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The current crop of ultra-compact digital still cameras can all shoot video clips. Sanyo's Xacti VPC-C6E is about the same size as most pocket digicams and can shoot both video and stills, but here the primary emphasis is on shooting video with a solid stills capability.
Designed to be held upright in one hand, the Xacti body houses a flipout 2in LCD; this also serves as a switch to take the camera in and out of standby mode.
Upon opening the screen, the camera is ready to shoot in well under two seconds.
In its default configuration an enthusiastic female voice greets you with helpful hints on how to get started. Thankfully, this can be turned off once she's outgrown her usefulness.
All camera controls have been placed to fall conveniently under the thumb: individual buttons activate video recording and shoot stills and a zoom slider sits between them.
With the Sanyo Xacti CPV-C6E there's no need to stop filming to take a still image, you can just take a still shot whenever you want without interrupting the video recording.
Unlike it's bigger brother, the Xacti VPC-HD1E, this model isn't able to record high-definition video.
Instead, the maximum resolution sits at 640 x 480 at 30fps (frames per second) - the same as that offered by most digicams and you can fit an hour of footage on the supplied 1GB card in High Quality mode. This matches up well with a 60-minute battery life.
Unlike some digital camcorders, where still images are of low-resolution and almost an afterthought, the VPC-C6E offers full 6megapixel resolution images with a selection of stills shooting modes and a built-in flash.
With image quality comparable to a decent digital camera, you certainly won't need to carry a separate camera.
A docking station provides easy PC and TV connectivity so you can dump your recordings directly onto video tape or a DVD-recorder, or copy your recorded mpeg4 files and jpegs directly to your PC for editing with the supplied software.
With high-quality video and photos, the VPC-6CE is an impressive piece of kit.
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