Sanyo Xacti C6 review

First the good news.

When we reviewed the Xacti C4 last year we liked its neat design, ability to double up as a stills and video camera, and the fact that it stores video on flash memory rather than tape. We disliked its price. Twelve months on, the Xacti C6 looks even better than the C4, takes higher resolution stills, and can be had for about £100 less than the price we quoted for the C4.

So is it finally time to ditch that DV camcorder and stills camera in favour of this all-in-one gadget? No, not quite. Even at £368 - the cheapest online price we could find - it's more expensive than a competent DV camcorder from the likes of Canon, JVC, or Panasonic. DV camcorders, even at the low-end of these companies' ranges have better lenses, more features, and longer zooms. Most of them can also take stills and save them on tape or flash memory card.

The Xacti C6 is a different beast - it won't appeal to wedding videographers, or anyone who likes to spend hours hunched over Final Cut Pro, or even Express. If, however, all you want is to stick a camera in your pocket and grab a few snaps or video clips of a day out, it's ideal.

The 2in LCD is bright and crisp enough to frame shots, even in bright conditions, and the 5x optical zoom is fine for fun use. Switching between movie and stills modes is easy and the supplied 1GB SD card will store up to an hour of video. The battery lasts an hour when fully charged, which is a little mean, and should you need to, you can record video and stills at the same time. Captured video is stored as Mpeg-4 and can be imported to iMovie or played back directly to a TV using the supplied cable. The VGA resolution, 30fps footage looks fine on a TV and while it won't wow anyone used to watching HD content, it's good enough for its purpose.

In use, the Xacti C6 performed well. Handling was a little tricky because once you flip the screen out, the body is too thin to grip comfortably. That aside, we had no problems. We experienced none of the fringing evident in our tests of the C4, however, the compression algorithms for both images and movies left their considerable mark and artefacting was noticeable. Video was better than from a camera phone, but not close to DV quality.

Charging the C6 and transferring stills and clips can be performed using the supplied hub, or by means of an adaptor which has sockets for power and mini USB. The adaptor is a neat touch - while the hub is more convenient in a desktop environment, with a MacBook, the adaptor is less fiddly.

The major benefit of the C6 is that it doesn't use tape, so no tangling, snapping or wearing out heads. That on its own is reason to consider it as an alternative to DV.

Small, almost perfectly formed, and eminently capable, if you're on the look out for a video and stills device to chuck in your hand luggage this summer, the Xacti C6 is worth considering.