| A | is outstanding and exceptional, rated in the top 10% of digital cameras. |
| B | means they are good, with some standout features. |
| C | means they are mediocre, and probably more trouble than they are worth. |
| D & F | mean they are absolutely awful or old. Avoid at all costs. |
- 3 out of 5
- 3 out of 5
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- 3 out of 5
SeaLife DC 500 - wish I knew then what I know now
(Pat Wikstrom - 9/23/06)Thought Iâd done my homework but turns out I probably should have paid a little more for another product.
The very tiny base camera has a fairly large viewing screen and takes very nice pics at up to 5 mega pixels. Several significant complaints:
1) The supplied software was not very user friendly, did a poor job of creating slide shows and couldnât accommodate incorporation of the mini-movies into the show, and had a nasty tendency to lock up my computer. Tried it on two different computers with no luck. Had to delete it from both machines.
2) As delivered the fiber-optic cable was very difficult to align causing Reefmaster strobe to fail to fire. Returned complete unit to SeaLife. They gave me an up-graded cable which seems to work fine now.
Neither of these is terrible and in fact service from mfg was very prompt. However:
3) Battery life sucks. Very tiny flat battery pack for the camera canât even make it through a standard two tank trip. Consistently ran out of juice 2/3 into the second dive. One of the most important features of digital as far as I was concerned was that Iâd get many more shots underwater and wouldnât have to open the darn housing between each dive to change rolls of film. But if Iâve got to open the back to swap battery packs itâs almost as bad. When it says youâre on low battery youâve only got three or four more shots then locked out.
4) The number of buttons youâve got to push to turn on and off the underwater strobe is ridiculous. No simple flash on/off. Youâve got to change modes from regular sea mode to sea flash mode then youâve got to choose the type of strobe mode. Very annoying since many times in the heat of the action I want to take both ambient light and strobe shots of a particular scene one after the other. Too many buttons to push and you loose the shot.
On sale from Scuba.com I spent $819 for the original kit (camera, housing, strobe, wide angle lens, cords, 256MB memory card, software, & soft case), then an additional $103 for an extra battery, charger, and second memory card. That money would have gotten me well on the way to a more robust system. I wish Iâd known then what I know now.
Mr. Pat
