Sanyo launches waterproof Xacti E1 camcorder

Splashing down in the States in June

23 May 2007 8:23 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

The new waterproof SANYO Xacti VPC-E1 captures digital video and 6 megapixel photos on land and underwater.

Similar in design to the previous Xacti camcorders, we can't help but be taken by the blue, white and yellow colours this is offered in whilst the gorgeous ergonomic design means this camcorder fits into the palm of your hand with most of the main controls in thumb's reach.

This little camcorder records both full 640 x 480 resolution video at 30 frames-per-second and 6-megapixel digital still images (and can do both simultaneously) all of which are stored to a standard SD or SDHC flash memory card – a rough reckoner for this kind of video is up to 1.25 hours with a 1GB standard SD card.

Obviously the USP for this model is the waterproofing, and it's proper stuff - designed to IPX8 international standard for waterproof, the Xacti E1 is capable of recording full motion video 5 feet underwater for up to 30 minutes. It has a water-tight design that can resist the pressure created when submersed at 5 feet (or 1.5 metres if you're metric).

The E1 has a 2.5-inch LCD screen that flips out and can rotate up to 285 degrees, it has AVC/H.264 video compression which reduces video file sizes by up to 25% which makes uploading or emailing your video masterpieces quicker and easier.

The E1 has an image stabiliser, boasts 5x optical zoom and 12x digi zoom, 1.7 second start-up time and records in iPod-friendly MPEG4.

The Sanyo Xaxti E1 is due to go on sale in the States in June for $499.99, fingers (and flippers) crossed for a UK release soon.