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I've seen these cameras listed on the web and wonder if they are worth looking into? Anything you can share would be appreciated good or bad.
Change your settings to external flash... you will like the resultsI have a DC600. Over all it is a good camera & for the price a good starter camera. The camera I have is the sport package, that comes with the camera, housing & single strobe.
The good: Where I wouldn't say it takes National Geographic quality pictures, they are still quite good. The camera, hosing & strobe are quite tough (believe me, I've dropped it a few times). It is a relatively easy camera to use; meaning it has enough bells & whistles, but not too many, so as to make it difficult to use. The last thing is the price, which for a digital camera, can't really be beat. For a digital camera it is very reasonably priced, user friendly, durable & easy to take care of, thus making it a good choice for the beginner photographer.
The bad: There are a few things that I would say that I'm not crazy about this camera. Most of it I've learned to anticipate & prepare for. The batteries do not seem to last very long. With the camera set at "constant on", the battery only lasts about 15- 20 min. Now, it's quite possible that I may not have done the initial charge correctly, but I certainly tried to. Because of this I have it set to shut down after 1min. of no activity to save the battery. The downside to doing this is that when you start it back up, you have to set the flash/ strobe back to auto flash or flash at every picture (it defaults to no flash when it shuts down). Also the camera seems to have a slow shutter response time. I will hit the shutter button & it can take 1- 1 1/2 seconds for the camera to actually take the picture. I have many fish "butt" shots because of this. I have since learned to set up my shot carefully &/or learn to swim quickly to get the shot.
I am not ever going to be a professional underwater photographer, but I do like to take decent vacation photos, so the camera, even with all it's little quirks,is adequate for me.
Change your settings to external flash... you will like the results