Show us your SeaLife shots!

[alcina]

There are so many people looking for a new system and these cameras always seem to get mentioned. They also seem to cause a bit of excitement with pro and con camps!

Images from these cameras are not well-represented here on SB as yet, so this is a thread for those of you who shoot (or have shot) them to post your images to help out future shoppers! So please post as many as you can - if you were using the gallery here on SB, unfortunately you will have to upload into photobucket or something...I apologise for being a pain, but would love to see what you've got.

Please include the model and any external strobes or lenses

Bring 'em on!

 

[mattroz]

Here are some with the sealife 310 with one strobe and no lenses
taken in Cozumel in June 06

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

DC310 that I was borrowing pretty regularly before I bought an Olympus.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Wow. mattroz and bugman, those are very clear shots!

 

[mattroz]

good enough anyway till I can save enough for a housing for my nikon...

 

[alcina]

Looking good! C'mon, let's see some others - I know there are more users out there!

 

[RichKirby]

Okay, this was my first time ever diving with a camera. I shot it on full auto with the internal flash (no strobe). I didn't adjust the white balance until the third day of diving or so when a more experienced u/w photographer (which pretty much meant anyone else on board with a camera) explained the importance of doing so. I am not experienced with photo editing software (beyond the basics), so most of these photos were only edited using the "auto correct" feature. Vis was usually pretty dismal at 30-40 ft. They were taken on the Pacific side of Costa Rica. Oh, I was using a DC500:

 

[RichKirby]

A few more:

 

[trigfunctions]

Great shots folks! I have the DC500 and I am frustrated because a lot of my shots are out of focus. I will take 5 or 6 pics of something and when I look at them later I see that none of them are sharp and in focus.
Is there a trick that I am overlooking? I am not using an external strobe most of the time - that probably keeps the shutter open longer and may be a contributing factor.
Thanks, trig

 

[micahjt]

Here are some shots with a SeaLife DC310 with a single strobe. Notice the color problems with the cyan and pink. The cyan is from lack of white balance. The camera has no option for manual white balance. The pink is blown out with light from strobe.The DC310's firmware tries to compensate for color when it interprets something as white. The camera doesn't know what to do with the brite white so it turns it pink, cyan or green. A major flaw with this camera in my opinion. When I called SeaLife to ask for advice I was told to shoot my underwater shots in land mode (?) I kid you not. Another problem, the SeaLife strobe dumps full power with every shot so a diffuser is required or the problem of blown out photos happens 90% of the time. You'll notice anyone posting a shot with the DC310 will more than likely have some degree of problems with color in their shots, I've also seen this in the DC500 to a lesser degree. The DC500 was an improvement but it still lags far behind what other manufacturers are coming out with. The SeaLife digital strobe was an improvement in that you can adjust the output to some degree but there have been many problems with the stobes not firing. It still isn't much better than a flashlight. I did own the DC500 for about two days before I returned it. At the time there was sooo much bad publicity and apparent problems that I didn't even take it out of the box. With all that said, yes I do have some nice shots taken with the Sealife cameras but they are far and few between.
I would suggest purchasing a nice point and shoot camera in an Ikelite or proprietary housing and then add a strobe after you get comforatable with the camera. For the price of a DC500 you can get a really nice camera and housing. Decent strobes are pretty expensive but you can find something adequate at a decent price and still be light years ahead of the SeaLife products. Don't fall for the "beginners camera" or "cheap but sturdy" hooey nonsense, buy the best that you can afford and you'll more than likely be happy with your purchase. As far as SeaLief being a good beginers camera I'd say that is flat out wrong, there are so many problems to overcome and the frustration level is so high that it really does nothing to teach you about the basic concepts of underwater photography....in fact it is a good way to lose interest quick.

These shots were taken with a FUJI E900, first time out with the camera. Getting the right equipment made all the difference for me. I would recommed the Fuji but I know there are some other nice brands and models out there if one wants to do the research. The Fuji E900 can be purached for ~$295 (it makes for a great land camera too) and an Ikelite housing for it is ~$300. It's hard to beat 9.0 MEGA PIXELS at ~$295!!! Did I forget to mention the video on this camera is great too.