Yep 8-1 is exactly what the G-Shot provides, as well as a 12MP camera the unit houses a 5MP Sensor for the video recording, an MP3 player, FM radio, TV/AV-in recording for recording off TV programs, voice recording, mass storage device and wait for it a Web cam! And all of this for just over £100 we kid you not.

So your first thoughts will probably be it's gona be pretty rubbish to feature all this technology for such a low price? But we have to say it's not. Granted you do get what you pay for but the Genius DV1210 does a respectable job for technology illiterate people wishing for a cheap and easy solution for capturing the odd image or video.

To start with lets take a look at the box contents, inside the box you get a carry case for your device (including a strap), video/audio cables for linking up the unit to a TV, Lithium 1000 mAH battery, mains charger, Presto Video works software, Presto Photo Software, USB 2 cable, hand strap for your video camera and a lens cap.

When you first remove the unit form the box you would believe you were looking at a more expensive video camera, it's only when you take a closer look and feel the weight (which is down to the cheaper build rather than a design trait) that you can see where corners have been cut to reduce the cost, but its credit to Genius for providing a product with at least some pride behind it.

For ease of use the Genius is extremely simple to get running, it’s not difficult really because there is not the level of options you find on a more expensive model. For camera or video mode you can adjust the EV setting for light compensation, adjust if you are filming in a dark atmosphere, adjust from AVI to AVF(Audio-Video Front-) mode for videos and adjust quality settings for example - the standard options you find on most PDA's/lower priced digital cameras really.

Video quality could only go up to 640 x 480 but the digital camera element could take some whopping great images (4048 x 3040) when in 12MP mode.

The viewfinder is a 2.4” display and its here that some of the cost cutting has been used, as the screen itself is not that clear and it is hard to judge if the shot/video will come out any good when viewed back on a larger screen.

Going back to the design for a second holding the DV1210 is comfortable thanks to the hand strap and all buttons are easily reachable, though it is strange that to take images you use a button on the top, but for videos you use a button at the back, which is a tad harder to press and de-press when you are finished filming.

The great benefit of this video camera is its ability to use both a rechargeable Lithium battery and normally AA batteries - this became essential during our tests.

For our test this time we had a few hours use with the unit ourselves but we felt this would not do the DV1210 justice, so we gave the unit to a colleagues farther for a week when he went to the Lake District on a biking holiday.

Now without being disrespectful to the gentleman he is not the most technically minded individual, but he wanted a light weight video camera that he could use whilst stationary and on the move but at the same time did not want anything too technical.

So in a nutshell this was a perfect test as it fitted in with the target audiance that Genius are aiming at. We managed to catch up with the gentleman recently when he came back from holiday and then we grilled him for information.

Essentially he was able to take images and videos without any hassle, he just left everything on auto and on maximum settings so he did not experiment with lighting adjustments of any kind.