Customer Reviews

Pixtreme 3.1MP Waterproof Digital Sports Camera

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

 

 

I decided to buy this camera on November 26th because I read a couple of positive reviews, and fortunately I paid $69.90.
At the moment of this review the price is $149.99.

I want to remark that this is probably the worst camera I ever tried. The main characteristic is the bad quality.

Following you will find a few important issues that will make you save your money.

1- The shutter lag to get the camera ready for the first shot take about 7 seconds.
2- The shutter lag shot to shot is about 8 seconds.
3- The shutter lag shot to shot with flash is about 24 seconds.
4- The picture quality is extremely bad.
5- The flash needs about 22 seconds to be ready for the first shot.
6- If you do not hold the camera for about 3 seconds while shooting a picture the image will be blur and fuzzy.
7- It is not autofocus, it is fixed focus.
8- Clips quality is as bad as the pictures.
9- Batteries pop out.

I will keep updating this comments.

Good Luck !

P.S. I just noticed that the two 5 stars reviews are written by persons that just review products for the manufacturer of this camera. In the future, I will have to check the reviewers list before taking it seriously.

UPDATE JANUARY 8TH, 2006

Just tried for one week the underwater casing, it is very solid, and much better quality than the camera.

As a scuba diver, I became frustrated with the amount of issues that occurred with regular film cameras underwater. If I missed a shot, I would not know it until four days later. When the time came for the trip down to Key Largo, I looked for a cheap yet working alternative. This camera is your solution. Taking fairly good pictures underwater, with an instant read-back on what the picture looks like makes a huge difference. After I photoshopped the colors back into the photos, they looked great.

The camera is rated to 125 ft, but I have not taken it below 50 ft (a depth I did not having any problems at). The downsides are a three second delay on the picture taking after the button is pushed and a very loose battery cover (Something a bit of tape fixed right up). The flash on the camera is a bit finicky and requires a bit of practice to work with underwater.

I recommend this camera to everyone who needs an alternative to the film, it accomplishes its goal: Take photos underwater. For all of those looking for a rugged camera, this is an item for you. I bounced this camera against rocks, scuba weights, walls, and other items on my trip.

I was looking at many different options for an "indestructable" digital camera but something that was under $100. I chose the Pixtreme because of the fact that the protective housing also was rated as a dive shell because it goes over 120 ft underwater. I figured it had to be strong. And it was. I'm a big-time snowboarder and needed something for the slopes. Even after crashes and the cold the thing worked flawlessly. It's not the best resolution digital camera but for the price...you can't beat it! Best value on the market if you ask me.

One happy customer.

this should be a disposable camera. it's fully made from a cheap plastic, the batteries keep popping out, the flash blows everything out to ghost white, the quality of the photos are similar to those $10 keychain cameras.

very crappy. if i had spent $30 more, I could have bought an actual semi-decent camera.

The other review on here hit the nail on the head regarding the quality of the camera. The only thing that keeps me from giving it one star is that the underwater casing is very sturdy and well put together. If only I could say that about the camera...

Honestly, I really wasn't expecting much when I ordered this. It was a present for an 8 year old. He'd never had a digital camera before, so I wanted to start him out with something cheap. You know, something that if he breaks or loses it wouldn't be that big of a deal. The first thing I noticed was that the batteries keep falling out. Seriously, this is not simply a minor issue. The slightest touch to the battery cover cause the whole thing to spring open, shooting the batteries out. I would just attribute it to a manufacturing flaw, but the whole camera feels just extremely poorly put together. If for whatever reason you decide to get this camera I would suggest leaving it in the underwater casing all the time, so you don't accidentally break it.

I will say that they were quick to issue a refund. I don't know how they make any money with a 30 day return policy. I'm sure a lot of these camera's have gotten returned. Don't buy this camera, for $100 you can get a similar Kodak camera that will take better pictures, and won't fall apart on you.

This camera has broken after being used about 5 times - the shutter no longer functions. The battery drains too quickly. The quality of the images is appalling. The manufacture of the camera is cheap and flimsy and the delay after pressing the shutter is ridiculous. The only thing that lasts a long time is the waterproof casing which will now be in a landfill as it only fits this camera.

Well, I think I got what I paid for in this camera. I bought it specifically for a week-long trip underground, and wanted something small, light, and not too expensive, since the chance that it would get banged and humidified would be great.

The several seconds for the flash to charge up is annoying, and even more so is the lag time from pushing the button to when the picture is taken. Makes it hard to do action shots or be spontaneous.

I think the pictures are of decent quality, the controls aren't too complicated, and the tiny size is very easy to deal with.

It worked out quite nice for my trip, and I look forward to using it on other trips of similar nature.

I got this camera two weeks ago. It's soo nice and rugged looking. I dropped it several time while hiking up Mt. Rainier and it's so sturdy. I love it. The camera itself doesn't have the best resolution compare to my 8mp Rebel, but heck, it's has more than its rivals, plus it's well protected by the casing. Plus it's really cheap. I haven't swam with the camera so I can't attest to how waterproof it is, but the overall construction does inspire my confidence in it.

I have never purchased such a cheap quality item on Amazon before. I bought it less than three weeks ago and it no longer works! It was working for a while, then suddenly shut down and stopped functioning without any warning. I never dropped, damaged or even handled it roughly! Right out of the box, I noticed that the quality was very poor. That being said, I will mention that the case is a very nice hard plastic and is absolutely waterproof with good O-ring seals. The case is the only thing that makes the price worth it. The camera is made from the cheapest possible parts. The rubber gaskets covering the USB port and the SD card port are not cut to the correct size. They don't cover what they are supposed to. When you put in an SD card, the rubber gasket then sits loose on top of it. When I plugged in the USB cable to download my first photos, I noticed that the plug inside the camera was loose. I had to find a position to rest the camera during the download in which the plug would not move, which entailed holding the camera very still in my hand while the download proceeded. If I moved ever so slightly, the connection was lost and I had to start over. This camera eats batteries like no device I have ever owned. I placed brand new Duracell Ultra Digital batteries in it and they were exhausted in less than an hour. And that is using them conservatively and turning off the camera when I am between shots, and turning off the display screen as well. I tried lithium batteries and they lasted slightly longer, but are more expensive. There is a long lag time of several seconds between when you depress the shutter button and when the shot is taken. This is much longer than with any other digital camera I have owned. As other reviewers have mentioned, the battery cover is also loose and the batteries can easily pop put. The downside of having the batteries pop out is that you lose all your photos when it happens. If the batteries run out before you can download the photos and you attempt to change the batteries, all your photos will be lost. Since the camera uses batteries so fast, this happens frequently. In three weeks, I have lost two sets of photos. I have never lost photos this way with any other digital camera, and I have been using a variety of digital cameras for almost ten years. The camera is a fixed focus camera and has a slow shutter speed. For something that is supposed to be designed to be used underwater, in environments that are expected to be dark and murky, this is a major design flaw. Even at a depth of less than ten feet, in clear river water, on a bright sunny day, I had trouble getting photos that were not blurry due to motion and slow shutter speed. I also tried to use it out of water and found that the photos were overexposed. The flash is completely worthless. My recommendation is to save your money and get something else. In this case, the waterproof case was worth more than the camera. This item was a waste of money.

Most pictures are too out of focus to use, but every once in a while you get something really clear.Had lots of trouble getting it to work with out computer since it didn't come with instructions, we downloaded a driver from the company website that unnecessarily blocked the auto config. process. Very tough to press buttons when using waterproof casing.