Sea & Sea DC 3000

[Shanhai]

Last month, I was seriously considering buying the Sea&Sea DX3000 system, and after quite a bit of research, here is my two cents worth.

1. Prices (in Taiwan$ and US$ Equivalents):
Housing: NT$9500/US$271
Ricoh Caplio RR30 Camera: NT$13500/US$386
Camera + Housing Package: NT$21500/US$614
Local taxes are included, but there is no International warranty on the camera. Both housing and camera carry a warranty from Sea&Sea. Prices are quoted by the Sea&Sea distributor here in Taiwan.

2. I think the Ricoh RR30 is actually not available in the United States. This is probably the source of the confusion on the camera name. Sea&Sea retailers sell the camera and system as DX3000, while a camera shop knows the camera as Ricoh RR30. Of course, if you buy it from Sea&Sea, they are responsible for the warranty.

3. I friend of mine bought the camera and has already taken it underwater. From the extremely brief conversation, he was not a happy camper. If I find out more on this, I'll let y'all know.

Anyway, in the end, I decided not to buy the Sea&Sea, and went for the Minolta Dimage Xi instead. I'm extremely happy with my choice, and have no regrets yet.....

 

[Agape]

Thanks for the info, I'm still thinking about getting a UW cam. Do you know what he wasn't happy with on the cam he got? I'll check out the Minolta.

 

[diverguy]

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[Agape]

after some research i ended up ordering an Oly 4040

 

[Shanhai]

I finally caught up with the friend who bought the Ricoh RR30. While the focus and shutter lag is quick, storing files into the memory card is extremely slow in higher resolutions. Sure, it's a bigger file but it shouldn't be that slow.

 

[norcaldiver]

Dudes! I just played with one in the store and think it's great. The shutter is fast, I didn't see any thing wrong with the time it took to write to file/mem card.

The camera is about 850/899, but then you add on the base, arm, light and fiber optic cable and bring the total up to almost $1300. Then of course you can get the lens caddy, 20mm wide angle lens, macro lens... a few more hundred, but they are changable underwater.

Fully adjustable, go into macro mode, zoom in (why?) review your shots, delete bad shots, etc. It did everything I wanted it to do-everything I could do with it on land, I could do in the case as far as I could tell.

Now the real test. Crack the case and see what the camera looks like. Was it going to be some cheap POS that the sealife has? No, it was actually a pretty nice camera for the 1st impression. It's not a 4040 or anything in appearance, but I've gotten over that. I'm all for function over form. It's a tiny camera that could fit in your pocket. Nothing special to look at, but it worked like a charm and felt really pretty durable. Would I buy one for land use? No, prolly not, I'm saving for the sony 717 for land use, but for a digital to get me started underwater, sure, why not?

Bang for your buck: I think it's great. If I'd have had the money on me, I'd have brought it home today.