Shooting Video with my DC500: Better than on my Canon

[DandyDon]

I'm not sure what your Canon uses, but the new DC800 can take an SD card up to 4GB and has a 1250mAh battery so you should be able to get plenty of video.
Thanks! Maybe I didn't mention it here, we discussed it some on a thread on your Manufacture forum, but my Canon A540 and my Sealife DC500 both have a 2 Gb card limit. I bought a 4 Gb card not realizing that cameras had limits and neither will recognize it. Then I learned about HC: High Capacity cards. Walmart.com advertises several of them without any warning but many dissatisfied customer comments.

It would be nice if manuals stated the card limits; neither seem to. Your manual for the DC500 just suggests a 512 Mb card.
We have some videos taken with the DC500, DC600, and DC800 up in our video gallery for anyone interested in taking a look: SeaLife Underwater Cameras

I have a z85 Digital video camera. 60 min. DVI tapes... It usually takes hours of underwater video to get 3 minutes of video that I want to show... lol

Ah, ok, TY.

 

[Former Sealife Employee]

It would be nice if manuals stated the card limits; neither seem to. Your manual for the DC500 just suggests a 512 Mb card.

We list what SD/SDHC cards the camera will support under the specifications.

 

[prskate2]

CoolTech: Your going to mount a light on your strobe for video? Is that what you said?

That is what I was thinking to do since you can't use the strobe for video. I think I am going to get a small powerful LED light. Tell me which one your going to get. If you test it make sure to tell me.

 

[DandyDon]

We list what SD/SDHC cards the camera will support under the specifications.

I am glad you are posting here and offer this not to be argumentative but just informative. Specs from SeaLife Cameras - Underwater Cameras and Accessories

1. DC500: Memory: Internal: 10MB NAND flash memory; External: SD card up to 512mb (and MMC card support) but we know it will accept up to 2 gb
2. Dc600: Memory: Internal: 10MB NAND flash memory; External: SD card up to 1gb
3. DC800: Memory: Internal: 32MB (TBD pictures); External: 4GB SD and SDHC card good to see but is that really the limit?

thanks!

CoolTech: Your going to mount a light on your strobe for video? Is that what you said?

That is what I was thinking to do since you can't use the strobe for video. I think I am going to get a small powerful LED light. Tell me which one your going to get. If you test it make sure to tell me.

That would just give a hot-spot, wouldn't? I would like to know what he is mounting.

 

[prskate2]

That would just give a hot-spot, wouldn't? I would like to know what he is mounting.

It depends on the light, some lights have less hot spots than others. I went to my local dive shop the other day and he was showing me some lights. I noticed that LED lights have a more natural color and less of a hotspot. The more powerful the LED the less of a hotspot was what it seemed like.

 

[Former Sealife Employee]

I am glad you are posting here and offer this not to be argumentative but just informative. Specs from SeaLife Cameras - Underwater Cameras and Accessories

1. DC500: Memory: Internal: 10MB NAND flash memory; External: SD card up to 512mb (and MMC card support) but we know it will accept up to 2 gb
2. Dc600: Memory: Internal: 10MB NAND flash memory; External: SD card up to 1gb
3. DC800: Memory: Internal: 32MB (TBD pictures); External: 4GB SD and SDHC card good to see but is that really the limit?

thanks!


That would just give a hot-spot, wouldn't? I would like to know what he is mounting.

Those are the recommendations from SeaLife. We know there to be no problems with using the suggested SD/SDHC sizes. Yes, it's true that many people use larger cards without problems, but these are just recommendations from us based on our testing.

 

[DandyDon]

Ok, to recap - I said...

Originally Posted by DandyDon View Post
It would be nice if manuals stated the card limits (not suggestions); neither seem to. Your manual for the DC500 just suggests a 512 Mb card.

To which you said...

We list what SD/SDHC cards the camera will support under the specifications.

So I listed those specs - which are incorrect in the up to area; you rephrased to....

Those are the recommendations from SeaLife. We know there to be no problems with using the suggested SD/SDHC sizes. Yes, it's true that many people use larger cards without problems, but these are just recommendations from us based on our testing.

Ok TY

 

[Former Sealife Employee]

The reason we put suggestions as opposed to limits is because the card size we recommend is the card size the camera was originally tested with during the R&D phase of development. The size we suggest is what we can guarantee will work, because it has been tested.

Does this answer your question better?

 

[DandyDon]

The reason we put suggestions as opposed to limits is because the card size we recommend is the card size the camera was originally tested with during the R&D phase of development. The size we suggest is what we can guarantee will work, because it has been tested.

Does this answer your question better?

That's fine. My post that you'd replied to was: " It would be nice if manuals stated the card limits; neither seem to. Your manual for the DC500 just suggests a 512 Mb card." And the specs for the DC600 say up to 1 gb, but I'm sure that's not the limit.

 

[24940]

I switched to a 1GB card and had intermittent freezes until I updated the firmware. The real limitation of the camera is the battery life. 45 minutes of video is a stretch for a single charge.

Sample vids: