GadgetMadness: We find the coolest gadgets first

While I was creating our YouTube gadget gallery I was thinking about what my next handheld camera would be. Right now I use an Aiptek MPVR 2K6 for quick-and-dirty video capture, but I'd like to make the move to HD soon. Turns out Sanyo has an offering in their Xacti line - the VPC-HD records video in HD at 1280x720 resolution and has 10x optical zoom, and uses SD memory. Still photos weigh in at 5.1 megapixel and you can get 42 minutes of HD footage on a 2GB SD card. (An optional 640x480 mode allows you to record more non-HD content.) This camera doesn't come cheap, but for those of you (like me) who want a highly portable, high quality and totally digital video camera the new Xacti could just be the ticket.

Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1 5.1MP MPEG4 High Definition Camcorder w/10x Optical Zoom