Full Review
On our recent visit to Discovery Cove in Orlando Florida, home to many dolphins, sting rays and other wild sea life, we had majesty among us. Right before our trip, we were given a beautiful gift from my mom, an underwater camera, the SEA AND SEA DX-750G, that she had bought for her last vacation, and felt she no longer had use for. We already have several digital cameras, and were taking two of them with us instead of buying more memory cards for them, but we did not want to get them wet or ruin them, as we were also going to Sea World, right in the splash zone of Shamu the Whale. So, we had one extra camera that would allow us to snap underwater pictures, take video equipped with 5 megapixels. Normally, for underwater features, we buy the throw away cameras, but I am so glad we accepted this and saved our money, and got 5 times the pictures we would have got with pictures that needed to be developed afterwards.
The camera itself is very lightweight, so it is easy to swim with and hold still while you are capturing your target. It had a hand strap as well to keep it easy on our already-full hands. My husband was better at using this underwater than I was, just because I have never been great at doing ANYTHING underwater other than swimming! It is easy to fumble over buttons and you can not see the screen very well with water in your eyes. The camera is protected by a waterproof case that is removable if you want to use it outside of the water. All you need are 2 AA batteries and you are ready to go! They don't last very long, about a day or two depending on how often you have the camera on and running. It eats batteries, but I am used to that! It has a 10 second self timer if you are trying to get the family picture in! It includes red-eye reduction, and the white balance modes include: auto - daylight - cloudy - fluorescent - custom and sunset.
OUR EXPERIENCE UNDER THE SEA
The LCD screen is 2.0 inches, very bright and easy to see. Complete with a 3x zoom lens you can shoot stills at up to 150 feet. Before we headed to Orlando, we visited some old friends in the Fort Lauderdale area, and we were in the ocean, and while we were not that deep out into it, we were able to get stunning photos of fish and other plant life that were nowhere near us. The outer casing has a tight grip that does not slip from your hands once you start diving or swimming. The pictures, once you upload them are just stunning.
It is hard to see with the small screen, but once they are in your system, you will see all of the vibrant colors and crisp, breathtaking details. We are very happy with this camera, that you can see things through the water, even with seaweed in the still. If you are recording, there are 7 megapixels complete with audio at a 640 x 480 resolution and approximately 24 frames each second as you move about.
Obviously, it is hard to see anything underwater, even with goggles, so it is best to try and keep your modes simple, and have the internal flash diffuser on in case you are able to get in the deep end where there is no sunlight shining down into the water. This is also great if you are on water rides, like Jurassic Park River Adventure, or any waterfall cave that you are trying to get snapshots of. It has a hood over the LCD screen in case you are out in the sun, or somewhere that the reflective light is not allowing you to see the screen. With some of our other cameras that do not have this feature, I have taken some pretty bad/lopsided pictures because of that very reason.
GO THE DISTANCE
The 3x zoom shoots photos from a wide angle stance and can get as close as 4 inches from the photo subject. The shutter time is not very fast when underwater, and it does take some practice as to not fumble. You can switch it to telephoto, and it has several modes that you can change to pending the light, if you are outside or inside to determine where you want it. It comes with nine different photo frames as well for any picture you take that you can frame and print right from the camera. It allows you to delete any picture that you choose to not keep
It has a built in memory that holds 16 MB in case you don't have a memory card or the card is full at the time. We haven't used up all of our photo space yet because it was not the only camera we used on our 10 day trip. Once we got home, we used the USB cable that came with it, and while we did not print out the pictures, I did want to mention that if you have PictBridge, it is compatible. It works with Windows 98/2000/XP and equal.
This camera did not let us down once, it was smooth sailing from under the sea to walking down the beach with the salty waves crashing up on us, spraying us and the camera. We got really great photos at the whale show, the dolphin interaction, walking through the shark encounter. It takes great pictures, even when in a dark room, and brought things that seemed out of our reach up close to our very eyes.
WHO IS THIS GOOD FOR?
This is everything you want in a camera and more. No, it is not a Canon or Olympus, but it does the job, it stays water resistant, the pictures are very sharp and full of details you did not catch with the naked eye. It is durable, and can withstand rain, sun, sand and surf. I am in awe. Now, if you want to know if this camera is the right one for you? Do you match the description below?
* Folks on vacation, who are swimming, snorkeling or diving
* Professional divers
* Professional photographers
* Surfers
* Fishermen
* Families at the beach
* Scuba divers
* On vacation at a water park or with water rides and don't want to ruin your expensive camera/camcorder?
Our pictures turned out great, and I used it when we got home and the kids jumped in the pool for the last time this season before I take it down, and I really am amazed at how the clarity, despite the aquatic interference, turned out.
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