Genius G-Shot

This pistol-grip camcorder doubles as a camera and comes in at under half the price of the Sanyo Xacti. The G-Shot is packed with features – it can be used as a voice recorder, an eBook reader and an MP3 player. It even comes with a handy little pouch for strapping to a belt or a bicycle. However, many of these embellishments seem superfluous and do nothing to improve the camera’s performance.

The flip-out screen is a decent 2.5in that can rotate 270 degrees. The G-Shot records in HD at 1280 x 720 and takes 5-megapixel photos but when we took snaps in bright light, pictures came out quite fuzzy. The motion tracking is also less than impressive.

Genius could benefit from adopting a less-is-more attitude, but the dual function and more-than-reasonable pricing make it an attractive purchase.