Sanyo Unveils World's Smallest Camcorder: Xacti VPC-CS1

It may look like a mobile phone, but it could hold the key to your impending YouTube stardom.

Sanyo's new Xacti VPC-CS1 is hailed as the world's smallest camcorder, measuring in at a teeny 27mm wide and weighing a feather-light 142g.

Available in purple or silver, this tiny package packs a punch under the bonnet, recording in 1081i, which is pretty darn close to high definition (1920×1080 pixels).

Your movie creations are captured in MP4 format using an AVC/H.264 codec, and can be stored on SD, SDHC or SDXC memory cards.

It also snaps still images at a reasonable 8 megapixels, with a 38mm lens and 9x optical zoom to get in close and personal.

If you're concerned about making your viewers sea sick, the pistol handle shape of the camcorder gives you increased stability when shooting. Footage that is.

Built-in digital image stabilisation will further keep you looking like a pro behind the screen.

You can keep track of your mini-masterpiece on the Xacti CS1's 2.7 inch LCD screen, which is rather sizey considering the smallness of the camcorder.

Hitting the big screen is easy too, thanks to a HDMI port, letting you directly stream to an HD TV set.

The camera can also be used with the Eye-fi SD card, which makes for even easier transfer via Wi-Fi.

Nifty features include Sanyo's "Face Chase" technology, which keeps your subject's faces in focus and well exposed while you're shooting video.

The tiny Xacti also comes with a "sound zoom" feature, which lets you hone in the focus of the audio recording field, and exclude sound either to the far left and right of the camera. This means you'll have more chance of clearly hearing what your subject is saying.

In shops now, the Xacti CS1 will set you back £250.

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