Sanyo's 4 megapixel camera is aimed at semi-professional users, but its styling is straight out of the consumer playbook.

Sanyo's VPC-AZ1EX is aimed at a high end user, but comes without a high-end price. It wasn't that long ago that AU$1,499 would buy you only a very basic digital camera, but the 4 megapixel AZ1 comes with a large number of high tech bells and whistles.

The AZ1 uses a Canon optical lens. It's certainly not a shabby lens, but photography enthusiasts would probably have nicer things to say about lenses from more traditional manufacturers such as Ziess and Lieca. We were still impressed with the output of the AZ1 despite the lack of a big-name brand lens. Sanyo lists it as having a 2.8x optical zoom; this can be enhanced via unlocking the digital zoom, up to 4x, although the quality loss due to interpolation is quite noticeable. It's also only available on images of 1600x1,200 resolution or lower. We'd recommend the age-old technique of moving closer to the photographic object over using the digital zoom.

Simple looks, complex controls
From a visual standpoint, the AZ1 looks more like a compact consumer camera than a professional offering, which tend to concentrate on more 'classic' camera shapes with protruding lenses. The lens hides behind a shutter window that only opens when the camera is in shooting mode. When the power is switched on, the shutter flicks back, and the lens is then pushed out ready to shoot. The advantage of hiding the lens is twofold. Firstly, it should save wear and tear on the lens itself. Secondly, if if all you want to do is examine shots in playback mode, you'll conserve battery power. The controls for the camera are arrayed around the top and back of the camera, which is where the preview LCD is hidden away. The LCD isn't terribly large, but does a decent job of image display prior to taking shots.

We initially found the AZ1 somewhat tricky to configure. Most functions are accessed via a control wheel on the back of the camera, while other functions work from the top. Working out which menu you need to be in to alter, say, date stamping, took us a while to figure out.

The AZ1EX is capable of single and continuous shot modes, as well as taking short video clips. This feature always bemuses us in theoretically 'semi-professional' digital cameras, as the resultant clips are never terribly long or of marketable quality. It's an easy thing to build in for a digital camera, but we can't help wonder why the semi-pro market would be interested.

Standard storage, but not enough
The AZ1 uses standard CompactFlash memory cards, making it a good choice for those upgrading from cameras that use the same standard. It only ships with a 16MB card, good enough for 6 shots at maximum (3,264 x 2,448) camera resolution. The AZ1 does support microdrives as well as compact flash cards, and anyone contemplating an investment in the AZ1 would quickly need to invest in more memory.

For digital photography novices, the AZ1 can be set to automatically select focus, lighting and exposure modes. We ran this setting through its paces with a series of photographs in some unusually lit situations, and were quite impressed with the camera's intelligent handling of some of our more dubious photography choices. It's worth noting that the camera focus sometimes takes a noticeable jump before settling, which could be a concern if you wanted a very quick shot. For control freaks, all camera settings can be manually adjusted, although you'll have to familiarise yourself with the AZ1's use of icons for some settings.

The AZ1 uses USB for PC/Mac connectivity. USB isn't the fastest connection method, but for photos of this size, it's adequate. The use of compact flash does mean that shots could be transferred via a third party device as well.

Also supplied in the kit is software for photo manipulation, based around Ulead's photography products. Again, the semi-pro market would probably dump images straight into Photoshop, but it's always nice to have included software.

The AZ1 uses rechargeable batteries, and comes with a rather confusing recharging unit. The unit has four bays, and comes with four batteries, enough to have two in the camera and two charging. The manual suggests that charging be done via the external two battery slots only, but doesn't actually mention why the inner two shouldn't be used. We're as confused as you are. We gave the AZ1 a quick run on regular batteries, and despite using fresh batteries, the camera complained of a low charge almost immediately. Sanyo claims that recharging batteries should take around 1 1/4 hours; we managed a full charge in just 45 minutes.

As we explained in our digital photography guide, a 4 megapixel camera is really only a good investment if you're planning on printing out shots larger than standard photo size. Of course, having the ability to do this can add a lot of flexibility to your shooting style, so the extra investment may be worth it.

Sanyo VPC-AZ1 EX
Company: Sanyo
Price: AU$1,499
Distributor: Selected Resellers
Phone: 1300 360 230

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