The latest in a long line of Xacti-branded video cameras from Sanyo , the pistol-grip-style DMX-HD2 , is being touted as the world's smallest and lightest digital video camera. At just 235g, it's undeniably tiny, but what else does the JPY100,000 (£422) shooter have to offer?
First off, the still-shot resolution of the tapeless HD2 is an impressive 7.1 megapixels and snaps can be taken at the same time as laying down video to an SD card. Speaking of resolution, video is recorded as 720p MPEG-4 at 30fps, so it's short of full HD TV but still in the ballpark. A 10x optical zoom is slightly less than might be expected, though.
To make best use of that high-definition video, there's a single HDMI output as well as a USB port on the camera itself and S-Video and composite connectors on the included docking station. The LCD screen is a fold-out 2.2-inch number, while audio options are limited due to the absence of either a monitor headphone or microphone jack. The built-in stereo mic will have to suffice.
In terms of the onboard software, a nice feature common to Xactis is the ability to make simple edits in the camera, thus cutting out the need to hook up to a PC. Lastly, an 8GB SDHC memory card can hold up to 170 minutes of footage at the highest quality, so we can see the HD2 being snuck into a few cinemas around the Pacific rim.
