DC1200 and video light . HUGE letdown!

[Scuba Keli]

Pillpusher has first shot but I'm also interested. Let me know how much.

 

[TN Traveler]

I changed out SD cards and it seems the SD card was the culprit for the camera itself acting funny. I put the same card in another camera and it said , "Card error" I bought a new card and it seems to be working. But I had tested the original 16gb kingston SD card the night before and it worked? I don't understand how it could work the night before and then not work.
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There was a rash of counterfeit "Kingston" 16 GB SD cards out there awhile back. I bought a couple and they worked for a short time and then quit. I tested them in camera when I first got them and they seemed fine but failed on 2nd usage. Fortunately I was using them to back-up my video camera's internal hard drive - but it was sure nerve wracking to get home and discover I did not have the protection I planned on. Thank you ebay buyer protection - the guy who sold them claimed he did not know they were counterfeit and made the refund - but don't know if I would believe him.

 

[streetjudge79]

I changed cards completely , using a different brand, worked fine.

 

[streetjudge79]

It will most likely be brand new. Sealife usually just sends out replacements. My dealer should have sent it back this week. I'll let you know as soon as I get it. I'll let you have it just under retail.I'll come up with a price when I get it back.

I would possibly be interested for using it for night dives. How much? Also, is it refurb, or is it a new unit?

 

[Pillpusher]

It will most likely be brand new. Sealife usually just sends out replacements. My dealer should have sent it back this week. I'll let you know as soon as I get it. I'll let you have it just under retail.I'll come up with a price when I get it back.

To the best of my knowledge, the warranty isn't transferrable. So if you're only going to sell it for just under retail, I'll pass and let Keli have it. Thanks though.

 

[streetjudge79]

Probably $50 under retail. I'm not giving it away.

 

[fjpatrum]

Well, I had a great opportunity to try out my brand new dc1200 and video light. Here is what happened.

1. As soon as video light hit water, battery compartment flooded. (O ring was in and seated right and cap was tight. It's a total loss, expensive batteries ruined,battery holder all fried
2. Dc1200 would not work when I first put it in.. only live display screen was on and none of the buttons would work.
3. Eventually got the buttons working, no idea how.. Display to see my photos would show no images
4. SD card which was tested the night before and formatted did not save 1 photo, lost all my diving photos
5. Video function did not work. I would hit record, it would shut itself off 2 seconds later.
6. Flash strobe on my second dive would not link with the dc1200.. the flash was working and charged, but the camera would not give the flash a signal to activate it
7. Trying to operate the camera with the strobe and the video light attached was such a pain in the ass. I don't want a video light any longer and will only have a single strobe. The design seriously needs to be improved.

I am pretty pissed off to say the least, my entire dive trip was ruined ,gas and money for the trip lost today. I plan on sending everything back to have replaced. And I am not looking foward to trying it out again. I just want something that WORKS! I don't want to have to worry every time I take this camera in the water.
I'll go back to using the dc1000... never had these problems with the older camera.

Please don't take this the wrong way but every single one of these errors seems like operator error to me. I spent about 30 minutes skimming my DC1200 manual and thought there were a few things I didn't like. I spent another 45 minutes diving with it in a pool and found all the things I thought were "wrong" were operator error.

1) I can't speak to the lights as I don't have any, but I'm highly suspicious when something multiple people have tested gets a review of "everything was installed right but it still didn't work". If there is no visible damage and the o-rings are seated properly and the lid is closed properly, there is not much likelihood of flooding. That said, I had an older DC600 (rebranded) that flooded on me last summer. It had an old o-ring though.

2) This is likely just a mode setting. The buttons on my housing seemed a little stiffer than I expected but they worked just fine once I got used to them. I'm not sure what the "live display" means but playback option worked great for me in and out of the water and I figured out you use the zoom toggle to scroll through pics when the camera is in the housing.

3) See # 2.

4) There is a selection of where to store pics, either in the onboard memory or a memory card. Mine is "auto" by default but I believe it can be user selected.

5) Another user setting. You can set length limits on your video captures, if I remember correctly. Mine was default to something very short, I believe.

6) The flash strobe only works in certain underwater modes. Again, I suspect you just had the wrong mode selected.

7) I can't speak to this. I've been comfortable playing with mine without any external lights but I hope to try with some externals soon. Maybe you'll sell me yours super cheap?!

So far I'm ridiculously happy with mine.

Again, I don't mean to sound rude, but it seems to me you should review the owner's manual more thoroughly and try again. There are enough differences between the 1200 and other models that it's not safe to assume they all work the same way. Perhaps do a pool dive where you just fiddle with the thing for a bit so you don't feel like you've wasted a dive.

 

[streetjudge79]

Nope, not rude at all. In fact,you are right. Except for the video light, that is still a mystery. This is what happened. The SD card was defective, I brought it back to Best Buy, exchanged it for an 8gb card and the camera works fine now.I didn't change any of the settings for video,etc. No issue with that now. The bad card was tried out on 2 other cameras and they read "Card Error" It was a kingston sd card that was bad. The flash strobe was my error, the preset setting was accidentally switched to 3 instead of the first setting. I guess when I changed out batteries, I hit the switch. That ended up happening again this past weekend when I changed out the batteries and caught the mishap.Figured that one out now.
The only issue I have now, is the battery does not last long. It was fully charged, but lasts about a dive and a half. Only took about 80 photos and about 45 seconds of video.

 

[streetjudge79]

Disregard