The DC600 - My Worst Mistake Ever

[Fish Food]

Is this normal?

So far this wonderful camera has worked during LESS dives than has not. When I first got the camera I would assemble the camera the night before the dive. Usually when i got into the water, Id discover the battery had one bar left...

Okay, Ill just assemble it RIGHT before the dive. ID STILL FIND THE BATTER WITH ONE BAR!

Okay, I must have a charger problem, right? The indicator light on the charger would turn green, but if I shuffled the battery around in the charger it'd turn red again. No problem, atleast now Im getting full charges!

However, Id STILL have one bar left when I stuck the battery in the camera! Then I discovered that if I put pressure on the battery while inside the camera, the camera would display full battery! GREAT! Ill just ball up a peice of batter to put between the camera and the battery door! THis worked for a while untill...

Now I cant get the battery to charge for more than a few minutes. THe camera hates it and never displays full charge. So, my next step is to clean the battery contacts. One bottle of contact cleaner and on que tip later my battery is working great! WOOHOO! Only one problem...

It doesn't last long. And eventually cleaning the contacts does nothing.

Which is where Im at now... I have a camera that I can get a few pictures per dive with, if I get ANY!

So, I emailed Sealife and was promised a new battery and charger... It never came. I emailed them again... no response. I can't find a phone number to call.

I paid $700 for a system that Ive gotten only a handfull of photos with.


Okay, rant over...
I guess I'll just order a new battery from ScubaToys and go from there? Is this normal for a DC600? Ive heard people complain of poor battery life, but surely they didn't mean this poor?

 

[prskate2]

Contact Sealife Denise. She is the Sealife Rep for this forum. She will get you sorted out. People have complained about DC600 battery life. But nothing like this has happened before. I am sure if the camera is still under warranty, Denise can sort you out.

 

[fmw625]

I got a DC600 for Christmas 2006. Battery life sucks. My wife's olympus camera carries the same battery and she gets hours of film time on one charge probably over 200 pics. I do good to get thru 1 dive with any charge left. The battery seems to be undersized for the load that the camera puts on it. Recently I have seen replacement batteries advertized with 1000 mahr rating which would be better than the 750 mahr battery that came with the camera.

 

[FireDiver443]

I guess I'm feeling pretty good about my batteries. I can usually get 3 dives out of a battery and I'm shooting lots of pictures. I purchased 2 so I always have a charged back-up as well, but I hate taking my camera out of the housing on the boat to change them; I'm always nervous I'm going to wind up flooding my camera.

I agree with PRSkate2: Contact Denise.

 

[prskate2]

It is also not great to get a ton of humidity in the camera when you open it up on the boat.

 

[Fish Food]

Thanks for the advice yall. I shot Denise a PM.

I just stuck the battery in the camera... It wouldn't even come on. So I put it in the charger... Light stays green. hahaha

EDIT:

Oh, and to be fair, because I hate internet slander. When the camera did work it was a good camera!

 

[divengolf]

Sounds familiar. I bought one of the first DC500s. Huge battery problems, could not get through a dive without the battery going dead. Contacted Pioneer (Mgfr). After a few calls, I sent the entire unit back to them for testing.

They replaced my 650 mAh batteries with 750s and the problem disappeared. During the process, I also set my sleep mode to 30 seconds and the shutdown to 3 minutes. Problem disappeared. But I carry four batteries and change after every dive. I don't charge the batteries in the camera; I bought the separate charge adapter. That way I can charge one battery while diving another on liveaboards.


Pioneer was excellent in dealing with this problem. Hopefully they will do the same for you.

I'm considering buying a DC800, 'cause the 500 takes excellent pictures when it works. Had to add a focus light for macro stuff. Closeup focus isn't that good.

Good luck.

 

[uspap]

Not sure if this helps but did you put a full charge on the battery before you used the camera. Sometimes they will "remember" the first charge and only go that far.

 

[prskate2]

Oh yeah. I didn't even think of that. That could be one of the problems.

 

[Fish Food]

Denise was great. Thanks Denise! She got me an RMA so I could ship it back and get it checked out.

Yep. I fully charged it before my first use. And it worked well for the first couple of dives but quickly got sour. Hopefully the Pioneer techs can find the issue.