Part of Sanyo's ever-growing line of pocket sized SD resolution hybrid cameras, the Xacti CG65 records below-consumer-grade video and photos (above-average for an ultra-compact), but makes up for it with its take-anywhere ultra-small size (Length 3.10” Width 1.40” Height 4.70”). At around $450, this camera comes dangerously close to DSLR territory on the photo side, and is just a step away from the price you'd have to pay to participate in HD video mania.
The 1/2.5-inch 6.37 megapixel CCD sensor is extremely large by SD standards. Its best recording settings are 640x480 at 30fps, compressed to 3Mbps MPEG 4 AVC/H.264 format, on SD/SDHC memory cards up to 8GB in size (10 hours/8GB card). This amount of compression degrades image horribly, being over 8 times more compressed than MiniDv. However, with a battery life of only 70 minutes for video recording, you'd need to carry a lot of extra batteries to take advantage of the archiving capabilities of an 8GB card.
Video performance is good for a consumer hybrid. Colors are accurate and not extremely saturated, but a combination of extreme compression, aggressive noise reduction filters and strong sharpening reduce its image quality to a level significantly below that of the average MiniDV camcorder. Dynamic range and low-light are OK, thanks to the large sensor, but noise is always present in the video and becomes overpowering once light levels drop.
The 10X optical zoom lens covers a range of 38 - 380mm (35mm equivalent). 38 mm isn't actually wide enough to be considered wide-angle. The 2.5 inch LCD is large enough for an ultra-compact, but has an extremely small resolution of 110,000 pixels. Its maximum aperture is a very slow f3.5, which reduces the CG65's already not-so-brilliant low-light performance. On the plus side, the lens is optically stabilized.
There are three exposure systems: spot, center and multiple-point. AutoFocus can use five points or a center spot. Manual focus slices an image's depth of field into 16 positions, instead of allowing you to search for an exact focus position. This renders manual focus useless.
Photos are captured at 2,816 x 2,112 6 megapixel resolution. There is an option for interpolating 10 megapixel stills (3670 x 2760) from the maximal 6 mp resolution. Photos can be snapped while recording video. Despite its sensor being equal in size to that of most compact still cameras, photo quality does not reach the same standards.
An internal stereo microphone records two-channel audio, and there is support for an external microphone and headphones.
