Customer Reviews

POLAROID CTA-00833W 8.0 Megapixel Digital Camera

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You'll find plenty of choices for cameras claiming underwater performance, but since I'm an infrequent snorkler, I wanted something durable but under $200. The Polaroid T833 (also sold under the Intova brand) feels rugged, and durable. The buttons require a firm click to adjust most functions in menus. And believe me, you're going to need to press them buttons!

Late-afternoon, daylight photos in bright sun should be a no-brainer for any digital camera. That's when the sunlight is usually best. But the T833 consistently delivered daylight photos (shot in Auto white balance) with a blue or cyan coolness. Caucasian skin tones bordered on magenta. The easy in-camera fix is to set the white balance to Cloudy, which warms up the images nicely. You can also geek around with the photos in Picasa, but selecting the Cloudy WB seems to work best. It's bothersome, however, to re-set this every time you fire up the camera.

Image sharpness and detail are fine. You can adjust sharpness, saturation, and -- unlike my Kodak camera -- JPEG compression. I left the camera in Fine compression and got photos with ample detail and few JPEG artifacts.

Overall image quality is good, but images taken at the same time with my Kodak M1033 camera have no color cast and more detail, despite the lack of a JPEG compression selection.

Video quality is straight VGA, but the audio quality of the videos is poor. Probably the result of the microphone placement behind some form of waterproof barrier. Since I'll hardly ever shoot video with this camera, it's not a deal-breaker.

Another oddity: the box and owner's manual say you can take the camera to an underwater depth of 10 meters. However, most online listings for the T833 say it's a 10-foot rating. Polaroid has yet to clarify this, I've written them to get the straight scoop.

I'm told Panasonic builds many of the second-tier digital camera brands, including Polaroid. I hope that's a good sign, as I've had good success with my Lumix TZ3.

In the end, I'll probably hand this one over to my power-boating partner. The Olympus Stylus 1030SW seems to offer a better lens and fewer white-balance hassles.

I got this camera for a trip to the waterpark, and for what I needed it is amazing. In good lighting I got very vivid and sharp photos with no worries of water damage. It includes three underwater shooting modes as well as three underwater specific white balance settings. I took some video on the way down the park's water rollar coaster and where as the sound isn't the most clear, the video is fantastic.

On a trip to the swimming pool, I captured both outstanding underwater photos as well as more outstanding video. The water was quite blue, but there was little loss of skin color and images were crstal clear.

The battery has a decent lifespan and takes 2 1/2 hours to charge. If you'll be out for an extended time without the ability to charge, you might want a spare.

Indoor photos can be a bit grainy and sometimes hard to focus if your subject is any real distance away. Videos in indoor lighting however still have good quality. The optical zoom is pretty limited, but this is an underwater camera, so it's not too bad when most underwater cameras don't have optical zoom at all.

All in all, if you are wanting a camera for sunny outdoor photos/video and something you can get great results with underwater or just not worry at all about getting wet, this is your camera. If you are wanting a real work horse that can "do it all" with equal quality, you're better off getting a higher end camera with a quality underwater casing.

In my case, this one is so cost efficiant, I have it for sunny/water shots and a DSLR for indoor/portraits/etc.

This camera is fabulous in many aspects: Its waterproofing is flawless, it's easy to use, and it's got good battery life.
That said, the image quality is well below top-notch. In the water, it's great. Out of the water, it's a whole different story. Tons of shutter lag lead to mediocre and low quality (if not blurry) pictures. Autofocus is slow, getting through the menus is a pain, and the waterproof buttons are annoyingly hard to press.
It's a great option for someone with a DSLR like me who doesn't want to spend a couple thousand bucks on a waterproof housing, or for a family on a cruise. There are certainly many other people who could use this, but not someone who wants decent pictures on land, too.

For anyone who usually buys the 1-time underwater cameras, this is absolutely worth it. My only complaint is that you have to hold the camera for about 5 seconds in between pictures before it will take the next picture. Got some great photos though, and definitely plan on using it in the future. Battery life was great and it is small, light-weight, and compact.

Great underwater camera. Takes great phots, good video. Very Small and thin for a underwater camera. Took it on a cruise in november. Didnt have any problems with it, you should just rinse it if you take it in salt water when you are finished and i would dry off when you are done.

This camera was ok but I found that it took to much to take a picture with it. I had another polaroid before and it work better than this one. The water proof is cool and so I ended up giving it to my son and it has been good for him.