New waterproof Xacti E2 camcorder from Sanyo

The successor to the also-waterproof Xacti E1 that’s been out for about a year and a half, the Xacti E2 from Sanyo doubles its predecessor’s frame rate to 60 FPS and adds about an ounce of weight as well as a few new features under the hood.

Features

• Waterproof up to five feet for 60 minutes
• MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 at 640×480 resolution
• Recording and playback at up to 60 FPS (in TV-HR mode)
• Up to 8-megapixel still image capture
• Records onto SD card (1GB card included)
• 5x optical zoom
• 2.5-inch Flip-out LCD with quick-standby mode that starts recording when the screen is flipped open
• “Face Chaser” technology zeros in on subjects faces
• Rapid-fire photo mode takes pictures (up to 2 megapixels) every five seconds
• New underwater scene mode
• Bundled with Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0
• Comes in blue or white

So there’s actually not a whole lot that’s new here versus the E1 except for the 60 FPS playback (though that’s only in the TV-HR mode) and the Face Chaser technology. The E2 will debut with a $399 price tag, though, which is $100 less than the E1 started at.

Sanyo Xacti E2 [Amazon.com]