Get wet with the Sanyo Xacti E1 pocket camcorder
(Credit:
Sanyo)
Summer's coming, and that means you're going to see plenty of opportunities to get wet. Whether you're swimming in a pool or surfing at a beach, you're probably going to get soaked in the next few months. Unfortunately, most camcorders simply can't take the moisture. The Olympus Stylus 770SW and the Pentax Optio W30 are two of the few digital cameras you can take swimming with you, but even they're not the best choice for shooting video.
Sanyo just announced the Xacti E1, a waterproof pocket camcorder. This new gadget can handle getting dunked up to five feet for an hour, all while recording video to an SDHC memory card. Like the Xacti VPC-CG65 we reported on a few months ago, the E1 uses MPEG-4 h.264 video compression, and can get up to five hours of 30fps VGA footage onto a 4GB SDHC card. The E1 can also snap 6-megapixel still images, if you want to keep more static memories of your underwater antics.
Because it uses an SD card to store all of its videos and photos, the E1 is very small and light. It measures just 4.4 inches high and 1.6 inches thick, and weighs just 8.3 ounces with battery and an SD or SDHC card. Though you'll have to purchase the SD card separately, the E1 will include a copy of Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 for Windows XP/Vista. Considering that a 4GB SD card can be found for around $50 and Adobe Premiere Elements retails for about $100, that's a pretty good accessories trade-off.
The Sanyo Xacti E1 is hitting stores and shores in mid-June. It will come in blue, yellow, and white versions, each with a suggested retail price of $500.
The unit is very compact, with a left-side foldout video screen for viewing & shooting your video & photos. The buttons are "mooshy" (you know, not crisp to push), and gives the camera a cheap-ish feel. But in reality, its all the washers inside the casing keeping it waterproof, so it's pretty acceptable.
The video shoots in 640x480 using the H.264 codec, and so the video quality is nice. Very nice actually. Pictures are also nice at 6MP. It takes a minute to understand how to take a photo, since you have to hold the photo button down half way to allow it to focus, then you push it all the way in to take the photo.
I could tell you about all the pro's and con's about the feel and the performance, but in reality...IT'S A GREAT LITTLE CAMERA. I would be bummed if I bought it for $500+tax, but at $298 it was a perfect little whimsical purchase that I am pleased with.
I am shooting videos of my kids all day long, importing them into iPhoto and iMovie with ease, and making fantastic little movies. iMovie makes it really easy to export to iPod format as well as larger formats.
Don't get too hung up on the HD quality video cameras for shooting family videos, parties, vacations, etc. I also have a Sony HDR-UX7 (AVCDH High-Def Mini-DVD video camera), and it has been nothing but a disappointment.
And if that's not enough, go out and have a snowball fight with it in hand, dive into the pool with it, or get splashed in the bath tub with it -- and you'll be happy you have this little wonder with you.