Camera Comparisons??

[DandyDon]

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.

You don't know how to change with it still in the housing?

I really just wait until I download to see on full laptop screen what I shot, but you can play in housing.

 

[fjpatrum]

You don't know how to change with it still in the housing?

I really just wait until I download to see on full laptop screen what I shot, but you can play in housing.

I hadn't played with mine enough to be 100% but that seemed wrong to me too. I just tested and you can definitely view all the pictures (not just the last one taken) on the DC1200. You use the zoom dial to toggle through the pictures when you're in "playback" mode.

My other thought was why not take it out of the housing?

 

[DandyDon]

I hadn't played with mine enough to be 100% but that seemed wrong to me too. I just tested and you can definitely view all the pictures (not just the last one taken) on the DC1200. You use the zoom dial to toggle through the pictures when you're in "playback" mode.

My other thought was why not take it out of the housing?

I can change from Sea mode to Video or Review or whatever on my DC500 - all functions available thru the housing buttons, no probelm - and I confident that the same is true of all recent models. I haven't played with my new Dc1200 much either but it looks even simpler.

I don't ever remove my camera from housing on a day boat tho. Some do like to review pics between dives and you certainly don't want to breach it then, allowing all that moisture inside the housing. I leave mine in until I can soak it in freshwater for an hour to help dissolve the various salts (think Portland cement with table salt mixed*) but with my DC1200 being slightly buoyant I guess I'll need a little soft weight on top as well.

* Not that cement made with saltwater is good. One contractor tried that in the early days of Florida Keys development. All of the concrete buildings fell after the iron reinforcements rusted out.​

Also see http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sealife-station/371107-hey-get-orange-float-strap-please.html

 

[g1138]

You don't know how to change with it still in the housing?

I really just wait until I download to see on full laptop screen what I shot, but you can play in housing.

Edit:
Just checked my camera, apparently you can review all the pics. Turns out I wasn't pressing the buttons on my housing hard enough.
=.=

[-]For the DC800.
You can change between video and still shots.
But you can only preview the still shot while the camera is in the housing.
You can never go through all your pics and videos until your camera is out of the housing.

The[/-] DC1200 must be different then. I'll be sure to let my friend know next time I see him

 

[al248005]

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.

Could you post a review after tomorrow when you have used it in the water. I am leaning towards the Sealife for the same reason you are. I do not have the luxury of warm waters to dive in most of the time so I wear thick gloves. I kind of figured that the piano buttons would be a lot easier to use than the single buttons. I'm not too worried about on-land pics. That's what my regular camera is for.

Could you even possibly post a picture that you took underwater that's not been edited or modified anyway? The reason I am asking this is because I'm not a photoshop wiz by any means at all and I would like to see what a "true" picture looks like.

 

[g1138]

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.

The arms are stiff and not easy to make precise movements. You can make broad movements, but try minutely positioning it in centimeters, it's not as easy as taffy. They also don't have flexibility in positioning.

Take this strobe arm for example
Amazon.com: Ikelite Ball Socket Arm system - Underwater camera flash flexible arm: Electronics

With this arm you can position your strobe above the camera, below the camera, and even to the side of the camera.
This allows you to cast a variety of shadows on your subject so you get the face of your fish while the body is darkened and the backdrop is black.

Now take Sealife
SeaLife SL961 Digital Pro Flash
You cannot make the arm parallel with the base of the camera. It will always be standing up relatively. So you don't even have 180 degrees of rotation to put your strobe where you want it. It will always be "up".
It limits the type of photos you can take in murky conditions. You will always have the strobe pointing more or less straight or down on your subject.
You can have light coming from the sides of your photo.

Case in point
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/368133-jan-22-lobos-dive.html
Look in picture #1 how the light comes from the bottom left corner.
And picture #2, the light comes from below the camera lens
You can't do that easily with the Sealife strobe. To do that you'd have to unscrew the base from the housing

 

[tarponchik]

Case in point
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/norcal/368133-jan-22-lobos-dive.html
Look in picture #1 how the light comes from the bottom left corner.
And picture #2, the light comes from below the camera lens
You can't do that easily with the Sealife strobe. To do that you'd have to unscrew the base from the housing

I can argue that you could reach the same results by simply rotating the whole thing, that is, the camera in the housing with the rigidly attached strobe;-)

Also, Ikelite threads on connecting screws are different from most other manufacturers who use the same threads as in standard camera/tripod/flash connectors, and this makes it difficult to combine Ikelite strobes with other brands housings/cameras, and vice versa. I had to buy #12-24 screws in Amazon (you won't find these in hardware stores) and do some engineering to attach my old strobe to the new Ikelite housing.

 

[fjpatrum]

Okay, since I was requested to post a review, I will give my impressions after swimming around the bottom of the pool.

First, I didn't know the DC1200 is positively buoyant. It will float to the surface if you let go of it. I don't know if that's good or bad bad but it was a surprise to me.

Pictures, which I will try and upload soon, were not bad for a first effort. I used only auto settings for "snorkeling" and for "below 25 feet". In the 12 foot pool the color adjustment for diving didn't work too well. The snorkeling mode worked well. With the auto flash set at various settings I got some "backscatter" or whatever it's called of reflections off particles in the water. Color was generally "true" though without any white balance adjustment. Focus seems reasonably quick and overall I thought the camera was easy to use. I also figured out you can adjust the various picture and video "presets" while the camera is in the housing, using the zoom toggle just like for viewing pictures in playback mode.

The piano buttons were very responsive and easy to use. (I will say I didn't wear my gloves in the pool, though I have tried the buttons with my gloves on dry land.)

Overall I'm very happy with the purchase. It will definitely take some more practice to get the best pictures from this camera, but for a "point and shoot" camera for a newbie diver, I think it has a lot of strong points.

 

[DandyDon]

First, I didn't know the DC1200 is positively buoyant. It will float to the surface if you let go of it. I don't know if that's good or bad bad but it was a surprise to me.

It means that when it's dropped as so often happens, there is a chance of finding it on the surface rather than watching it sink into an abyss. Hard to spot a black camera on top at times, but better than dropping a sinker to the depths. I noticed the change from my DC500 to my DC1200 as mentioned in http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/sealife-station/371107-hey-get-orange-float-strap-please.html and still moved my orange strap to my new camera. My thread hasn't attracted much attention, but lost cameras are so sad and so common.

 

[Puffer Fish]

Sadly G1138 is correct. I don't have a clue why they made the arms like that, but they only work in very clear water of very close. One can get it to work if you push it out and turn the strobe so it just barely lights the target, but a bit more space would be nice.


Oh, and the Fuji 550 coming out shortly will have an underwater case. Fuji cases are fairly well made (better than the canon ones) and reasonbly priced. My bet is that will be the low cost "Raw" solution.

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.