Help with DC500 - Dark pictures

[alcina]

Setting aside where you are in diving learning curve...

Do you have the external strobe or just the one that is built into the camera? 4 feet is a long ways underwater. If you have an external the first thing I would check is that it is pointing in the right direction. Very easy to have it not be...

 

[Bbarnes]

One other idea. Check your firmware on your camera. They had a couple of bugs that they have worked out that would require upgrading the firmware to the PIE.5 version. The www.sealife-cameras.com website is very helpful too. One other thing that they recommended was to take a picture of your strobe to make sure that the timing is correct. If it is you should see the flash firing in your picture. If not, you might have a problem with your sync cord or timing somewhere.

 

[CheddarChick]

I just got an email from Amy at Sealife. I asked her about my battery life, and one of the things she replied was to use this link to update your firmware:

Check the firmware version on your camera. To do this first go to the set up mode. Scroll over to custom. Scroll down to the last icon on the bottom. Underneath it should say version. The most current version is 1.07PIE5. If the version you have is different please click on the link below & follow the instructions to download the current firmware.

http://www.sealife-cameras.com/Firmware/fw_500/pie5/DC500_Firmware_Updating_Procedure.pdf

 

[Crimson Ghost]

Hello again. I had forgotten about this thread and a reminder popped up in my email I had decided not to reply originally since I view things differently and I am stubborn and confrontational…..

In a nut shell – my dark shots were due to the strobe not firing (even though my dive buddy’s claimed it to have)…..everyone was hit with the internal flash and assumed it was my strobe. In fact, the housing had leaked a tiny bit of water and Sealife has since replaced it. 5 dives later and the camera is working well for me.

As for “forgetting the camera for now” – it just won’t happen. I will say – the only challenge I encountered on my checkout dives was not using my arms to swim…..guess what the camera corrected? Yup, once I got n the water I realized I could hold it near my belly (even through its clipped to my BC) – from that first dive with it forward I no longer use my arms and my air consumption is within 200 psi of my wife. (versus arm swimming and chugging down 800+ psi more).

(note – I am diving Dutch Springs quarry until the tropics next month) anyway, I have taken pictures of dive buddy’s 10-15 feet away and the pictures come out great. I am not sure about the 4 foot limit that some people mentioned ? maybe it will work differently in the tropics with white sand reflecting my strobe?? I dunno….but I am looking forward to finding out !