Anyone heard of this camera???
- Thread starter Bflem55
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parrothead600
Contributor
I have seen them on the web. Looks like a pretty good deal when you figure it's a 6mp camera for $250. I have been searching the net looking for comments about this camera, but I've come up empty. If I happen to find anything, I'll let you know.
I figured that, for the price, it was worth checking out. I will take it diving with me this coming Sunday and will post the results.
realdiver7
Contributor
Intova 6 mp camera.
Be afraid...be very afraid!
I bought one last week, practiced with it for 30 minutes at home, and sent it back the very next day. The company I bought it from can't keep them in stock because they are cheap and sell so fast. They said they never had any problems with them, and never had any returned, but I had a bad experience. Problems I had:
1. LCD display showed a large dark area at the left and left bottom of every picture when the camera was used in wide angle mode with the underwater housing.
2. Shutter lag time was VERY slow. When the trigger is pressed, the camera focuses first, and then the shutter opens and closes. The process is way too slow. This happened even in the "Sports" mode that is used to photograph moving objects (like fish).
3. LCD display was not clear, looked "fuzzy," and had a slow lag time catching up with the scenery as the camera was moved.
4. Camera locked up (froze) using the internal memory in the "Sports" mode, and the display went to a blank blue screen. Could not unlock the camera until after removing the batteries.
This is a classic case of you get what you pay for, and I got an instructor discount, but still returned it. Your experience may be better than mine; I could have gotten a lemon, but buy at your own risk.
Be afraid...be very afraid!
I bought one last week, practiced with it for 30 minutes at home, and sent it back the very next day. The company I bought it from can't keep them in stock because they are cheap and sell so fast. They said they never had any problems with them, and never had any returned, but I had a bad experience. Problems I had:
1. LCD display showed a large dark area at the left and left bottom of every picture when the camera was used in wide angle mode with the underwater housing.
2. Shutter lag time was VERY slow. When the trigger is pressed, the camera focuses first, and then the shutter opens and closes. The process is way too slow. This happened even in the "Sports" mode that is used to photograph moving objects (like fish).
3. LCD display was not clear, looked "fuzzy," and had a slow lag time catching up with the scenery as the camera was moved.
4. Camera locked up (froze) using the internal memory in the "Sports" mode, and the display went to a blank blue screen. Could not unlock the camera until after removing the batteries.
This is a classic case of you get what you pay for, and I got an instructor discount, but still returned it. Your experience may be better than mine; I could have gotten a lemon, but buy at your own risk.
I tested mine over the past few weeks and did not have any of the problemsthat realdiver7 had aside from the lagging shutter response. I did, however, have a few problems of my own.
1. SLOW SHUTTER - It is tough to capture anything that wont hold still for you. There is a lag of a good 2 seconds. With some patience, you can get decent shots.
2. POOR LOCKING MECHANISM - The locking mechanism that prevents the seal from being opened is just a very small piece of plastic. I asked my wife to open the camera to get the camera out to get a picture of this squirrel that was eating from my hand (cute, eh?), and with next to zero effort, she managed to snap the lock off. This was before I even got the dang thing wet.
I managed to rig a fix for this with a little work, and I know that this problem can be avoided so long as you are careful, but I would think that the lock could have been designed a little better.
3. POOR PHOTO QUALITY - This is a 6 megapixel camera, so I figured that the quality would be better than my 5.2 mp digital camera. The pictures are all very rough, which I initially attributed to the housing, but the same problem exists when pictures are taken on land without the housing.
4. BATTERY LIFE - I end up chaning AA batteries before each dive. They could probably last 2-3 dives, but I drained the batteries completely just screwing around with the thing on the way home from the dive shop, so I figure that its better to buy more batteries than to miss a good shot.
.....So, with all of these problems, why would you ever want to buy this camera? The simple answer would be the price. I just finally bought all of my dive gear and there was no way I would be able to afford a good camera setup right now, and having a somewhat ****ty camera is much better than no camera at all. I eventually plan on getting a kickass setup, but until that happens, at least I have something to put on our website.
I have enclosed some shots we got while doing a local shore dive. Vis was really low, but I hope that this gives you all a decent overview.
1. SLOW SHUTTER - It is tough to capture anything that wont hold still for you. There is a lag of a good 2 seconds. With some patience, you can get decent shots.
2. POOR LOCKING MECHANISM - The locking mechanism that prevents the seal from being opened is just a very small piece of plastic. I asked my wife to open the camera to get the camera out to get a picture of this squirrel that was eating from my hand (cute, eh?), and with next to zero effort, she managed to snap the lock off. This was before I even got the dang thing wet.
I managed to rig a fix for this with a little work, and I know that this problem can be avoided so long as you are careful, but I would think that the lock could have been designed a little better.
3. POOR PHOTO QUALITY - This is a 6 megapixel camera, so I figured that the quality would be better than my 5.2 mp digital camera. The pictures are all very rough, which I initially attributed to the housing, but the same problem exists when pictures are taken on land without the housing.
4. BATTERY LIFE - I end up chaning AA batteries before each dive. They could probably last 2-3 dives, but I drained the batteries completely just screwing around with the thing on the way home from the dive shop, so I figure that its better to buy more batteries than to miss a good shot.
.....So, with all of these problems, why would you ever want to buy this camera? The simple answer would be the price. I just finally bought all of my dive gear and there was no way I would be able to afford a good camera setup right now, and having a somewhat ****ty camera is much better than no camera at all. I eventually plan on getting a kickass setup, but until that happens, at least I have something to put on our website.
I have enclosed some shots we got while doing a local shore dive. Vis was really low, but I hope that this gives you all a decent overview.
Is the $250 just for the camera? Or for the whole set-up.
If so, then this definitely wouldn't make my extremely limited budget short list as there are far better cameras out there for around that. They may or may not be 6MP, but MP is a marketing tool for the most part and doesn't always have a lot to do with how good the camera is.
If so, then this definitely wouldn't make my extremely limited budget short list as there are far better cameras out there for around that. They may or may not be 6MP, but MP is a marketing tool for the most part and doesn't always have a lot to do with how good the camera is.
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