Camera Comparisons??

[al248005]

I'm in the process of getting a camera for diving. My LDS sells Sealife and Intova. I am considering the DC-1200 and Intova IC-12. He said the Intova is about half the price of the Sealife and that he had just starting selling them. Does anyone have any experience with the Intova. I've looked on here but can't seem to find too much on them and I've even went to their website and its pretty vague too compared to Sealifes. I have seen the few posts that are on here are problematic posts.

 

[mjh]

Hi, sometimes a better option is to go with a good point and shoot and put it in a housing. Here is a good review done by an excellent shop that might help: Underwater Camera Articles: Best Underwater Point & Shoot Cameras for 2010. In addition many threads about this in the Photography section.

Now to sound like a curmudgeon. Your profile shows less than 25dives. A camera really changes they way you dive and in many ways experience the ocean. You should be very comfortable with your gear and skills before adding one to your kit. You should have excellent buoyancy and be able to back kick, helicopter kick, etc... The key is to get your shots without damaging the landscape or creatures.

Good luck in your search.

 

[g1138]

As a DC 800 user who has a friend who uses DC 1200, I would NOT recommend Sealife. [-]You cannot review all your pictures when it's in the underwater housing. You can only review the last photo or video you took, depending on which you took last.
This means that you'll be sitting on your dive boat sulking as everyone else is reviewing their pictures in their underwater housings.[/-]
I was wrong. It turns out I wasn't pressing the buttons on my housing hard enough. For some reason my housing's buttons need to be pressed super hard get any reaction from the camera

Sealife is a great beginner camera, but it very easy to get past the beginner level.
You'll be wishing for more.
Their external strobe arms are short and don't allow for a variety of positioning. This means that you'll be unable to obtain different angles of lighting to make your picture beautiful.
Additionally the strobe arm is padded which sounds nice, but basically becomes a water trap that's hard to dry.
It's also hard to make precise positioning with the strobe arm.

DC 1200's buttons are enormous compared to other housings, but really it's easy enough to work around the "small" controls on any other housing.

If you have a point and shoot digital camera, you will probably come out ahead (financially) by buying an underwater housing for said camera. Purchasing a nice strobe and extended arm will at at most break you even with the DC1200.
You can get around the color change with depth by doing a manual white balance on your camera. (buy a white slate for this and bring it down w/ you)
You'll be doing this with the Sealife camera once you realize their preset filters don't cut it. (It's the difference between nice and amazing)

The pros(and my rebuttals) DC1200's follows:
- Beginner friendly (but you can get over this hump easily)
- Large buttons (but fingers can be trained to work with small buttons)
- Preset filters for various environments {green for cold water, red for blue water etc}
(but you'll be switching to manual white balance settings to get better colored pictures down the road, even with a strobe)
- Auto presets for external strobe(s)
(but this leads to problems when your subject is in shadows and you're in daylight or vice versa;IE moray eel in a cave. The end result is white out or black out photos. It's better to switch to manual settings and white balance anyways.)
- No lube O-ring (THIS I actually like, a damp cloth will get rid of the lint, then you're good to seal and go)


Underwater photography is a lot harder than surface photography. All those small things you can get away with on land, (ie. smashing the shutter button instead of focusing then snapping, always using auto program/flash instead of manual settings)
These don't work well if you're down deep or in a dim environment.
However, in a tropical, bright environment you can get away with a lot thanks to the lighting, but then again if you want stellar photos, you better get used to setting your own camera settings.

 

[Lopaka]

Now to sound like a curmudgeon. Your profile shows less than 25dives. A camera really changes they way you dive and in many ways experience the ocean.

+1

Could not agree more. In some ways, dives aere more fun and relaxing without a camera. Early dives with camera were a blur of trying to get in position, lots of thrashing about, and you do not watch buoyancy very well. Tee off other divers trying to get the shot, etc.

My air consumption shot way up until I got in a better rhythm later on. Still find just cruising and enjoying the dive sometimes the way to go. If I have a camera, just trail it behind until something really good shows up.

Wait a while, dive a while, a camera is a big task load if not absolutely comfortable in the water. It'll get you anyway, but you should compensate easier later on.

Edit: Realize neither my post or the one before gave you any idea of what camera to buy. Assuming you take the advice and wait a while, what will be available later may be quite different than now. Personally, I prefer a P&S in a factory housing. About as compact as you can get, plus you have a great camera when out of the case. Which camera the might be, others may guide you.

 

[Guba]

While I agree with the above posts concerning early dives and camera use, I'll provide an answer to the question asked, just so you'll have it when you need it.

I haven't used the SeaLife DC1200, but I do own both a SeaLife Mini AND I was just given an Intova IC12 for Christmas. So far, I'm pretty much loving the Intova. As a point and shoot, it has a LOT of features and settings, but they're all extremely easy to access underwater. I'm really enjoying using it topside for day to day pix, and that just makes it easier to use underwater since practice does, indeed, tend to make "perfect" (or at least closer to perfect). For the most part, it's intuitive and when the camera is set correctly (be sure to use the manual white balance setting...gets rid of that pesky blue tint), the camera takes very good digital photos and surprisingly good video when the light is adequate.
Now there are a few downsides. The on-board strobe is, as is the case with most point and shoots, a bit anemic. You'll want to invest in a good strobe (which I haven't done, yet). I had intended to use my SeaLife strobe, but it won't synch with the Intova.
A more problematic issue is that the lense housing partially blocks the lower-left hand portion of the picture from the onboard strobe, a situation called "vignetting". The makers suggest an add-on plastic diffuser to scatter the light more effectively (about $7.00), but I chose to take a white plastic bag (like goods go home from a store in), cut a template from it matching the front of the housing, insert the template into the housing over the camera face, and close it up. The results are surprisingly effective, and the vignetting is almost totally gone. Zoom in one "click", and it's gone altogether from the frame.
I'm still exploring the little camera's features, but so far I'm impressed, particularly since the whole rig is less than $240, housing and all.
Hope this helps. Dive as much as you can, perfect basic skills, and then have a ball with your camera, whichever one you choose to go with.

 

[Shayne]

Hi Man I use a Intova IC-10 the 10 meg version pretty much the same as IC-12 but the screen is bigger on the IC-10 takes reasonable photos you can look at mine not too bad for the price I also use an Intova strobe as well again a price thing good value for money spent.

 

[WetBoy101]

I've had my Intova IC 12 for a few months now and am very happy with it, especially considering the price. ($199.00 at WalMart) You can access every function in the housing which is a great feature. I bought an Intova Slave Strobe on line for about $130, plus a flex arm. The strobe has four power settings and doesn't require any wire to the camera.

 

[tarponchik]

Hi, sometimes a better option is to go with a good point and shoot and put it in a housing. Here is a good review done by an excellent shop that might help: Underwater Camera Articles: Best Underwater Point & Shoot Cameras for 2010. In addition many threads about this in the Photography section.

They overpriced Canon S90. If you go with Canon housing, you can stay within $500 limit.

 

[PatW]

Neither camera seems to have RAW capabilities. Being able to shoot RAW will give you the ability to modify white balance in post processing. I think that ability is critical for any underwater photography. Also because you lose the color red at 15', you will probably want a flash so your shots will show color.

I would suggest a Canon S95 or the Canon G12. Both cameras are more expensive but you can get them with the relatively affordable Canon housing.

But it really depends on your application. If you want to take simple snap shots and that is it. The cameras you are looking at may just work fine for you.

 

[fjpatrum]

I have no first hand experience with Intova cameras. I've read reviews of many that say they are moderate cameras but not great.

I bought the sealife 100% because of the "piano buttons" on the housing. I've had a couple of underwater cameras with smaller buttons and they were very hard to use, even snorkeling without gloves. The piano buttons are smooth operating and large enough to hit one button at a time with heavy gloves on, as opposed to hitting several buttons at a time.

I haven't been too impressed with the above ground pictures I've taken so far with my DC1200 but it was low light conditions so perhaps I just didn't fiddle with it enough. I'll be testing it in the water for the first time tomorrow. The sealife also has some features you can't access through the housing, like changing some of the picture settings etc. As a "point and shooter" type person, when in the water, I haven't needed a lot of settings changes while swimming. It switches from video mode to picture mode with the housing but you need to set which picture and video settings you want before putting it in the housing.

If price is a big factor, go with the Intova. For the extra $200 of the sealife you can buy an external strobe and have a "full" kit.

If easy to use buttons are your goal, the sealife is very difficult to beat.

I'll respectfully disagree with G1138 as far as the strobe arms for the sealife. The ones I've played with so far (didn't buy one yet) were fully capable of contorting into any position and quite flexible. I don't know about length versus other options, but they don't seem significantly shorter than the couple I've seen (but not handled) that are equivalent price point.

I would agree with PatW that the ability to shoot RAW is a great bonus but I haven't found any cameras in that price range that have the ability. I could have missed some though.