EXCLUSIVE: Sanyo who is the world’s second largest manufacture of digital Camera’s is set to launch the world’s smallest, thinnest and lightest Full HD consumer video cameras in Australia next week, in a move that will see them go up against the struggling Flip video camera from Cisco.
According to Bill Crichton, the Managing Director of Sanyo Australia their new digital camera’s products will be a big hit with Apple fans as it has official certification to support iFrames, the video format specifically designed by Apple to speed up the importing and editing of video, by keeping the content in its native recorded format while editing.
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Although it was developed by Apple, the computer-friendly format can be used with both Mac and PC compatible applications due to the use of standards-based technologies such as H.264, AAC, and MP4. The new Sanyo offering will be marketed through select mass channel retailers as well as the specialist camera channel and will be available in several colours.
The camera is part of Sanyo’s Xacti line that includes a range of dual cameras for capturing both video and still images. Crichton claims that their new offering will be targeted at “soccer mums” and not teenagers and that he is confident that their new offering will be successful in Australia.
Just2.7cm thick the VPC-CS1 is slim enough to stick in a pocket or handbag to ensure users have a camera on hand to capture video-worthy moments in Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution.
The quality of the video captured and stored in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format.
A “Sound Zoom” function provides a choice of three microphone modes for capturing audio. Wide mode captures audio from a wide angle with high stereo separation; gun mode focuses on sound emanation from the direction the camera is pointing; and zoom combination mode automatically changes the settings according to the camera’s zoom setting.
Still images captured through the camera’s 38-mm wide-angle lens with 9x optical zoom are received from the image sensor as approximately 3.3-megapixel images before being enhanced and recorded as 8-megapixel images.
Still image features include a digital image stabiliser, face chaser function and sequential shot feature, which is capable of 20 shots at 6fps.
With no viewfinder images and video are viewed on the unit’s 2.7-inch TFT widescreen display. The included Li-ion battery should be good for recording around 200 still shots, 60 minutes of video or for around 210 minutes of continuous playback.
To achieve its slim form factor Sanyo developed a slim sensor module and a new super slim lens for the VPC-CS1. The advances have resulted in a camera that is approx. 126 cc in volume, weighs around 5.6 oz (159 g) including battery and SD card, and measures 2.5 (W) x 1.06 (D) x 4.8 (H) inches (62.5 x 26.8 x 123.5mm). It includes a mini HDMI terminal for direct connection to a HDTV and can store content on SD, SDHC (up to 32 GB) and SDXC (up to 64 GB) memory cards.
According to Crichton the new camera will be available in two models and will go on sale in Australia this month.
