Sanyo made a literal and metaphorical 'splash' with its Xacti VPC-CA6, which it claimed could resist threatening torrents of water, coffee, saliva etc.

Emboldened by this stand against the elements, the company has now taken on the very might of the ocean with what it claims is the world's first waterproof digital movie camera. To do this it's taken the innards of the well-received VPC-CG65 and enclosed it in a watertight casing.

This waterproofed model can thus claim to capture video and stills from every part of the world's surface - not just the wimpish 29 per cent achieved by 'dry' camcorders. There is a depth limit of around 5ft and a time constraint of an hour, but that should adequately cover most underwater social situations.

But has Sanyo truly removed the boundaries of the hitherto earthbound video world? Or is this camcorder the embodiment of the hubris of a cabal of power-crazed madmen? Well thankfully, Digital Video is here to help answer just that kind of question.

Underwater fashion being what it is, white is the predominant colour here with splashes of grey and chrome. The need for aquatic simplicity has resulted in similar functionality from fewer controls.

From the front, the lens of the CA65 is housed within a squarer frame than the landlubbing equivalent and sports a flatter top. Other minor changes are the placing of the USB 2.0 socket inside the battery and SD card slot, a reduction from four to two slots for the stereo sound on the LCD exterior and a handle on the underside around which you can loop a handstrap while rearming your harpoon gun. Currents allowing, you can balance the Xacti on this unlikely looking pivot.

The CA65's main features are generally a good mix for the price. Most importantly, it can record video at 30fps at a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels with a lowest quality 320 x 240 at 15fps sandwiching two others in between.

Video is compressed using the cutting-edge H.264 codec that enables more video and stills to be crammed onto the memory card - that the company has not kindly included. A 6MP CCD promises sharp still pictures with seven resolution and quality settings, which can be snapped during video recording.