Sanyo's budget cam

Sanyo, once a leading player in the UK digital camera market, is hoping to re-capture that position with the launch of a range of new models under the Xacti banner. Earlier this year it debuted the £500 VPC-C1 – a 3.2 mega pixel digital camera that can double as a camcorder.

This will be followed in early summer by the Xacti J4, right, a compact digital camera, capable of taking four megapixel images. It comes with interpolation software that can apparently double that resolution. The J4 also boasts a VGA, 30 frames-per-second video capture facility.

Sanyo claims it can take up to 21 minutes of “DVD-quality video” if the camera is paired with a 512MB Secure Digital (SD) card. The J4, which is like the Sony DSCU40 in design, will be available in three colours and is expected to retail for around £300.

The company also says that this year it intends to major on products areas like LCD TVs.