JVC Everio X900

The basics

The JVC Everio X900 is a Full-HD (1080i) SD-card camcorder with 10.3MP CMOS sensor. Innovative capture modes include 500fps ultra high-speed video, 50fps stills shooting at 5MP, and 15fps stills shooting at nine megapixels. It also has a 5x zoom lens, 2.8-inch screen, face detection and Laser Touch menu. It measures 37x66x124mm and weighs 298g.

The good

Plenty of gadgets take photos as well as shoot video. The iPhone 3G S, for instance, is fairly rubbish at both. The X900, on the other hand, is as happy streaming high bit-rate (24Mbps) Full HD video to an SD card as it is capturing pin-sharp nine-megapixel photos. Video options include a range of slow motion modes up to 500fps (albeit at low resolutions), while still photography benefits from face detection, high speed burst modes and rock-solid optical stabilisation. A HDMI out socket is rather handy for both.

The bad

The 5x zoom is barely enough to make your next door neighbour’s windows, let alone sneak glimpses of their saucy German exchange student – and the 200x digital zoom is certainly no substitute. On the plus side, the Laser Touch interface lets you touch a laser. On the minus side, it’s not really a laser but just a fiddly touch-sensitive strip underneath the (ace) LCD panel. The price is silly, too.

The bottom line

The Everio is probably the only camcorder out there that genuinely lets you leave your point-and-shoot camera at home. But for this kind of money, you could buy a decent camcorder and a great camera, and have enough money left over for that external hard drive it so eerily resembles.