Sealife Cameras

[JTH2711]

My wife and I looking for a good general purpose camera. Since I am going to try some underwater photography I was curious what folks thought of the DC 1000 as well as the Sealife line in general. I have heard mixed reviews and was curious. According to the Sealife website the DC 1000 is a a good Underwater as well as general purpose camera in general

 

[SailNaked]

I have gotten every penny I spent on mine out of it. I have some wonderful pictures, and a lot of lousy ones but that is not the camera's fault, it was capable I was not. they do video too so that can be nice sometimes. I keep mine in a pocket on my belt, and it is a point and shoot for me, I would like to be more serious and maybe if I invest in a strobe I can be, but for now my sealife suits me great. when I have the budget I may upgrade as I do not think I can get the quality i see some people here post, maybe I am still a noob and it is possible but so far with no strobe or additional light I am not able to get the wow factor below 25 ft, works great above because the light is there already.

 

[Jim Baldwin]

My wife and I looking for a good general purpose camera. Since I am going to try some underwater photography I was curious what folks thought of the DC 1000 as well as the Sealife line in general. I have heard mixed reviews and was curious. According to the Sealife website the DC 1000 is a a good Underwater as well as general purpose camera in general

We have the DC 1000 with dual strobes. Takes good pictures above and below the water. Very simple to setup with prompts for water or land. Another plus is there are no o-rings to grease. Yes it has o-rings on the strobes and housing but they do not require grease. The macro button is easy to see in the upper left hand corner. Also comes with a wide angle len.

You definitely need a strobe for underwater to eliminate backscatter and get some good color.

We use 2800 ma rechargeable batteries and they're good for two hour plus dives without slowing down. I might shoot 70 pictures a dive. Get a 4 to 8 meg card and you can shoot to your heart's content.

Two things that came in handy were the counterweight to make the camera negative and the DC charge pack with the spare battery. You always have a hot battery ready.

This our fourth underwater camera. My suggestion would be to get rid of the wrist strap and sew on some one inch webbing and a stainless bolt snap. If you need to turn aloose of the camera it will hanging at arm's length and it never gets in the way if you need to do something in a hurry.

The strobes have magnetic switches and you have to make sure that they are engaged or you find yourself with some dark pictures. This is easy to check.

Excellent point and shoot camera. Plus you have the option of setting your own adjustments.

 

[gypsyjim]

For budget reasons my first UW camera was the DC100, and later the DC500 when it came out. Both took decent pics uw and above, but are really entry level cameras. There are better cameras out there, but at a lot higher cost. I would make the same choice today if I was fist trying uw photo, purchasing SeaLife to get my feet wet, so to speak.

I seldom use the strobes I purchased with the DC500, as I like the small package the camera alone makes, and have always had a struggle getting good strobe shots. W/o the strobe you have to get close, which takes patience, but makes for better pics. Both cameras are capable of taking better pics than this amateur is able to take advantage of.

Can't speak knowledgeably about the 1000, as I have yet to try one, but I have been generally quite satisfied with their earlier models so I would expect to be satisfied with it too.

 

[gypsyjim]

Double post, sorry. Server problems tonight. Nothing loading well.

 

[JTH2711]

Thanks guys. I saw an ad for it in a magazine in the keys and one of the DM said it was not a very good camera. My LDS said they were good for the price. Thanks for the input

 

[tc_rain]

I can tell you their customer service is fantastic. I have one of their strobes and have had it for a number of years (ie-way out of warranty). Last year the battery cradle broke and I contacted Sealife looking for a replacement. Sealife contacted me right away, informed me they had updated the part, and sent me a new one within a week. They did not charge me a dime and the new replacement part is almost indestructible.

 

[Maximum Overdive]

I have the sealife 800, I love my camera but I also shoot without a strobe as I plan to get on in the future. I had minor flooding on a dive and since then I've had the red indicator light stay on. The camera still works like the day I got it and takes good quality picks and video above and below the water. I did look into getting it fixed and was told that Sealife in Canada is not the same as Sealife in the states and that they would not fix it in Canada under warrenty and that I would have to send it to the states. I don't think I'll bother unless something goes drastically wrong with it but, I do love my camera and so do my dive friends! I hope this helps.