I own a DC500 and I love it, I had a film camera prior, and it was a reefmaster 35mm, I kept the strobe and wide angle lens from that and bought the DC. B4 I wasted so much film on pics that I did not know if they would turn out or not, now I can see and delete it if I don't like it.
It takes nice shots, is it a Nikonos ??? no.... but I did not pay for a Nikonos....
Reg strobe works fine with it, I am not a purist, and dont see the need to dial up/down the strobe, I just angle it if I want less.
Takes nice pic's above the water..
Small compact, well made, easy to pop in/out of the housing
I use a 1gb card, but I shoot in low res anyways, stupid to shoot hi res unless you are going for a poster shot, for sharing what you see, 1.2mb is fine.
Batteries ?? yeah, could be better, but I have 2 and an external charger, never ran out of juice on a dive, but I have not done any boat dives where there are more than one dive per day.
I live in the midwest in Wisconsin, and I've taken some awesome shots, it's one thing to say, yeah there is a 5ft northern, but when u show them a pic of it, then ppl drool.
For what I need, it suite's me fine, it does the job well, and I am happy with it. It's a nice "mid level" type camera and a nice one for a novice to start out with. It you turn into a photo addict, then go get spendy and buy the big buck stuff.
