May 26, 2006 – Sanyo added to its limited digital camera lineup with yesterday’s announcement of the Sanyo Xacti VPC-S60. The 6-megapixel digital camera has basic features such as a 3x optical zoom lens and a 2.5-inch LCD screen. The new S60 will be available in the United States immediately for $199.99.
The 3.5 x 2.4 x 0.8-inch model has an ergonomic design that has the same concept of Nikon’s “wave” style; the slim Sanyo S60 has a slight bump where the right hand grips the camera. This design aims to make the Sanyo S60 easy to use for its target audience of point-and-shooters. The camera has other ease of use features too.
The shutter release button has an interesting “touch sensor” on it that detects the finger and supposedly focuses faster and cuts down on shutter lag. The Sanyo Xacti S60 is equipped with a 9-point auto focus system and a macro mode that can shoot as close as 1.97 inches.
The S60 has automatic modes including Sports, Portrait, Landscape, Night Exposure, Fireworks, and Flora. The camera can also take pictures with voice memos and add filters such as black & white and sepia. This camera also has a unique “cosmetic” filter.
Movies can be recorded with 640 x 480 or 320 x 240 pixels at either 30 or 15 frames per second, whichever the user chooses. The camera’s ISO selection, which extends from 200-1600, is available in the movie mode so low light clips won’t be unusable like on some other compact models.
The Sanyo Xacti VPC-S60 can snap 2.5 frames per second in the burst mode using the full resolution. According to the press release, the camera “incorporates a newly developed high-resolution 6.18-megapixel CCD designed to capture vibrant, razor-sharp color images.” It can do this using only two AA batteries and its built-in 21.9 MB of internal memory; the S60 also has a slot for an optional SD card.
