I am very suspicious of gadgets that talk to me. Maybe it’s a throwback to 2001: A Space Odyssey (still the best film ever made) where the talking computer HAL goes feral and tries to kill everyone off through silicon neurosis. It's a myth it was done on purpose, but the letters "HAL" are one removed from "IBM" by the way.

So when I turned on the new Sanyo VPC GH1, I immediately recoiled when it greeted me and  advised in a “anime-style” Japanese – American accent to set the date. For what it’s worth, I didn’t, and instead hunted around to figure out how to stop the thing yabbering at me.

Having got that out of the way, it was time to investigate proper this nifty little 14 megapixel camcorder/camera in its fetching shade of turquoisey-light blue.

First off, it is tiny, and unlike previous Sanyo camcorders, is in the traditional elongated shape rather than the toy-like pistol grip. In truth, it is more oblong with rounded edges than tubular and because of its size you have to experiment with the optimum way to hold it, and I suspect this will vary from person to person. For me, a single grip with my right hand over the top seemed to be the best, using my right thumb to control the on/off and wide/zoom rocker. Strangely, the on/off is not on the back as is standard – this location is reserved for the photo/video switches – but is instead mounted right at the front on the spine and just behind the lens.

Under the flip out LCD are the menu, record/play, on off and arrow key/set .  Mains /battery charging power can be fed in through a rear mounted socket, and finally, underneath are USB, HDMI and SD card slots. Battery life is said to be 1 hour for video shooting and 200 images for stills; internal memory is 50MB.

This leads me to two of my pet hates. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Why do manufacturers not include a decent sized SD card in the box? With 50MB internal memory to play with on say, Christmas Day, that equates to 21 seconds of video! And another thing, if a camera supports HDMI out, why not also supply the cable so it can be used? Have you ever tried to buy one? I’ve yet to find anyone (in a shop) that carries one in stock. You supply the composite and USB cable so why not the HDMI one. These two items in bulk would cost you next to nothing.

When shooting, you have a choice of simple or “normal” mode. Simple basically means point and shoot and let the camera worry about the settings necessary for the environment, and it makes a pretty good fist of this. In “normal” mode, you can choose such things as Scene Select, Filter, Flash, Self Timer, Image Size and so on. Not earth shatteringly comprehensive, but this camera is not designed for James Cameron; it is for the YourBook/FaceTube set, and specifically to wrest some market back from smartphones.

I can only agree with this approach. Just as anything else in life, if you are going to do something, you may as well do it the best you can, and in truth, the quality of phones is simply inferior due to the crappy lenses and even crappier audio. A dedicated tool is always better than a compromised one. If you are only interested in shooting your mates arseing about, then no problem, but if you are serious about making decent videos and photos for your online presence, then the VPC-GH1 is a great starting choice.

One nice trick is by the way is that the VPC-GH1 is” Eye-Fi” compatible enabling simple wireless uploading of images and videos.

As well as having the feature set you need – minimal as it is but does include macro (close up) shooting – it comes with a decent manual. What it does NOT come with however, apart from the aforementioned SD card and HDMI cable, is any means with which to edit the footage captured. This is a really sad oversight in my opinion, and while 3^rd party vendors will be delighted, even supplying a basic editing system should be a “Must Do”.

The VPC-GH1 is available in light blue, light pink (quelle surprise!)  and silver and retails for $399.00

By David Hague

David Hague is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He now lives back in WA (Mandurah) on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety (he is on the Roadwise committee for Mandurah City Council), fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com, vbthedog@gmail.com via Twitter via @vbthedog. or