I'm a fuss-minimalist when it comes to gadgets. I hate carrying round stuff in my pockets so until man-bags are cool I'm forced to reduce to a bare minimum and ensure that each of those is as small as possible.

This is part of the reason I have never had a video camera. Video editing seems to have been about as straightforward as pitching a family sized tent and anything less than £800 expenditure meant that whilst no-one noticed the bulge in your trousers it was only because your pocket-sized camera had made them fall down.

Nonetheless I've always had a bit of a hankering but had planned to hold off until Vodafone gave me a decent one for free (read £80/month). However times change and for one reason or another, the hour has come.


It had to be tiny and it had to be easy so I got this little Sanyo from Amazon. It fits snugly in the palm of the hand and records MP4 (DVD format) onto SD RAM(the little memory-bit that you stick into your digital camera). The camera cost £230 (with a 128Mb card - ~7 minutes at full quality) and a 1Gb card (~60 minutes at full whack) cost me another £70.

I now have a camera that will record up to 1hr of top quality video that I can easily get onto my computer. Perfect. Probably worth mentioning that it also has a 3.2megapixel camera - you honestly can't go wrong with this puppy.

I've hardly used the camera so far but from what I have done I can say that the menu system is great - as easy as my old IXUS and incredibly intuitive.

Being a less trendy brand (Sanyo), the box was a joy to open. Buy something from Sony and you feel honoured if it comes with a lens cover. It might only be a shifting round of the letters but change Sony to Sanyo and you get a lense cover, strap, a case, a base-stand, cables to connect to a TV and even a remote control!

So far, I'm very pleased. If you want one, you can get get it at Amazon.