Customer Reviews

Sealife DC1000 10 Megapixel Underwater / Land Camera in Removable Housing with 5X Optical Zoom (Black)

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

 

 

For a trip to the Yucatan, I purchased the SeaLife DC1000 with single flash unit, as we anticipated diving, and also a Canon D10 to allow more options while snorkeling. The DC1000 has some nice features (push-button controls are generally easy to use underwater) and comes at a reasonable price for a dive-capable camera for those of us that have limited chances to do photography with scuba. In general, the camera worked well and took some nice pictures while diving at 50 feet using the flash, which is essential under these conditions. As noted by the prior review, however, its performance for shallow-water snorkeling could have been substantially better. I initially had problems with the flash under these conditions, which frequently overwhelmed the image. After regular adjustment of the power, flash pictures worked better, but this means that one-chance shots (e.g., fish) may be lost. There are other adjustment options for the flash (macro vs. long-distance settings) that I did not have a chance to try, which may improve results, but the amount of adjusting to get a good flash result is frustrating given that the flash is supposed to be integrated into the camera system. Because of the erratic flash results I was getting, I also explored alternative non-flash modes. This revealed the biggest negative of the camera--the "special" underwater color bias settings seem to function by just adding varying levels of red to everything, whether the objects are red or not. After it became obvious that the underwater settings were generating unacceptable results, I started instead taking pictures underwater with the land setting, which of course creates images that are more blue than natural due to long-wavelength light attenuation. After returning home, I explored whether I could salvage some of the images using Photoshop. This helped to a limited extent for the shots taken in the underwater setting, but the excess red could not be entirely eliminated. In contrast, when color balance/contrast filtering was applied to shots taken with the standard land setting, the resulting image colors were excellent and true to life. So in the end, the special underwater adjustment features seem more of a sales gimmick that will send unsuspecting users astray rather than a strong selling point. In the future, SeaLife should consider teaming up with Adobe to come up with a quality image filter algorithm. An option that I did not try was to manually set the white balance using the included white board (another thing to hold onto in the water...)--this might fix the problem. Other negatives to the camera were an annoying delayed response when trying to change zoom settings, and a very slow focus/shutter response resulting in missed pictures. As I used the camera more, it seemed to me that the photo was taken when I released the button rather than when I initially depressed it as one would expect in other cameras.

So how did it compare to the Canon D10 performance? Without the fancy underwater settings, the Canon took expected blue-biased photos that, when filtered through the contrast/color balance filters of Photoshop produced excellent, vivid, true to life shots. In general, the image sharpness of the D10 was slightly better than the DS1000, as perhaps might be expected when using a product from a top-tier camera company. Bottom line: if you are just going to snorkel during the day, go with the Canon D10 and save yourself a good chunk of money. If you are planning to dive or night snorkel, then the DS1000 may be the way to go, but expect to experiment/practice with the equipment before you get consistent results.

this camera has great potential, BUT not for snorkeling in under 15 feet. Buy one of those cheap ones for that. The color adjustor for the DC1000 is overkill for blue (Hawaiian, Caribbean) water and most pics are very orange! I had to use the LAND setting to avoid that problem, then adjust the exposure based on the depth and sunlight. ALOT of practice is needed for this. Fortunatley I had over a week in Hawaii!

Diving over 15 feet however, is another story. The colors are much more true and vibrant and with good light the built in flash is often unnecessary. Key to good closeups is stillness. Hold on to something stable if possible, if there is a current or surge, you will get blurry pics. The stabilizer built in does not work all that well. Longer distances do not require this of course.

There is a delay sadly, between pressing the shutter button and the actual snapshot. Not long, but long enough for MANY fish to hightail it out of the shot! Plan ahead of time or hide and pre focus the shot. That helps a lot.

THe on land feature for this camera was good, not great.

THe housing is great, very durable and solid, I had no fear of it breaking. You do need a good landyard with it though, however when I let go of it diving, it seemed rather neutral buoyant to me. It didn't shoot to the surface or sink to the bottom. A good thing!

I give this camera 4 out of 5 stars because I like it's durability (housing) and deeper water quality. It is easy to use BUT don't expect instant award winning photos until you have played with the settings for a few snorkeling and dive trips.

One thing I would like to see improved is a lens cover strap to hold it on the camera while not in use. Not sure if it has a place for that to buy one.

This beats a film camera any day and for those who will use it more than 2-3 times, you will enjoy this one! I recommend getting at least a 4gb or 2 of them in order to practice and delete. I used a 2gb card up fast.

Great starter underwater camera. Easy to use and takes great pictures underwater. Easy to put in housing. Ample megapixils for terrific pictures above and below the water.