Sea Life DC500

[scubabear6]

Anybody have any comments on this camera? Good , Bad, Ugly? I'm just looking for a decent underwater Digital Camera. I'm not a expert photog and don't plan to be. I only need this camera for diving as I have a OlyC-60 for land use as well as a Pentax K1000.

 

[Cecil]

Why don't you just get a UW housing for the C60 (it needs an Olympus PT-24 housing). That will take much much better pictures than that POS DC500 and be cheaper too. I have yet to see any decent pictures with a DC500 (and I have looked), on the other hand I have seen many good pictures with the C60. YMMV.

 

[Nomad]

I did a couple of dives with it in Key Largo last November. I liked it so much that I started saving all my pennies. Last week I bought the DC 500 Pro kit.

I am very happy with my purchase.

With that said, there are a couple of limitations...

The internal harddrive for the camera is 10 MB. As a result, you will need to buy an SD Memory card. SeaLife recommends getting a 512 MB card. They recommend SanDisk, Panasonic, or Toshiba.

Battery life seems to last about 1.5 dives. (90 minutes). Although I am sure that there are things you can do to extend battery life, I recommend getting a second battery w/ external recharger so that you can recharge both batteries at the same time.

Pictures cannot be saved in RAW format. TIFF is the highest quality available.

I recommend that you try to rent one and see if you like it before you make the commitment.

 

[rboyer]

Thats right on the SD cards...however DO NOT buy a card bigger than 512mb. They will not work in the camera. I bought a 1gb card and no dice. Stick w/ the 512's and a spare battery w/ a charger and you will love this camera!

 

[Tiefseetaucher]

I bought the DC500 and it died on my first dive it just stopped doing anything. I also didn't like the picture quality. My friend bought that camera too and it drowned on his first dive. I can not recommend that camera. I returned it and got me the Canon A620 which I really like. My friend got an olympus.

 

[dbg40]

I have one, but have only used it a fiew times. Cameras and gadgets are NOT my friend and I wanted a plain old point and shoot camera that would'nt piss me off right away. It takes good pictures, but the buttons are a little small with gloves on, and it would be a benefit to have another battery. It was'nt too expensive, and is pretty simple to use.

 

[ffestpirate]

We have one and love it.

 

[Divers Direct]

We have sold a number of the 500's since their intro last year and our customers are happy with them overall.

A good memory card is a must obviously and usually Walmart or Best Buy will have a good selection for you with good prices.

If your diving numerous times in a day, e.g. liveaboard diving, live on the water etc. I would recommend an extra battery.

Easy to use with a couple of different configurations, prepackaged with one strobe, two strobes, no strobe if you have one already, overall a very good camera.

http://www.diversdirect.com/item/Sealife DC 500 Digital Camera_ID42747

http://www.diversdirect.com/item/Sealife DC 500 Digital Pro Set_ID42996

Enjoy!

 

[ALAN243]

I have a DC500 Elite Set brand new for sale contact me

 

[NYPI]

Anybody have any comments on this camera? Good , Bad, Ugly? I'm just looking for a decent underwater Digital Camera. I'm not a expert photog and don't plan to be. I only need this camera for diving as I have a OlyC-60 for land use as well as a Pentax K1000.

No expert...but I do have this camera and lots of others. (It comes with my profession)

The Good: Nice small package, very sturdy uw housing, good quality pic in and out of the water, expandable memory, good button placement/easily changable settings in and out of housing without gloves. Lots of different user modes and no need to read a book to work it.

The Bad: proprietary batt. , camera must recharge on docking station. (More stuff to carry) Button placement is too tight to change settings with gloves on.

The Ugly: batt. life, batt. life and batt. life need I say more...

IMHO nice package, but you will need to purchase these extras items:

2 spare batt. (Be prepared to change after each dive)
1 travel charger
2 512mb High-Speed SD cards (generic SD cards slow down write speed and in turn slow the camera down a lot)

This is a great camera for vacation/diving in warm water and it's easy to transport in carry-on. It is NOT a camera I use when diving in my area NE NY area.

If you would like to see pictures taken with this camera UW and on land check my photos.

‘Mike