Vivitar 6200w *almost* == Reefmaster Mini?

While doing some casual browsing of digital point and shoots today, I noticed that the Vivitar 6200W sure looks a heck of a lot like the SeaLife ReefMaster Mini.

From what I've seen in other threads, Vivitar actually makes the Sealife cameras, so this is not surprising.

The 6200w though is only rated to 30' underwater, while the Reefmaster Mini goes deeper.

(Other than the color) Is there some actual difference in the housings here, or is this marketechture at work? Maybe Vivitar isn't allowed to market a "deep" camera per contact with Sealife, or maybe they just don't want to deal with the warranty issues? It seems to be a bit cheaper than the Sealife -- Target wants $119 for the Vivitar, while the Reefmaster seem to be around the $250 mark. Can these housings seal without a camera in them to permit a low-risk depth/pressure test? (Sorry, $119 is a little out of my "what the hell, try it" range).

Just thinking... (that's where I get in trouble).

--travis

My girl friend pick up one a week ago and we are taking it to the keys to give it complete " destructive testing" I will post picks when we get back.

Cool! Let us know how it turns out. That is indeed in the "give it a shot" dollar range. Wonder if Target will accept a return if it's drips now and then?

Well the camera and I made it back in one peice and I will be posting some pics in the next couple days.

I was only able to make it to one 50ft dive but the camera hend up fine. I did lose a set of pictures at that depth due my stupidy with my laptop at the time but have 3 short videos and pics form 5ft to 20 ft.

first impresion.

Its a camera and takes pictures.

I had not failures except due to me , not the camrera. The strap they send is the same one as the mini, a peice of junk. Before I left I ran a peice of stainless steel braided cable through the hole in the camera and use a crimp to secrure it.

It stayed water tight, as long as you take the time to close the door properly and latch it I dont see were a flooding issue could happen.


Of course like any new toy play with it before you go diving as you have to scroll through options to change things, a pain in the but if your trying to learn this underwater.


I did not use the software that came with it, I have enough stuff on my desk top now.
Just plug it into the USB with the supplied cable , turn on the camera, selecty PC from the camera viewer and down load like any storage device . Simple

The strobe is okay ( it works) but like any camera underwater a add on stobe would make a big inprovement.

Very cool! Sounds like it might be worthwhile to acquire one of these. Thanks for the review!

Hope these work. These are "as taken", with no tweeking. These were also take at shallow depths close to the surf zone so vis was not great.

My intention was to show how some NOVICE pics would turn out. No upplay like a dealer would use ( piking only the best pics and tweeking them) With more time time Im sure the results would get better.



This is a short video, I wasnt sure how much space I had left so I made 3 -30 second videos ( turns out I had plenty of room on the 1 gig card)

Its a simple stick it in the water turn it on and start taping. This is the poorest out of the 3. I was moving, they were moving.




Surface, put it in auto and took a pic.



again put it in auto ( did not have it set for underwater") Pic at about 15 ft.



These guys were moving pretty fast so I wanted to see what would happen.



looking down at mr baracuda...



attempt at color, remeber this was in auto , not underwater mode at about 10 ft.




Overall not bad for $110. Sure you may not win any magaizine contracts but to get a taste at playing underwater or just getting some pics to show off at work its not bad. The shutter reaction tends to be a little slow so fast moving stuff gets out of the viewer pretty quick but if you track them it tends to work okay.

On the surface its just a point and click, it has a 4 power digital zoom which isnt that great ( like all digital zooms) but its prevents you from having to drag two cameras along for a dive and who needs zoom under water.

I plan on playing with it more and trying to use it options ( underwater mode etc) in the future.

As for MINI vs 6200 .

They seem to be selling to the same market. Amature / begining photography. I have not used the MINI but looking at one at the store it seems like the same camera ( I was not able to scroll threw the mini menus though so there may be some differance, who knows)

Will the 6200 hold up to the depth rating of the mini? I took it to 50 ft and had no problems. If you plan on taking pic deeper then that I would assume you would want a proffesional rig with a big stobe anyway.

$110 vs $250

I dont think you will get twice the camera for twice the price.


For me.

As was happy with the purchase. It nice for what its designed to do, I was going to take it deep and see when it would imploded but decided I want to keep it as a nice little camera for beach, water sports and shallow diving / trips were I dont want to lug a bunch of stuff.

We have had this camera for about 2 years now. My daughter uses it primarily. We have had it on about 20+ dives. Some to 80 FSW. It has never leaked. Pictures are really pretty good once cleaned up on the PC. If you work within its limits (fixed focus, weak flash) it will return pictures as good as my Nikon 5400. Try the manual white balance (yes it has that) and you will be very impressed for the price. It is the same camera mechanically as the Seal LIfe clone but without the Sea Life firmware. Movie mode is OK too. A little trickey to set it up with an external flash but maybe someone smarter than me could do it. Also not pressure tested as is the Sea Life but so what. Do not get the 8 MP version, it is a totally diferent (and to me cheaper) body. Someone here at my office got one and it leaked snorkeling. For $100.00 it is an excellent value, even as a backup for your "good" dive camera. If I was brave I would try to load the Sea Life firmware on it. Then it would have the Sea Life external flash mode!

Here is a recent Vivitar 6200W example

anybody have the b_ lls to download the reefmaster firmware to the 6200W?

I loaded the DC500 firmware to a Vivitar replacement for my stolen DC500. It was fine...No problems at all...Been 2+ years now....