Sanyo Xacti VPC-E1 6MP Waterproof MPEG4 Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Blue) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

The E1 is a great little camera for travelers. It is compact, durable ( no moving parts ) weather, and water proof and very easy to use. The video quality is good and it is extremely easy to upload video to my Macbook from the camera. This camera integrates extremely well with my Apple Macbook as the H.264 ( Quicktime ) video imports right into iTunes and can be viewed on my Mac, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV. The video also imports right into iMovie for quick editing and export using iDVD to DVD's.Getting video online is quick and flawless too. I just pop out the SD card from the camera and put it into an SD card reader which I plug into my Macbook and up the video goes straight to YouTube. So cool !We took it on our recent trip to Cancun Mexico and it was so useful on land, in the pool and in the ocean during snorkeling. No other camera is so versatile. People really looked at me funny when they saw me taking my camera from the beach right into the ocean. They thought I was crazy !Sure it does not take video with the quality of more expensive cameras, nor is it as feature rich, however the compact size, durability, simplicity, and weather/water proof make for an unbeatable travel video camera. I highly recommend it.

A very good buy IMHO, with a some caveats though.One pretty well advertised feature of this camera is its capability for shooting pictures while recording. This feature has some less advertised drawbacks, however. First, it's quality is automatically set to 6M, which in most cases will not bother you. Also the flash will not shoot, which can make this feature unusable in some cases. However, as the camera doesn't have a lamp or low-light mode, in most situations you aren't able to shoot without the aid of the flash you won't be able to record decent video either anyway. What makes this feature really unusable in my opinion however is that while the camera records the picture to the memory card it will stop recording video, so your video ends up with annoying cuts in the moments you took pictures. I'm using a  Transcend 8GB SDHC Class 6 card , which as far as I could figure out is the fastest type of card on the SDHC realm, and the clipping is still too noticeable for my liking. In my opinion it's much better to stop recording and take the pictures or extracting the stills from the video, using the camera's own edition features even. All these peculiarities are not advertised, but they are detailed on page 53 of the camera's instruction manual.The autonomy is 80 minutes, which is ok, but I recommend buying at least a couple extra batteries. Just today I used the camera at a family reunion and I went through two batteries. I must add however that even if it wasn't used continuously, it wasn't given much rest either between playback and recording. Personally I bought and recommend  Lenmar DLSAL20 Lithium-ion Batteries . Onlyne I found discrepancies about the capacity of the original battery, but in the end I found both the original and the Lenmar "replacement" have the same 720 mAh capacity and hence the same autonomy and can be used with the same charger. The Lenmar ones cost about one-third the price of the official ones though, so even if they have lower lifetime (which I'm not sure is the case, but can't be sure because I still haven't had time to exhaust one) they are still worth it.As for recording space, the 8GB card mentioned earlier allows me to record over 5 hours of video at the maximum possible quality (TV-SHQ, 640x480, 30 fps, 3 Mbps = aprox. 1.26 GB per hour) and also over 300 pictures at the maximum possible quality (10M = 3680x2760). Lowering the quality one step or two almost doubles the quantity of video and images. In my case that's more than enough. In the manual it warns that the video will stop recording after reaching a file size of 4 GB. I think this might be a restriction imposed by the FAT file system the memory cards use. This is a pointless warning though, as you need over 3 hours of continuous recording at maximum quality to reach that file size and the battery lasts only about 80 minutes and the camera has no socket for an external power source.I was a bit surprised at the small size of the camera, and a little afraid as my hands are big (and clumsy too, yeah). After using it however I found it quite easy to handle and practical. It is very light and adapts fine to the hand, providing a decent grip. The display is comfortable, clear and reasonably big. It does have a socket for fitting on a tripod, and I mention this in hopes it helps someone because I couldn't find this specific detail mentioned anywhere when I was researching information on this camera prior to buying.To be honest, I haven't had the necessity or the heart to test its underwater resistance yet.The soft case included is barely enough to protect it. I would strongly recommend buying a better case along with it.My most firm complains about this camera are related to the picture shooting, and being it a camcorder I consider picture shooting an incidental plus, so I wouldn't take that much into account. The only recording-related thing I would change is the autonomy, but I'm not sure I would trade it's compact size and light weight for some extra battery time, so I'm not going to complain about that either.Overall, I think it's a pretty good camera, and although I agree there are better ones on the market, I'm not sure there is one as good as this one for a similar price.

I've been using this camera regularly for six months, and I'm satisfied. There are good things and bad things about it, though, so I'll start with the highlights.I bought the camera for it's waterproof feature, which is at the top of my list of good things about the Sanyo Xacti. It has survived the snow and has functioned while being fully submerged.This camera is comfortable and stylish. It gets compliments wherever I use it. Because of its shape, I can rotate the screen 180 degrees to view when taking self-portraits or group photos.It takes good quality pictures and videos. I am not a professional, and I use this camera for fun, so I haven't played around with a lot of the settings, but I'm happy with the results.Now for a couple downsides. The most obvious disadvantage to this camera is that it has no red-eye reduction flash. Almost all of my portrait photos that are taken in low light show everybody with red eyes.Even though it has a cool shape, it means I had to get used to using the buttons. The power and playback buttons are conveniently located on the side, but the rest of the buttons for capture, recording, and navigation take some practice. I like using this camera in the snow, but it's impossible to do with gloves on.The battery doesn't last as long as expected, since the camera is always on standby (unless I turn it off manually). I'm used to cameras that turn themselves off after five minutes of not being used. As a result, I've been caught off guard by a dead battery and missed the chance to take some good pictures.Overall, I recommend this camera if you will use its waterproof feature. Otherwise, there are probably other cameras that have better features for the price. At the time I bought this camera, Amazon had the lowest price I could find online. If you would like to see samples of what I have taken with this camera, visit my blog at [...]