Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder and 8 MP Digital Camera
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Stop fussing with bulky underwater housing. The Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Waterproof Digital CameraCorder captures both high-resolution 8-megapixel digital still photos and high quality video underwater. It is pocket-sized, so it's perfect for the beach or on the ski slopes. This unique CameraCorder also offers face detection for both still photos and video and is designed to easily upload video to social networking websites such as YouTube and portable digital… Product details and pricing info |
|---|
4 Customer Reviews Posted
- Great Camcorder for all environments
- The Sanyo Xacti VPC-E2 Digital Camcorder is ideal for all kinds of environmets. It handled the desert without a hitch. It captured great photos and video during our trip to India. I suggest getting the wrist strap as it keeps the camera from falling when riding a camel and navigating through the crowded markets. I have recommended this model to family and friends.
- 2008-11-01, 1 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Toy
- The Xacti E2 is a good video camera & it takes lovely photos (not printed them yet but on the telly or Mac they look good).
very EASY to use with a basic menu or the more complex, it is able to play back videos in NTSC & PAL.
It would seems that it captured us surfing (in the sea) without damaging the video camera (that was the main application for the purchase)! After getting the camera wet i followed the simple care instructions & after i was sure the camera was dry reviewed the video clips on my Plasma telly the picture quality is good & fitted the whole screen (not exactly HD) but i am very satisfied & am sure when it come time to making an edit with the various clips i am going to be more than stoked!!!
Hit the record button before the subject starts moving and keep it going for a few more once they are done as it seems to cut of a little sooner!
I found as a stills camera the it does not shoot exactly when you want it too, so its a bit of hit and miss, I'm sure as i use it more it will improve. shoot with the sun behind you helps with the white balancing & remember that the screen is not exactly where the lens is pointing at.
The one down side is the battery life is not the best, so make sure its charged properly before playing.
I did purchase the Water Leash & an 8-gig card which is still empty. - 2008-10-20, 2 of 3 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Great camera
- Love it. Easy to use. great pics.
Only con is that in order to take a picture, you have to push relatively hard on the button. - 2008-10-16, 2 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- E2 - a worthy update to E1
- Before purchasing E2 I was torn between E1 and E2 but decided to go with a new model. There were no reviews on E2 other than a single one for Euro/Japanese/Canadian version of E2 called CA8 and that review blasted the camera's new sensor. Nevertheless, with Amazon's liberal return policy, I decided to take my chance and to get E2 instead of E1. After all, it is a second generation of this waterproof camera, and I thought the second generation is typically better.
If you are trying to decide between E1 and E2, here are the major differences:
The most obvious is a change of sensor.
E1 uses 6MP CCD 1/2.5 sensor
E2 uses 8MP CMOS 1/2.5 sensor.
E2 adds a 60 frames per second movie option (E1 was limited to 30 frames per second)
E2 adds face recognition mode. E1 has no such face detection mode
E2 adds a dedicated 'underwater' mode among several others. E1 did not have a specific 'underwater' mode.
First, I tried both the new 60 frames per second mode and the old 30 frames per second mode and I decided that I will be using 30 frames per second, I actually like the quality of 30fps mode better.
I then tried the photography mode. I took most photographs inside in tricky low-light incandescent and florescent light conditions, because I know these give ANY camera, including DSLRs such as my Canon 40D $1300 camera, the most problems. I upped the ISO to 200 and then to 400. You can see samples I posted here. BTW the macro mode on this baby goes to 1 cm!!!! I don't know if E1 had such super-macro to 1 cm. I found the photo quality acceptable and similar to that of other point-and-shoots using the same 1/2.5 and similar sensors. I felt that ISO400 was acceptable. I have not tried ISO 800 and 1600 yet.
E2 has following ISO range: in photo mode 50-1600
in video mode: 100-3200 in high sensitivity mode (3200 I don't believe you can select, but it does it).
The image stabilization feature is tricky, it is EIS, Electronic Image Stabilization, not Optical Image Stabilization, so when you use it, it crops a little bit on sides of your video and photographs, depending on which mode of EIS you use.
The sound is stereo and the quality is acceptable. The camera is tiny btw, I fit mine in case logic case I had from my Canon A75 camera.
I tried this camera underwater in my pool, both video and photographs. All worked fine, even shoots photographs with flash underwater, which makes for very freaky results.
---
Finally, some people complained that Sanyo has their own unique USB cable which is a pain if you lose it or don't have it with you, and cannot read it in ordinary card reader. WRONG. I did not even bother taking the proprietary Sanyo USB cable from camera packaging. The card works easily in my HP (windows vista) desktop's card reader. I downloaded PICASA 3 which I recommend. Picasa 3 will find, download, and play all photos and every video you shoot with this camera easily and quickly, just take the SD card, put it in your card reader and Picasa will do the rest. Very easy, so don't need to bother with this cable that comes with it.
Problems: Battery life is not impressive. Battery is tiny. I am used to Fuji F30's 500 shots per charge. This battery sucks. I charged the battery fully. I then took 80 photographs (some with flash), 4 or 5 2-minute videos and my battery showed 70% gone. You need a second battery, and hopefully there are some with more juice in it that the Sanyo one that comes with the camera.
I also wish the lens would start at 28mm and not 38mm as it would make easier to take pictures/videos of oneself without need to stretch your body away from the camera. Also my belief is that the flash only operates in photo mode and not in video mode. However, it is much better than its only competitor, Panasonic SW20, which does not have any flash at all
I will add more photos later. - 2008-09-13, 37 of 37 people found this review helpful, Rated:
