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Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6

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The good: High-resolution 3-inch LCD; broad variety of scene modes; fast (but limited) continuous shooting; solid macro capabilities.

The bad: A little pricey relative to the competition; overprocessed images; special touch sensor makes the shutter too sensitive.

The bottom line: A snapshot camera, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6 offers little more than a 3-inch LCD to distinguish itself from the competition.

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CNET editors' review

  • Reviewed on: 11/21/2005
  • Released on: 10/25/2005
Sanyo, which produces many of the snapshot digital cameras you see marketed under other brand names, is stepping up its efforts to gain some brand recognition of its own. Given that the company's name is hardly synonymous with high quality, we started off with low expectations for the company's Xacti VPC-E6, a 6-megapixel, 3X-zoom ultracompact. We were pleasantly surprised to find it a decent--albeit a little pricey--snapshot camera with an eye-catching 3-inch LCD, a graphical user interface, and reasonable image quality. Only the performance disappointed.

The size of a thin bar of soap (and about as visually interesting), the slender and lightweight Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6 measures 3.9 by 2.3 by 0.9 inches and weighs 5.4 ounces with battery pack and SD/MMC card installed. External controls are limited, given the large LCD and the point-and-shoot nature of the camera. The graphical menu system can be a little confusing initially, and while it's not the fastest to navigate, the text and the icons are large, bright, and easy to understand.

Like most snapshot cameras that lack manual exposure controls, the E6 gives you the choice between using limited manual controls such as exposure compensation, ISO sensitivity, white balance, metering, autofocus, and resolution, or choosing from a long list of scene modes. Sanyo includes a best-shot option, which takes four consecutive shots, bracketing each for exposure. A couple of novelties include a calendar-based photo organizer and an ID-photo option, which displays a head-and-shoulders overlay to position your subject.

You can't set resolution and compression independently at native resolution: your choices are High and Standard quality. The Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6 can also interpolate to 10 megapixels, but as you'd expect, photo quality suffers. The E6 does offer a high-quality video mode with sound.

The camera's performance ranged from a blazing five frames per second--for just three frames--to around 2.5 seconds between shots, with and without the tiny flash engaged. A Touch Sensor option totally eliminates the modest shutter lag. While this sounds great in theory, the shutter button is so sensitive that even a very light touch snaps a picture--sometimes before the camera achieves a focus lock.

Although the high-resolution 3-inch LCD performs well under low-light conditions and the large menu is easy to read at any time, extremely bright sunlight can render the display almost unusable for composing a shot.

The camera's 38mm-to-114mm (35mm equivalent) lens moves smoothly through its range, although we found that telephoto shots were not always clearly focused. But the camera does a very good job in macro mode, capturing crisp details.


The E6's photos have generally good exposure and very low measurable noise; that's because of excessive noise reduction, which smears details (right), especially in scenes with grass, leaves, and other tiny elements.

Image quality was better than expected, and most will probably appreciate the bright, saturated colors, especially when using the Vivid scene mode. Highlights were often clipped, however, eliminating details. Also, purple fringing was noticeable in some shots. In general, images looked overprocessed and, when in focus, oversharpened.

At half the price, the Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6 might rank as an above-average snapshot camera; in its current price range, it's competing against much better, fuller-featured models--and coming up short.

Shooting speed in seconds
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Shutter lag (typical)  
Time to first shot  
Typical shot-to-shot time  
Casio Exilim Pro EX-P600
0.3 
2.7 
1.8 
HP Photosmart R717
0.3 
3.2 
2.0 
Casio Exilim EX-Z110
0.6 
1.7 
1.8 
Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6
0.7 
2.0 
2.3 
Nikon Coolpix S4
0.8 
2.5 
2.8 
Olympus FE-120
1.3 
4.9 
2.6 

Typical continuous-shooting speed in frames per second
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

  • alaTest.com

    Editors' rating: 85

    Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 112 reviews of Sanyo Xacti E6 from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 70/100 and users 90/100. Comparing these reviews to 554627 other Digital Compact Cameras reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 85/100 = Very Good.

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  • techradar.com

    Editors' rating: 80

    Summary: Could be a touch cheaper, internal memory is minuscule and it doesn't zoom while recording

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  • t3.com

    Editors' rating: 100

    Summary: The huge screen is only the icing on the cake - great image quality and speedy operation complete a stunning package

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  • personal computer world

    Editors' rating: 60

    Summary: Stylish compact camera, but it struggles with image noise

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  • pcmag.com

    Editors' rating: 50

    Summary: The Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6U is a stylish camera with unique features but spotty quality and performance.

    Read full review

Sanyo Xacti VPC-E6