Sanyo Xacti VPC-C5

A camcorder to make Sir Clive Sinclair proud.

This is all wrong. A C5 should be a clunky, washing machine-powered trike, not an elegant camera-corder packed with the latest technology. From its clever pistol-grip design and bright transflective screen to its powerful, memory-efficient MPEG-4 recording, it's clear that Sir Clive Sinclair has had nothing to do with Sanyo's latest tape-free camcorder.

The C5 deserves an award for its simple interface alone. Anyone can pick it up and start shooting, thanks to a cluster of just six buttons, all controlled by one thumb. The central zoom rocker is fast and silent, the menu on the large LCD is clear and concise, and separate shutter buttons for stills and movies underline its multi-functional capabilities.

You wouldn't expect a lifestyle product to be overloaded with techy features, so the macro and manual focusing, centre and spot metering and a questionable image stabiliser are all welcome surprises. It also comes with a generous 1GB SD card, which is good for an hour of best-quality (640 x 480-pixel, 30fps) movies. Video is smooth and well exposed but with telltale digital blurring and some jagged edges.

Autofocusing is slow, but gets there in the end - except in low light, where the C5 struggles to capture any usable footage. Stereo sound is especially good, both natural and deep. However, while still images are bright and fun, the small lens can serve up some distortion or softness where you want precise details.

If you're looking for a gadget that will fit in your pocket but shoot your holiday snaps and movies with the minimum of fuss, then this is for you. If, on the other hand, you want a C5 that makes you the laughing stock with your mates, then get in touch with Sir Clive.