Going down south soon (USVI) and will be doing quite a bit of snorkeling. Was looking for a HD camera that was waterproof/shockproof and was disappointed to find out there really isn’t that much out there short of getting an expensive casing. I came across the Sanyo Xacti line which last years waterproof model was 640×480 at 60fps and also the new 2009 models that come in standard, 720p and full HD models. Unfortunately the new models do not come out for retail consumption until mid March -> Summer (too late!) – check them out here. Since I did not want to dump a g note into a camera and another into a crazy casing, it was a no-brainer.
Ended up getting the Xacti E2 and have had it for a week now. I have had an Olympus Stylus 850SW for about a year and have to say it is one of the most bombproof, affordable underwater cameras you can get (will put up a looking back review, so more on this later). For the arm chair photographer that is more interested in waterproof durability and versatility than straight out quality – the Xacti has some big shoes to fill. The following are some of my initial impressions after I took it with my snorkling gear to a pool session Sunday…
Looking at the camera aesthtically, it is extremely small and sleek with an amazing blue finish. It has a small swing out, rotatable LCD viewer, some fairly intiuitive buttons, a sealed battery/card area – all which are supposed to be waterproof up to 6 feet for approximately 60 minutes. I’ve had a lot of comments that people were surprised that it was a camcorder and not just a regular camera. The menus and system setup was a breeze and tweaking it was equally simple. It comes with a case, a rechargable battery (proprietary of course), sleek battery charger, AV cables and a USB cable (again with a proprietary connector… sigh why not use firewire!!). The camera takes standard SD or SDHC cards up to 32GB.
My current settings have it at 640×480 at 60 frames per second which is the max for the camera. It also takes stills and I have that setup for the modest 8 MP option. I threw in a class 6, 8GB SDHC card which supposedly will get you ~30 hours of movies at the highest setting. I plan to grab a 16 before I leave on the trip, but the 8 GB was sufficient for testing..
Did some initial filming and photos. There are two thumb activated buttons – one for video and one for photos which is great – and they can be used together (such as for taking a still during a video). There is also an analogish button for your thumb to do zoom ins and options. It is pretty nice to have it all right there rather than a line of buttons on the top, like a traditional digital camera. It all worked like it was supposed to and I got some video and crisp photos. Pretty standard stuff and I don’t have anything super positive or negative about these basic functions.
Some initial complaints right away: the LCD screen is a bit grainy in lower lighting. I have read this as a comment by other people that the video mode does not give the best quality in lower lighting situations. This was reaffirmed by looking at a video shot in my place without the main light on – a bit grainy and not the best. My biggest complaint however, is with the camera itself. The battery/memory stick compartment is slightly awkward and can lead to ‘issues’. The battery has a small plastic hinge that you press, which releases the battery (as compared to some batteries where it is spring loaded like the card). I found this difficult to get my fingers in to press, put the camera upside down and let it ’slide out’. Also – the spring loaded memory stick slot has the card sticking out a centimetre or so which makes it very easy to bump and eject by accident when you are fumbling with the battery or plugging in the USB connector. I hit this by accident on the weekend and the card ejected while it was reading/writing causing it to completely wipe the card next time I put it in (??). I was able to retrieve some of it using a data recovery tool but lost a lot of good funny footage from a stag and doe I went to the night previous. Annoying as hell.
The second and most important test was getting it in the water and seeing how it performed underwater. For this I brought my snorkeling gear and filmed my buddy doing some flatwater stuff in his whitewater kayak in the pool. Seemed to work decently and was easy enough to see underwater with my mask on. After I was done I cleaned it off with fresh water and dried it off – no problems with the screen, battery or memory card.
But, you can be the judge (excuse how bad I am with premiere):
- Underwater sample 1 (720x )
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- Underwater sample 2 (720x optimized and l0nger)
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So, that is my initial impression of the Sanyo Xacti E2 right out of the box. Once I am back from my trip I will post a full review about how it performed in salt water snorkeling and different depths.
