By Andrew Liszewski
Usually if you want to take underwater movies or even photos you have 2 options. 1) You can simply dunk your digital camera or camcorder under the water and hope that it grabs one or two frames before water gets in and shorts everything out. And 2) You can buy an expensive and incredibly bulky underwater housing for your camera that while protecting it will also limit its functionality. But there’s now a third option with the Sanyo Xacti CA65 waterproof camcorder that works underwater while still keeping a sleek profile.
It comes in the form of one of those ultracompact camcorders that rely on SD cards for storage but it’s still capable of capturing 6 megapixel digital images or recording VGA size video at 30 frames per second. The video is stored as either MPEG-4 AVC or H.264 clips making it easy to view on your computer and email to friends. Of course the waterproof nature of the camera does have its limitations. It’s only rated to a depth of 1.5 meters and they really only recommend using it underwater for about 60 minutes. In addition the waterproof seals that are used should be replaced every year to ensure they keep doing their job properly.
But at just under $470 from Amazon it could be a good choice for you adventurous types looking to capture some extreme memories.
[ Sanyo Xacti CA65 ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]
The Sanyo Xacti CA65 is the Japan version of the United States model E1 (VPC-E1) which has been available here in U.S. since June 12th (www.sanyodigital.com). I have been using it since the day it came out and it is totally cool—my formal written review will be done by Friday (www.mrbicep.com).