Genius has, in the past, produced a string of standard definition camcorders at affordable prices, and usually with a stack of built-in extra functions like Webcam, music player and storage device. This is the company's first foray into the HD arena and this time it has dispensed with all the extras and concentrated purely on producing one of the cheapest no-frills HD camcorders on the market.

Weighing in at a trim 227g without batteries and measuring 111 x 68 x 41mm, this 5-megapixel slimline silver machine is aimed squarely at the point ‘n' shoot generation that wants instant, high quality pictures without much in the way of micro-management.

Following the G-Shot tradition, the HD55 records either to the in-built 32MB memory or onto SD card, with a maximum storage of 4GB (which works out at around 2 hours and 15 minutes at HD resolution). As it's also a stills camera, that equates to roughly 1,500 images at the top 8-megapixel resolution. This capacity can be considerably increased, up to 12 hours moving footage, if you shoot video in either of the two lower spec formats (CIF and D1) and you can store up to 4,000 photos when snapping at the 3-megapixel resolution.

The HD format used is H.264, which was specifically developed to provide good video quality at substantially lower bit rates, and it ouputs to HD TV at 1280 x 720 pixels with a rate of 30 fps. Battery power is supplied either via a rechargeable Li-ion unit or four AAA batteries and you line your shots up via the usual adjustable 3-inch TFT LCD.

The menus are limited, with no camera modes as such apart from Night Mode which can be activated when in darker environments - but even here you can make use of the built-in LED light to help boost luminescence. There are five white balance settings (including Tungsten and Fluorescent), a histogram, a moderate amount of EV compensation and three Effects settings (should you wish to shoot in Sepia or black and white).

However, on the negative side there's no form of anti-shake mechanism or AF settings and you're severely restricted by a feeble 2x digital zoom, which is going to be all but useless when you're on holiday and trying to get a close-up of a landscape or even a group shot. The zoom control is also very difficult to operate smoothly, and this problem with jerkiness seems to be an endemic G-Shot issue that needs to be addressed swiftly.

Once captured, you can play back your stills or movies on TV via the supplied component video and AV cables or transfer them to your PC to be edited with the supplied software (Presto! Video Works 6 and Presto! Mr Photo).

Easily one of the cheapest HD camcorders on the market, but what it makes up in price it lacks in functions, with drastically reduced menu options, no anti-shake system and woefully inadequate zoom control.