Sanyo announces 3mpix digital camcorder By
Michael R. Tomkins, The Imaging Resource
(Thursday, October 2, 2003 - 12:41 EDT)Sanyo Japan has announced a new and rather interesting-looking digital video camera, the Sanyo Xacti (pronounced Zack-Tee) DMX-C1.
Coupling a 3.2 megapixel CCD image sensor with a 5.8x optical zoom lens, the DMX-C1 has a few features worthy of comment. For one, this is an extremely small device, apparently about the size of a cellphone (Sanyo says it is the smallest and lightest digital video camera with movie recording at VGA resolution or above). Sanyo also says it is the first Secure Digital-based digital video camera to feature MPEG-4 recording, with a maximum video length of 1 hour on a 1GB SD card.
Perhaps one of the most unique and interesting features is the ability to capture both video and still images simultaneously using the same image sensor. This is really quite a clever idea, allowing the photographer not only to record an event as VGA video, but by pressing a separate shutter button, to capture 3 megapixel still images without having to stop recording video. (If our translation is correct, there will be a brief pause in the video if the still image resolution is not the same as the video resolution, but this still beats having to actually stop and restart recording manually).
The Xacti DMX-C1 is designed to be held single-handed, watching the tilt/swivel LCD display and controlling the camera with your thumb. It will ship in Japan from November 7th, with pricing set at ¥75,000 (roughly equivalent to US$678 / €579 / CAD$908 / £405 ignoring exchange rate fluctuations, taxes and duties) and a monthly production of 10,000 units.
Sanyo Xacti DMX-C1
Effective Resolution
Approx. 3,200,000 pixels
Image Sensor
1/2.7"-type RGBG CCD sensor with approx. 3,340,000 total pixels
Recording Media
SD Memory card
File Format
Still Image
JPEG (DCF compliant); DPOF; Exif ver2.2 compliant
Movie
ISO standard MPEG-4 compliant (.MP4), MPEG-4 audio (AAC compression, 48KHz sample rate, 16-bit, 2 channel)
CD-ROM (Sanyo Software Pack 7.0), docking station, adapter, proprietary USB cable and proprietary AV cable, SD memory card (16MB), lithium ion battery, AC adapter / charger (100-240V) with power cord, camera case, hand strap and lens cap, remote control