Sanyo Xacti VPC-CS1- World's Smallest HD Dual Camera

If small is beautiful then the Sanyo VPC-CS1 Dual camera is a real beauty.

Released in February 2010, it's the world's smallest, thinnest and lightest Full HD dual camera, capable of shooting 1920 x 1080 video at 60fps.

Weighing just 5 oz, a little more than an iPhone, the Xacti VPC-CS1 measures only 1.06 inches across at it's widest and also takes photos up to 8 Mega pixels in resolution.

The VPC-CS1 brings high performance, cutting edge technology to the world of ultra-mobile digital video. According to the Sanyo press release the VPC-CS1 is a "new style of video camera that will radically expand the situations where it can be used."

With its tapeless design, the SH1 can begin shooting in as little as 1.7 seconds from pressing the power button. It has a 2.7 inch flip-out screen that's rotates through 285 degrees.

A palmcorder version, the VPC-SH1 is also available if you like your video cameras a bit more traditional looking.

The VPC-CS1 features a specially developed slimline lens with a 9x optical and 10x digital zoom. Video is captured on a 1/5inch 3.4 Megapixel CMOS sensor. You can adjust the shooting sensitivity from ISO 50 to ISO 1600 depending on whether you use auto or manual mode.

Image Stabilization

Using a proprietary Sanyo algorithm, the CS1 automatically compensates for distracting up-and-down or side-to-side camera movement, keeping your video and photo subjects steady and easy to follow. It accurately distinguishes between unintentional camera shake and deliberate camera movement, useful for both wide-angle and telephoto modes.

Videos are recorded in MPEG-4 AVC / H.264 format which is fast becoming the popular choice for portable video recording, just as JPEGs are a standard now for displaying photos. Video clips show up as thumbnails for easy browsing.

Windows Users

It's fully Windows compatible and the native video files can be played straight from Windows Media Player. If you have Windows 7, you'll be able to utilize Device Stage and Windows Live Movie Maker 5.

Mac Users

The Xacti VPC-CS1 is currently going through certification to be compatible with a brand new video format from Apple, called iFrame. This will please iMovie users as the new format dramatically speeds up the process of capturing,transferring and editing your videos. In the meantime you can still use the standard H.264 format of the camera.

The VPC SC1 has a 3.4 Megapixel sensor which can interpolate images up to 8 Megapixels. You can choose resolutions from 640 x 480 up to 3264 x 2448 pixels.

A high speed sequential mode lets you capture up to 6 frames per second for perfect action shots.

Sanyo haven't forgotten about the sound capabilities in the VPC-CS1. You can set the internal microphone to one of three different settings:

• Wide Mode -this gives you stereo recording with high channel separation, great for capturing atmosphere and natural sounds
• Gun Mode focuses on sound emanating from the direction that the camera is pointing, and reduces sounds from other directions.
  
• Zoom Mode automatically changes the microphone's sensitivity to match the position of the zoom lens.

Audio is recorded with the high quality 48Khz 16bit AAC algorithm

Battery Life

Sanyo says you'll get approximately 200 still photos on one charge. In Full HD video mode you'll get an hour's worth of shooting time whereas you'll get 2 hours of continuous playback.

SDXC card compatibility 
SDXC is the next generation is the line of SD memory card technology. The CS1 can record to more than 64GB of content to SDXC memory cards.  You can also play CS1 Full HD 1080 videos stored on SDXC cards on your high definition TV.