device that’s now up on YouTube (http://tinyurl.com/5sku72).

Ease of use
Video cameras should be easy to switch on and use, and this one fulfils that requirement – open the screen arm, press the on button and it’s ready to go in just over a second. There’s also a standby mode – flip the screen down and it’ll turn off, flip it back again and you’re ready to record almost straightaway. To start filming, you simply press the video camera button and press it again to stop. The zoom is placed on the top and bottom sides of a four-way directional button that has a fifth selection button in the middle, which does make it rather difficult to get a perfectly smooth zoom. If you want to access more functions, just press the Menu button. The options are sensibly layered with the most frequently accessed options at the top.

Value for money
The Sanyo Xacti costs more than twice as much as the Flip Ultra but has plenty of features to justify the extra expense. The video and sound quality is better, and you don’t need to worry about handling it near water. It also comes with Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0, Web User’s Gold Award-winning video-editing software (http://tinyurl.com/6zaomc), which is worth £70 in itself. There’s little point in choosing the Xacti if you’re looking for a bargain-basement product, but its features and performance make it worth the extra cost.