Sanyo Xacti VPC-CA8 review

Can a digital movie camera that takes pictures compete with compact cameras that shoot video? We road-test Sanyo’s latest moviemaker-cum-stills camera to find out

Building on the success of its Xacti VPC-CA65, Sony’s new VPC-CA8 attempts to steal focus from traditional compacts with movie-capture capabilities, and promote a digital movie camera with stills-taking technology and the added ability of a Face Chaser function and eight-megapixel CMOS sensor.

The unit, available in metallic white, blue or orange, continues the brand’s familiar vertical pistol grip design, convenient for one-handed operation and one-thumb control of its key functions. Tie this in with the gadget’s waterproof durability (to a depth of 1.5m) and you’ve got an attractive option for fans of outdoor activities such as swimming, surfing, snorkelling, waterskiing, skiing, snowboarding and mountain biking. Unlike many of its peers, the CA8’s 2.5-inch screen is viewable at most angles and lighting conditions, but if you are looking for niggles, its inability to rotate a full 360 degrees in one direction can be irritating, as can its inability to rotate footage automatically when video has been recorded horizontally.

Champing at the bit to compete with its competitors, it records at an able 60fps with MPEG-4 AVCH/H.264 compression, which the company claims to record at “exceptional video clarity” while maintaining the smallest file size possible. Although the video quality was acceptable, it was by no stretch of the imagination exceptional, but rather comparable to most average compact cameras, producing pixellation and lack of clarity even at the highest resolution. On the positive side, users can record up to one hour of video per gigabyte of available memory (TV-HQ mode) on a standard SD or SDHC memory card, and Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0 software is included for post-shoot creativity.

An interesting feature is Sanyo’s new Face Chaser function that automatically detects and isolates faces to assist the camera’s exposure and autofocus. The gadget is said to be capable of detecting up to 12 independent faces at a time when used for still images and six faces when filming a video. In our tests, we found this function to be inconsistent and exposure issues on the whole were largely disappointing. But a bonus with the CA8 over traditional units is that while recording movies, users can capture still images with a simple shutter press and television-quality VGA 30fps moving pictures simultaneously.

On the whole, the CA8 is an affordable, well-designed piece of kit, often producing pleasing stills and adequate footage, but in certain shooting situations (especially those in low-lit environments or at full zoom) the rendition is extremely poor. The gadget’s specifications claim the integration of digital image stabilisation, but in our tests the technology did little to reassure as movie footage suffered from camera shake and lack of definition throughout. In this respect, it would be advisable for those looking to produce stunning photography and/or crisp movies to look into the wealth of alternatives, many of which sit in the low-end compact camera market.