Sanyo Xacti E1

Sanyo on Tuesday rolled out the Xacti E1, one of the company's first truly waterproof camcorders. The watertight shell lets swimmers capture footage one-handed at depths of up to five feet for an hour at a time -- without using an underwater shell, Sanyo says. The use of SD or SDHC cards, in tandem with the use of higher-quality H.264 (AVC) recording formats, also helps the camera record for a long time even while snowboarding or other shock-prone circumstances: up to 10 hours of footage at 640x480 can be captured on an 8GB SDHC card. A new processing engine also improves image quality and is said to capture images as dark as 7 lux at full speed or 2 lux with a reduced frame rate. The E1 further doubles as a still camera, taking 6-megapixel photos with a 5X optical zoom lens.

Support is provided for both Mac OS X and Windows computers; the camera is an ideal solution for capturing iPod-friendly video thanks to the native video format, according to the camera maker. The new, semi-ruggedized Xacti is due to ship in mid-June in blue, silver, and yellow colors at a price of $500 in the US.

By Electronista Staff