SeaLife D600 Changing Modes with Housing

[Lenmonster]

Hi, everyone...

I bought the SeaLife D600 camera for my wife last year when we were going to Cancun for snorkeling. Since then, I've fallen in love with diving, and am stoked to use the camera on my next dive trip. As I'm getting familiar, I notice what seems to be an annoying design problem.

It seems there is no way to switch between photo and video mode with the housing on. If that is the case, your whole dive trip, at least for that day, seems to need to be confined to video OR stills, unless you have a pretty dry place to wipe the housing, etc. And if you do open the housing in a humid area, it seems like you'll have a fogging problem.

So am I missing something? Is there a way to switch modes, or to at least take stills while in video mode?

 

[Rand]

Yup, you can switch between still photo mode and video mode. You first have to set it to external flash or sea mode. Then, the LCD button (the one that looks like this [O] ) allows you to switch between still photo and video and back. If it's not in external flash or sea mode, you can't do it. You can tell what mode you are in by the icons on the display. A video camera or camera with strobe appear, depending on your mode. That LCD button will only change your display in every other mode.

The big fold out instructions that come in the package show how to do this if this doesn't make sense. It is explained in Step 11. I couldn't find it in the regular manual.

It's actually pretty easy to bump this button and switch inadvertantly. I ended up with a 3 minute video of my arm on a safety stop once.

 

[Lenmonster]

Ha! Nice one about the safety stop. I hope you put it into iMovie and gave it a good soundtrack...Maybe Journey's "Open Arms." Anyway, thanks. You're right...it was in the fold-out thing, and on the website...it was the first question in the FAQ, so apparently, I'm not alone in that confusion. I'm very psyched to try this out. I'm spending a few times in the pool to get used to new gear, and I'll work with it. Thanks for your help. PS: Where in MD are you?

 

[Rand]

No problem. I need to practice more with the camera myself and had to get it out and look up the answer for you. Good idea with practicing with it in the pool.

I'm in Clarksburg. I haven't dived locally yet, but I will be soon. The wife and I have the drysuit pool portion on 4/1 and checkout dives at Rawlings on 5/10-11.

After the DS certification, ideally, I'd like to dive at least once a month somewhere.

We were thinking of joining Brass Anchor's dive club (Frederick) to meet more local divers. We're always up for meeting new people to dive with. I think hanging out on the surface interval is half the fun of diving anyway!

If you want, send me a PM the next time you're diving. I can do the same.

 

[Lenmonster]

Cool. Sounds good. A drysuit is definitely in my future. Given I dive a 5mm in warm water, there's no way I can do anything local in anything but a drysuit.

 

[ditch-diver]

Good luck with the D600. I just got one myself.

Daughter #1 decided her high school science project this year should be on the absorption of colour underwater, so we tag-teamed my wife and convinced her we needed a dive camera (for Science and Education...., not for me):14:

Not planning on becoming a serious u/w photographer, and having access to the expensive toys at work, we went with the D600 and I must say I was pleased with the quality.

She did up a colour chart and we went to 100' took a pic and took another every ten feet back up to the surface. The vis was poor at depth, not to mention the water was 37deg F.

I had found the photo/video change a pain too as I did not put it on sea mode, as it appears to add a red filter and obviously we wanted actual colour. I look forward to using it again.., boy I hope I get an "A"!!!