Sea Life - DC500 Digital Camera

Hi All! Has anyone bought one of these yet, and if so how does it perform. I am about to switch from film to digital and have the accessories for the SL version. As the accessories are transferable I was considering saving money by buying a compatible Sea-Life camera. However, having seen some of the results from the DC310 - I am concerned that I should be looking elsewhere. Would the external strobe be compatible with any other camera? I'm sure the lenses will not be but may just have to take that one on the chin!

Kenny.

KennyR:

Hi All! Has anyone bought one of these yet, and if so how does it perform. I am about to switch from film to digital and have the accessories for the SL version. As the accessories are transferable I was considering saving money by buying a compatible Sea-Life camera. However, having seen some of the results from the DC310 - I am concerned that I should be looking elsewhere. Would the external strobe be compatible with any other camera? I'm sure the lenses will not be but may just have to take that one on the chin!

Kenny.

Click to expand...

I have that camera and find it fine. I'm no Ansel Adams and I get fairly good pics.It works fine for me but in the hands of a more competent person it would work better. It works well AW as well as UW. Be sure to get the camera weight if you get the strobe because it will make you a bit buoyant if it's not weighted. One good thing is that you never have to grease the O ring in the camera and they last a long ,long time, years I'm told. I don't have any extra lens for it yet, which will be my next purchase.

KennyR:

Hi All! Has anyone bought one of these yet, and if so how does it perform. I am about to switch from film to digital and have the accessories for the SL version. As the accessories are transferable I was considering saving money by buying a compatible Sea-Life camera. However, having seen some of the results from the DC310 - I am concerned that I should be looking elsewhere. Would the external strobe be compatible with any other camera? I'm sure the lenses will not be but may just have to take that one on the chin!

Kenny.

Click to expand...

This camera is nothing like the 310.. as it is auto focus, optical zoom etc. And as far as lenses, the only one you would use is the wide angle, the new camera has built in macro capabilities down to a few inches with no external lenses needed.

For the strobe, it will ony work on other cameras, if you can disable the pre flash on other digitals... the sea life does that automatically if you switch it to external flash mode. The new Digital Strobe has the ability to skip the pre flash of normal digitals, and has the added benefit of a dial on the back to turn down the output if shooting macro shots.

If for some reason though you want to avoid the sea life, Sea & Sea has a camera shipping in about 3 weeks that is a 5 megapixel at will come in at the same price - $499 - (before any SB discount). They are supposed to arrive Nov 15 in the stores.

scubatoys:

This camera is nothing like the 310.. as it is auto focus, optical zoom etc. And as far as lenses, the only one you would use is the wide angle, the new camera has built in macro capabilities down to a few inches with no external lenses needed.

For the strobe, it will ony work on other cameras, if you can disable the pre flash on other digitals... the sea life does that automatically if you switch it to external flash mode. The new Digital Strobe has the ability to skip the pre flash of normal digitals, and has the added benefit of a dial on the back to turn down the output if shooting macro shots.

If for some reason though you want to avoid the sea life, Sea & Sea has a camera shipping in about 3 weeks that is a 5 megapixel at will come in at the same price - $499 - (before any SB discount). They are supposed to arrive Nov 15 in the stores.

Click to expand...

Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I have the DC 300, not the 500. Forget anything I said and listen to ScubaToys, who is a lot more accurate than me. Sorry.

Hi All

I am new here. I am a DM and have been using a Reefmaster RC Pro Set for about 6 years. Great camera. It is very forgiving and it make a great point and shoot with out the flash. I am now looking at going digital.

Digital is not new to me, I have used various digital cameras from simple 3MP Sony’s to Nikons D70 SLR. So we can talk about settings latter. What I am looking for is a replacement to the Reefmaster RC. Now as we know tacking pictures underwater has its own problem, special when on a social dive where shots are not planed and there is very little time. This is where I found the RC very forgiving. Point, shoot and pray, but most shoots came out very well.

So comments! Is a DC500 setup better for general use? Or is a Sony W7 in a Sony or Ikelite case the way to go? Does the DC500 do it any better than a normal digital camera? Looking at the specs the DC500 limits the shutter speed to 1/60 in underwater mode. Fine makes sense. Try holding a camera still on land much slower. But I have not seen any min speed settings on any other digital camera. Yes they have manual modes, but I want a point and shoot most of the time.

RE Jason

I have had the DC500 for a month or so.
I can't speak as to how it compares to any other UW cameras
but I can give my impressions of using it.

One of the things I really like about it is its physical size.
Out of the housing it makes a very compact point shoot camera
that fits in your pants pocket. It is the size of a deck of playing cards.
In the water it fits nicely in the pocket of my Brigade BC.
(No extra strobes obviously)

Underwater it was not as easy to use as I had thought.
Now that I'm used it, and all the icons, its not too difficult.
The main problem that I had was telling when a picture
was actually taken. There is a "preview" mode which I highly
recommend. In this mode, you get a prompt after you take
a picture and can delete the image by pushing the shutter
button again. In this mode, it is truly point and shoot.
The only buttons you will need are power and shutter and
you can delete images you don't like as you go.

All of my underwater shooting was at Clear Springs Scuba Park
(Texas Lake) on 2 diving days and I think in better visibility it
would make things simpler/easier. I'm also a very new
diver that has never taken pictures underwater so that may have
also contributed to my initial difficulties.

I was worried about bouyancy. I can't speak about salt water
but in fresh water it is barely negative almost neutral.
I think they said it will be slightly positive in Salt.

Built in Macro capability as well as optical zoom lens for
extreme closeups.

I also love the ability to record videos with sound. With the
mpeg compression they claim you can get 30 mins of 640x480 video
or 2 hours 320x240 on a 512MB card. And the camera will take
larger cards!

Comes with a small docking station to charge and connect a USB
connection to your PC.

On the not so good side:
There is a noticeable lag on the shutter after pushing the button.
"Shark" mode removes most of this, by locking in the focus
and allowing quicker pictures.

The mode buttons on the back of the housing are small
and quite close together and if you have gloves on, its pretty
darn tough to push the buttons.
(Shutter, power. zoom buttons are no problem)

No optical view finder. Just takes getting used to. But
the only way to shoot pictures is with the LCD. In bright
sunlight on land, you cannot see the display which makes
taking pictures VERY difficult. Preview mode helps you see
what you took.

It uses a custom battery that can only be charged using
the camera. i.e. You cannot charge your spare batteries in
your room, while you are out using the camera.
To charge the battery you put the camera into the docking
station and it charges the battery inside the camera.

Just noticed today 10-27-05 that Larry is carrying spare batteries.
Prior to this, I had contacted SeaLife and no spares were available.
Supplies of spares may be limited for a while.

Picture quality gets grainy when light level is low.
This may be due to some of the exposure modes set by using
underwater mode. I wish I had tried taking some pictures
in "auto" mode to see what the difference looked like.

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Anyway, hope that helps.

--- Bill