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Sanyo's latest Xacti breaks down the price barrier of previous models, and should function as both a competent video camera and still camera.

After introducing the world’s smallest HD camcorder with the Xacti HD700 in September, Sanyo has updated its tiny Xacti line once again with a more affordable model meant for working as both a still camera and a video camera. The Xacti CG9 features a 9.1-megapixel CMOS sensor, allowing it to take high-resolution stills alongside video.

Like previous Xacti iterations, the CG9 uses a compact hand-held form factor measuring just 2.9 inches high, 4 inches wide, and 1.5 inches deep, excluding protrusions. Features include a 5.0x optical zoom, 2.5-inch flip-out LCD screen, and “face chaser” function for instant focusing on up to 12 subjects.

Besides being able to snap still shots at an impressive 9.1 megapixels, the CG9 can take them on-the-fly while shooting video without interrupting, and also has a setting for sequential photos that allows up to 10 to be taken in rapid succession.

To record video efficiently, the CG9 uses the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video codec, which offers enough compression to pack an hour of video into just one gigabyte of storage. Although the camera comes with only 40MB of internal storage, it can accommodate up to 32GB of memory through SDHC cards.

The Xacti CG9 will debut in mid-April for $279.99, with a color choice of silver or black.