Xacti, small video camera that does all
Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id
People all over Indonesia have long associated electric water pumps with Sanyo. Over the decades they have come to call every water pump a pompa Sanyo (Sanyo pump), although it may be a Shimizu, a DAB or a Grundfost. Thus, Sanyo has become a generic name for water pump because of its popularity.
However, the company does not excel in making reliable water pumps only. It also makes reliable home appliances, cell phones, batteries, etc. In terms of audio video electronics, Sanyo may not be able to compete with brands such as Sony and Panasonic.
Nonetheless, I still remember a Sanyo stereo compo that I bought more than twenty years ago. I loved it for its very smooth sound. It seemed to last forever, too. I later let my brother-in- law have it when I had to leave Indonesia to continue my study.
In the past few years, however, Sanyo has quietly been introducing higher quality electronic products to the market. Its home theaters and digital projectors, for example, compete well against the others in terms of quality and price.
Lately, Sanyo has also become increasingly serious with its digital camera products. Courtesy of Datascrip -- Sanyo's distributor for digital cameras and projectors in Indonesia -- I was able to play around with a new and very cute little video camera, Xacti C1.
You may recall that in the U.S. Sanyo's electronics are sold under the Fisher brand. So, this camera and video recorder is also sold in the U.S. as Fisher FVD-C1.
Features
Only the size of a battery-powered shaver, the Xacti C1 can easily fit into my shirt pocket. It is so small and so lightweight that when I first saw it, I could not believe it was a digital camera and video recorder in one.
With its 3.2 megapixel (mp) and DVD-quality video recording capabilities, it is also a serious digital camera.
Because it is so small, Xacti C1 has to use one of the smallest storage devices available. Sanyo has chosen the SecureDigital (SD) card to store the photos and the videos. A 512 MegaBytes (MB) SD card is included in the box.
With this card, we can store up to 30 minutes of DVD-like video, 20 minutes if we choose the super high-quality (SHQ) video, or 80 minutes of VHS-quality. The same card can hold up to 491 pictures of 3.2 mp resolution.
As is always the case, we will need to buy additional SD cards if we want to store more video clips. Incidentally, the 1 GigaByte (GB) SD card is supposed to be available on the market now.
This camera and video recorder comes with a docking station that allows us to recharge the battery and connect the device to the PC. The camera uses a proprietary MPEG-4 chip. It records video at 30 frames per second (fps) with the VGA (640 x 480) resolution or lower.
To play back the video on the PC, we need QuickTime 6.x, which can be downloaded from the Web. The audio recording is also CD- quality (48 KHz at 16-bit). I was pleasantly surprised to hear how good the audio sounded on my PC speakers when I played back a video clip that I had taken with this tiny gadget.
The camera has a flip-out and rotating 1.5-inch (110,000- pixel) LCD monitor. No viewfinder is available. On the control panel of the pistol-like camera we have a button on the right to start and stop the video recording and another button on the left to take still pictures.
A very responsive, 5-way joystick below the main buttons lets us navigate the menus, which are very easy to understand and use. A small button just to the right of the joystick toggles the menu. The large zoom button for telephoto and wide-angle control is also ergonomically located between the two record buttons.
Everything was so well-designed that I was able to use this device without reading the manual.
At the bottom of the unit there is a socket for our tripod. A remote control is also included should we want to operate the camera from a distance. Incidentally, the camera allows us to take snapshots while it is recording a video. This is a new feature that I have never heard of before.
Sanyo provides all the necessary cables, including a cable that connects the camera to the TV-set so that we can view the pictures and videos on it. Movies can be recorded directly onto video tapes.
The two CDs that come with Xacti C1 contain popular software from Ulead that enables us to edit and manage video and image files. The set of tools also includes Motion Director that helps get rid of the unwanted camera movement typical of an inexperienced hand.
Like all Ulead software products, the applications are intuitive and provide useful tools. If you have a DVD-RW or CD-RW drive, you can even burn your own DVD and VCD using the provided software.
Irresistible
Frankly, the video image tends to be a bit dark. However, I have been told that this could be fixed by choosing the right white balance and adjusting the ISO sensitivity level.
If I had more time to play around with it, I believe I would find the right parameters to produce much better video and still images.
The flash light is very small and it does not have red-eye reduction. However, if we thought about the small size of the unit itself and the limited power of its tiny battery pack, these shortcomings would be minor ones.
Besides, although the flash is small, it is powerful enough to require care when shooting a close object.
An adapter is provided for the camera in case we do not want to carry the docking station around. It also allows us to recharge the battery and connect the camera to the PC. However, it is so tiny that it can easily be misplaced.
It would be better if Sanyo redesigned the connectors and the docking station so that we no longer needed this tiny adaptor.
Xacti C1 still does not support PictBridge, the common standard that allows Pictbridge-compliant digital cameras from any maker to print directly on PictBridge-compliant printers from a different vendor. It would be nice if the support was also included.
Despite minor complaints, it is clear that Xacti C1 has taken the standard for compact digital cameras and video recorders to the next level.
At close to Rp 6 million (US$710), it may not sound cheap, but it is certainly a very handy companion during vacation trips -- especially for those who hate having to carry around bulky cameras when they travel.
Because it is so small and lightweight, a lot of practice may be necessary before you can hold it steadily.
All in all, however, Sanyo's sleek Xacti C1 is a gadget that is so hard to resist that even my wife is suggesting we buy one. Frankly speaking, that does not happen very often, folks.