Panasonic D-Snap SV-AV50

A jewel-like memory card 'corder with oodles of class

Until digital cameras could create images that looked good when printed out on an A4 printer, they were destined to remain mere gadgets. However slinky they were, no one was going to replace their film camera with a device that cost more and delivered less. A similar dilemma faces many of the current memory card-based camcorders. Take Panasonic's latest SD card recorder, the SV-AV50.

It's incredibly well built, weighs in at an anorexic 120g and feels as classy as a champagne breakfast. But even using the new super-compressed MPEG-4 format, this jewel of a device can only manage 320 x 230-pixel movies, albeit at a healthy 30 frames per second. Play this footage back on any domestic TV - let alone the 32-inch flatscreens that most of its target audience will own - and the jagged video, smudged detail and mushy sound will deter even the most ardent of movie-makers.

It's undeniably cool to use, featuring a flip-out, rotating 2-inch LCD and a rubber nipple you have to stroke gently (easy now) to navigate the menus. Switching between MPEG-4 video and 2-megapixel stills photography modes is easy, although the rocker-switch digital zoom works in jerky steps and doesn't work at all in video mode.

Clips and stills are fine outdoors, but the SV-AV50 fails miserably in low light. The Night View video mode is dreamy and smeary, and the LCD just goes black in stills mode - not useful when even turning the flash on requires you to delve into the set-up menu. The sexy flip-and- snap design will win it some friends, but until the video resolution improves, it's destined to remain firmly a gadget rather than an essential.