Customer Reviews

Sealife 6 Megapixel Underwater Digital Camera (DC600)

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

 

 

I bought this camera as part of the "elite" package, which came with the wide angle lens (very useful), and the stobe light (which is a must have IMO). Without strobe lights, the camera is almost useless. Even at 20' of clear water, the built in flash is too weak (again, IMO).

The picture quality is decent, but not great. It seems pretty poor at setting exposure settings reliably, i.e. one picture can be good at a certain setting, and the next one is not usable. I find it very difficult to get the macro mode to focus properly, it's almost a crap shoot if it will focus at all at 12" or closer. You're better off staying back, and zoom in it seems :-/. This is quite disappointing to me, and probably the weakest feature of the camera.

The housing is really easy to use, and requires minimal maintenance (since the O-rings and lubrication free). You still need to keep it clean of course. The strobe light works well too, although it takes a fair amount of "trial and error" to get the proper strobe light settings for different scenes. Make sure you don't set the "backlight" feature on the LCD too high, or you will think your pictures are overexposured when they really aren't.

Battery life is pretty short, and is another problem IMO. If I can get 50-60 pictures on one battery, I'm lucky. I really wish it had a "hot" shoe, so you didn't have to use the built-in flash to trigger the strobe light. The camera does take standard sized batteries, which has higher capacity, which I'm using. The documentation also says that the camera only takes up to 1GB flash cards, but that's not true, I use 2GB Sandisk flash cards with mine, and it can use the entire disk (about 550 pictures at the best resolution setting).

I'm hoping that Sealife will come out with an updated camera, preferably 8MB, with better camera features (like, a Canon quality camera), and make it fit in this case. The odds of that happening is probably slim to none

I purchased this camera from a local dive shop prior to going on a trip recently. (I didn't buy it from Amazon because I needed it *immediately*.)

The casing seemed solid, and looked like it would seal well, but I never ended up trying it under water, didn't take it on my trip, and returned it as soon as I got back.

The problem was noise in the image. Under reasonable shooting conditions -- indoor with a reasonable amount of lighting, plus flash, at the "ISO 100" setting, the noise was intolerable. It was worse than I've seen at ISO 800 or higher using name-brand (canon, etc.) dry-land low-end consumer digital cameras. To demonstrate this, I've uploaded a sample image (cat at water dish).

In my experience with underwater shooting with disposable cameras and an occasional underwater "consumer-grade" rental, there are enough things underwater which show up as visual noise on pictures -- little bubbles, silt, water salinity variations, etc. I suppose there's an argument that says that the camera being noisy will, therefore, not have much of an impact. My feeling is that adding a lot of noise will just make the image that much worse. My feeling is that the ISO 100 results were unacceptable, and shooting underwater would often use higher ISO settings (which, for digital cameras basically mean more noise), so this camera was a no-go for me.

This camera is easy to use, takes good pictures even if you feel like you're shaking or are not entirely buoyant. It does its job well for the casual diver who likes to take pictures. It takes a little practice and reading to make sure you use the right settings to get the best quality you can get, but scuba diving pictures are rarely perfect without the super expensive cameras.

I will say that I sometimes adjusted the pictures in photoshop because I didn't like the original, and got really amazing results (gamma/degrain/contrast). I used this in Cozumel up to 90 feet and had no leakage. The digital camera takes great pictures on land as well and has many features to suit anyone's needs. I would recommend buying this with the Sealife SL970 Wide Angle Lens.

This camera is loaded with options which can be a good or bad thing, sometimes finding the right function can be frustrating. It takes some very good pictures when I get them in focus, which probably says more about the operator rather than the camera. The battery life is much shorter than advertised, a back up battery is recomended. The operators manual is longer than some novels I have read, I would like to see a DVD on camera use and picture taking tips, this would help out beginners like myself.

I've been using this camera now for about 18 months (4 dive trips or ~ 20 dives). It's excellent on sunny days in less than 20 feet of water with good visibility - no flash required). Between 20-30 feet in those conditions with no flash, you can usually color correct the pictures and they'll turn out pretty decent. After that, you definitely need the flash, but don't bother with the onboard flash. It's sufficient for subjects within 5 feet, but doesn't do much beyond that. Be careful when framing your subject because the lense protrusion on the case creates a semicircular shadow on the lower left quarter of your picture. Unless you have advanced photo editing experience, don't expect to be able to correct for this shadow with software.

Video is surprisingly good on this camera - a nice bonus.

Topside photos are fine if you have good lighting. Different preset configurations called scenes are helpful for the novice shooter. However, their limitations are quickly exposed to someone using this out of the water for a week-long vacation. Sunset photos, or capturing submects that are in the shade is very difficult. The onboard flash doesn't help much and it's difficult to get it to fire in certain modes when you want to light subjects in the foreground.

The case is rugged and durable and keeping the case closed when not in use has successfully protected the o-ring and its contact surface from damage.

For the price, it's not a bad deal - especially if you're like me and just want to capture some shots of what you see underwater w/o spending a huge amount of money.

Great starter camera. Truly waterproof--I've taken it down 10-12 meters, although it can go to 25. Some reviewers have complained about picture quality. A couple of notes one that... 1) obviously this is a simple point and shoot camera...it's not going to produce the quality of photographs that more sophisticated models will 2) the quality of the picture is correlated to a significant degree to the environment (e.g., murkiness of the water) and the skill of the photographer. Your pictures will turn out best if you are able to steady the camera, which involves steadying yourself and the camera underwater. If this is difficult for you, or you're afraid you'll miss the action, try using the "Spy Mode" which automatically takes shots at given intervals of time. Also, I got better pictures when the camera was in macro mode (the default setting is landscape mode). I had another user tell me the same thing. For the most part, some good photo editing software can help you clean up your pictures (try Shutterfly Studio...it's free).

The camera takes great video with sound. We got some great video of dolphins and turtles swimming. This is not a camera for an advanced photographer, but if you're a casual photographer and need something for diving, snorkeling, bumming around on the beach, kayaking, etc., then this is a good choice.