Photos: Hands-on with Sanyo Xacti CA65, HD700 and HD1000

We're suckers for waterproof stuff here at Crave. If we're not tracking the Titanic, we're prowling the casinos of Las Vegas looking for fountains to drop our Olympus 790s in. We didn't think we'd get wet in the halls of CES 2008, but this is Vegas and it seems a pool is never far away. Good on Sanyo, then, for diving in the deep end with the Xacti CA65, a waterproof camcorder. We also got our damp hands on the new Xacti HD700 and HD1000, two teeny-tiny hi-def shooters.

The pool-friendly CA65 shoots MPEG-4 video in the AVC/H.264 codec. Sanyo claims an 8GB SDHC memory card will handle 10 hours of 640x480-pixel video at 30 frames per second.

The CA65 is submersible to nearly 2m for up to an hour, so it's fine for the local swimming pool, although we wouldn't recommmend it. Snorkelling, snowboarding and the beach are probably more appropriate for the 5x zoom, and if you spot a particularly interesting bit of coral there's a super-macro function able to zoom in as close as 1cm. You can then preview your coral on a 64mm (2.5-inch) 16:9 LCD screen.

The CA65 is known as the E1 to the Yanks, and is available now for just under £200 in yellow, white or a sort of turquoise. Click through the links to towel off with this submariner's hi-def brothers. -Rich Trenholm

Back on dry land at CES 2008 we met the Sanyo Xacti HD700. This pocket-sized shooter captures 720p hi-def footage and boasts a 69mm (2.7-inch) widescreen LCD while still being extremely hand- and pocket-friendly. A 5x zoom is also included, as well as a 'face chaser' function, which is by far the best name for face detection we've heard.

A 1/2.5-inch, 7.38-megapixel CCD records the action to SD or SDHC card, as well as 7-megapixel stills.

The Sanyo Xacti HD700 is available now for around £300 in silver, red or black.

The Xacti HD1000 is the HD700's landlubbing bigger brother. According to Sanyo, it's the smallest and lightest 1,920x1,080-pixel hi-def camcorder, but these claims get passed around like a tin of Quality Street after a WeightWatchers meeting. It certainly weighs next to nothing at 311g with battery and SD card in situ.

The picture above may not look very light, but that is in fact a giant-sized model version, unless Sanyo has decided to buck the trend and go for the biggest, heaviest camcorder record to match the biggest television at CES 2008. Consumer electronics for giants! It's the future!

The normal-sized version that we had a go on packs a 1/2.5-inch, 4-megapixel CMOS sensor and is available now from £425.