The mount for the wide angle lens is the same size as the 3x, 8x and 16x. Just because they fit doesn't mean that they were intended to be used on the housing. The extra lenses are meant to be used with the FIXED FOCUS of the DC310 because it didn't have a zoom capability. Because you can zoom with the DC500, you don't need them. Using your zoom instead of flipping through all the lenses and trying to determine the correct distance to be from your subject, gives you much better, sharper images. Yes, I have experienced a couple of lessons with my new DC500, but many of them were my fault, not the camera's. Sealife's customer service will answer any questions you might have. They spent about a half an hour helping me with everything from appropriate defog for the port to settings for the strobe etc.
Sealife DC 500
- Thread starter Alan Mayfield
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I believe the linked 'problem page' said all lenses, including the wide angle. Not only does it not make sense to use the macro lenses but there is an actual optical flaw with using any of the add ons. I believe that it said the add on lenses when used on the DC500 created a purplish halo around the photo. Just going on my memory which is poor at times. Too bad they removed the page........ Does anyone have some photos they can share where the wide angle has been put to use???
My experience with the customer service was poor. Several times I couldn't get through and got an answering service that said to leave your name and number and they'd get back to you. No one ever returned any of my calls. The one time I did get through I was having problems with the white balance where all my photo turned dark green, or bright blue/green and even pink (I shot a weeks worth of photos in Cozumel like that) their advice was to turn the camera to land mode for my underwater shots. Does that sound right to you? .....it sure didn't to me. Did they add a manual white balance to the DC500 to fix this problem?
If they actually had a decent manual that explained the in's and out's of the camera perhaps people wouldn't need to spend a 1/2 hour on the phone with them.
Your always going find someone that has had a bad experience with a product, I'm that guy with SeaLife products.
My experience with the customer service was poor. Several times I couldn't get through and got an answering service that said to leave your name and number and they'd get back to you. No one ever returned any of my calls. The one time I did get through I was having problems with the white balance where all my photo turned dark green, or bright blue/green and even pink (I shot a weeks worth of photos in Cozumel like that) their advice was to turn the camera to land mode for my underwater shots. Does that sound right to you? .....it sure didn't to me. Did they add a manual white balance to the DC500 to fix this problem?
If they actually had a decent manual that explained the in's and out's of the camera perhaps people wouldn't need to spend a 1/2 hour on the phone with them.
Your always going find someone that has had a bad experience with a product, I'm that guy with SeaLife products.
I have had good luck with my wide angle lens. I know it was intended for use with the dc500 as it comes as part of the "elite" set, along with the digital strobe etc.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck with customer service. The only problem I had was that their server was throwing me out as spam or not letting me through because I had attached several pictures that made the attachment too big. So if you send in sample pics, just send one or two in an email. I would try calling back and talking to Amy. She was very knowledgable and helpful. Donna was great about getting my questions to the correct people too.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck with customer service. The only problem I had was that their server was throwing me out as spam or not letting me through because I had attached several pictures that made the attachment too big. So if you send in sample pics, just send one or two in an email. I would try calling back and talking to Amy. She was very knowledgable and helpful. Donna was great about getting my questions to the correct people too.
erenazul
Registered
I posted this few weeks ago regarding sealife camera. Don't get it
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=2383967#post2383967
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?p=2383967#post2383967
patti meg diver
Registered
I own a sealife 550 with strobe. I have been having alot of problems with the strobe not firing. I just got back from Dema and I inquired about this problem with the sales and representives there at the show. They told me to send it back to the mfg to get the fiberoptic cable replaced. They told me that they replace the fiberoptic cable so the postion of the cable that fits under the rubber gaset on the strobe works better and the cover over the internal flash. It is a really nice camera above the water, I am sending it back to the manufacture and will update you on the result.
scubadds49
Registered
I purchased the DC500 Elite camera system in August 2006. In testing the system in local (Chicago) quarry water, I found the strobe to be very unreliable. I downloaded the latest firmware and sent the strobe back to SeaLife for service. Nov. 4-11 1006, I went to Roatan and tried the camera out again. The strobe was still not firing consistantly. Frustrated, I signed up for the underwater photography course at Coco View Resort. The instructor was very familar with the system, made a slight adjustment to the position of the fiber optic cable and I did not have anymore problems with the strobe not firing. In fact, I got many fantastic shots during the remaining days of my dive trip. So far, I have only been able to download 2 pics(see gallery) due to problems with the website. I have many more that are equally as good. I have used a Nikonos with strobe and these pics are just as good! The shark mode was very useful in capturing the many wonderful shark pics I took. The instructor also taught my how to use manual white balance as a replacement for the strobe. The advantage of using white balance is you get all of the colors without the back-scatter. So do not give up on the DC500. There is a rather large learning curve, but once you are comfortable with the system, you can take some really outstanding pics! I hope to show you more when the website allows me to download more pics.
I removed the cable and just let the strobe fire off the built in flash. No worry about backscatter when using the wide angle lens
scubadds49
Registered
Are you saying you do not need the cable for the strobe to fire? Also, I noticed you switched the white balance from sunny to cloudy on some of your shots. How do you determine which setting to use. Do you ever use manual white balance? I find setting the white balance manually to be very technique sensitive, i.e., pain in the butt!! I was very impressed with your pics!
mmex4wdauto
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My mother bought one of these for my father and I to take diving with us because we had a Sony DSC-T1 with underwater housing that flooded once. I'm not a big fan of this camera to say the least. The photos can be extremely grainy sometimes and upon zooming in even by a minute amount, you can see visible banding in the images it produces that are reminiscent of early color ink-jet printers. The video mode on it, the mode that I used to find myself using the most on the Sony camera works alright, but .ASF!?! 
Sony, the most proprietary electronics company in the history of electronics, saves the videos as MPEGs which is a universally accepted format.
Excuse my petulant tirade about this camera. My experience is actually very mixed. I have gotten some really good cave shots with this camera; I'll try to dig some of them up and post them online if anyone is interested. All bashing aside though, I have been able to coax some really cool ambient light shots out of this camera.
In the words of my father, "mediocre hardware with a kickass marketing campaign".
Sony, the most proprietary electronics company in the history of electronics, saves the videos as MPEGs which is a universally accepted format.Excuse my petulant tirade about this camera. My experience is actually very mixed. I have gotten some really good cave shots with this camera; I'll try to dig some of them up and post them online if anyone is interested. All bashing aside though, I have been able to coax some really cool ambient light shots out of this camera.
In the words of my father, "mediocre hardware with a kickass marketing campaign".
Yes I don't use the cable because firing the strobe with it was hit and miss. It is much more reliable without the cable however there are a couple of problems with that. When diving with my buddy who takes pictures we have to co-ordinate our shots because his camera can fire my strobe. That works well for him some timesscubadds49:
You can get more backscatter from the built in flash but when using the wide angle lens it is not a problem.
The white balance setting adjusts automatically, I don't see well underwater so until I get some good reading lenses for my mask I am in point and shoot mode with this camera.
I have taken it to 200ft without a drop of leakage. This is only my second underwater camera so I am no expert but I am quite happy with it.
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