DXG-588V Twist Camcorder

The DXG-588V Twist Camcorder from DXG is pocket-sized and shaped like a typical smart phone, but its large 3.5" LCD screen twists 90° so you can shoot HD video while viewing an appropriately wide, clear picture of what you're capturing. With its single 5Mp CMOS sensor, the sleek Twist records full HD at both 1080p and 720p. In 720p mode, the frame rate can be set to a whopping 60 fps, perfect for capturing fast motion – whether it's wildlife, your kids tearing up the soccer field, or anything else with the velocity to warrant those extra frames per second.

The DXG-588V Twist also snaps 16Mp and 5Mp JPEG and DCF still images. A built-in LED flash helps out in the dark, and there's also a self-timer feature.

The camera's SD card slot also accepts SDHC format cards, for a maximum capacity of 32 GB. The built-in flash memory (128 MB total, about 78 MB usable) will help out in a pinch when you don't have an SD card handy.

Tucked underneath the twisting display screen are the Twist's buttons, which control an intuitive menu system. When it's time to play back files, the twisting screen shows a vibrant, crisp picture – or you can use the camcorder's AV (NTSC or PAL) and HDMI outputs to connect to a television or computer monitor with the appropriate inputs. The camcorder supports widescreen 16:9 video output.

The DXG-588V Twist connects to almost any computer via USB (1.1 or higher) to transfer files. (The camera records AVI files encoded as H.264.) Windows users can take advantage of the included ArcSoft TotalMedia HDCam software to edit your high-def footage and format it for sharing.

Note! Mac users should confirm that their editing program can import AVI files – or they can convert the camcorder's files to a usable format.