Sanyo Xacti CG65: Tapeless camcorder extraordinaire

Sanyo's ever-funky tapeless camcorders have a new family member here at CeBIT. The Xacti CG65 maintains the same pistol-grip shape and pocketable dimensions as previous models, but shoots better video.

You can shoot 640x480-pixel MPEG-4 videos at 30 frames per second straight to the SD card, so there's no need to faff around rewinding tapes. Your movies are shot in 16:9 widescreen, so they'll look like Hollyood epics on your flat-panel screen at home.

A gyro sensor ensures that any camera wobbles are corrected before they can ruin your mini-movies, which look blinding on the 64mm (2.5-inch) screen.

There's a 6-megpixel sensor for stills, and you can take pictures at the same time you're shooting video. A 5x optical zoom gets you close to the action, while pictures in low light shouldn't be a problem, thanks to the ISO 7200 mode.

There's another twist in the tail for anyone still thinking this is an ordinary tapeless camcorder -- a built-in music player. It's primarily intended for listening to podcasts on, but you can use it to listen to any AAC music file.

The Xacti supports the new SDHC flavour of SD cards, and you can fit 4 hours of the highest quality video on a 4GB card.

Expect to see it in the shops from April, for an as-yet unannounced price. -JJ