With the age of digital imaging, nearly every (shallow water) diver can be involved with underwater photography. This spin is of a true beginner camera outfit. The Chinese made, Svp Acqua digital outfit includes the camera system and waterproof case for under 0. There are certain limitations and we'll cover them in this review.
Don't expect professional results with this camera, but you'll be surprisingly pleased with the versatility this petite covenant outfit provides. With all the features you'd expect to find in favorite brand 'point and shoot' cameras, this covenant system will unmistakably fit into your Bcd pocket. The specifications are listed after our spin comments. Since the facility marketing brochure supplied these, we cannot confirm or dispute them.
External Hard Drive Brands
First of all, before using this camera... View the enclosed Dvd education manual in case,granted with the camera. There are many features and settings that you'll need to know before you get out on the water to use your camera system. We've used many separate brands and all seem to have some logical settings and some not-so-logical procedures. Like most 'point and shoot' cameras, there is a delay in the middle of pushing on the shutter and having the actual shutter operation. After you become familiar with the performance of the camera and the features you're ready for the underwater part.
The Svp Digital Camera recite
Like any housing, you need to keep the housing clean and free from sand or grit that could create a leak. Since the main seal is not unmistakably an o'ring, I was very careful to clean the surfaces with a cotton tip (Qtip) and apply some o'ring grease to the covering as well as a thin film on the seal itself. The seal is sort of a wedge shape, so it should provide a good certain pressure seal. The clean part is more for all the petite operate buttons that allow you to convert settings of the camera underwater. We'll get into the best settings we found when using the camera underwater.
When they say the housing is good to 15 meters or colse to 33 feet, they are not lying. Not that we were trying to flood the housing or anything, but at 60 feet the camera is not operational because the pressure is squeezing the controls and shuts the camera off. At 40 feet, you might get the camera to work, but don't count on changing the settings. At 35 feet the camera seems to work fine with all the features and settings operational. For many divers, this will be too limiting because most of your dives will be deeper than 35 feet. However, keep in mind that the red/yellow/orange end of the spectrum is filtered out beyond this depth too.
The camera and housing combination are well matched and easy to operate. With the clear plastic housing, you can unmistakably see the settings on the camera. Like most digital displays certain angles are more difficult to see, but with the permissible shading and angle all things is visible on the 2 inch screen. Even though you can convert the lens focal length from wide angle to zoom, we kept the setting on wide angle for the dives during the whole process because of the water. Keep this in mind for all underwater photography; stay close to your branch and use the widest angle inherent for great results.
For the still shots, the camera was set for the strobe to fire with each shot. This uses up your batteries faster, but if the branch is closer than 8 feet, you'll have great imaging and color. The best results were our macro shots where we set the camera for 'close-up' and used the flash. When using the movie mode, you'll be impressed with the sharpness of the images, but don't expect high quality audio. The housing must suck up a lot of the sound as much of the underwater audio is muted. More than likely, you'll edit with some musical background anyway.
The color balance was a petite off. We did convert the settings agreeing to the instructions and the results were that the color balance was a petite on the blue side for topside shots. This was not an issue for the underwater shots as the greenish tint of the water was eliminated. Most of the color balance issues can be handled in the editing phase.
The claim of being 12.0 mega pixels is a petite deceiving because this is the 'hardware interpolation' not the 'image resolution' which is 5.0 mega pixels. All in all, we were not disappointed in the quality results of the great pictures. However, some of the shots showed camera shake even with the built in flash. This means that the shutter does adjust for the number of light, so it's prominent to squeeze the cameral and hold it as still as possible.
We used an 8 Gb Sd card because we incredible to take a lot of video and had ample memory space for two dives. We didn't use the in case,granted Usb cable because we use a card reader to our laptop and then back up the memory to a transported hard drive. The power source uses two triple A Alkaline Batteries, so it's not a question having new batteries for each dive. We didn't use the 'voice recorder' feature, but from our underwater video experience, it would not be recommended inside the underwater housing.
Now for the bottom line guidance on this gear: If you plan to take your underwater imaging seriously, save your money for a more comprehensive system. This could be the exquisite outfit for a sport diver that wants to share their diving experience with their friends and family. For less than 0 (prices range from -100), not together with your Sd Memory card or batteries, it is a value. The Svp cameras are available at some dive shops and are directly marketed from some importers online. The next "point and shoot" underwater outfits, without an external strobe, will most likely cost over 0. So, if you are going on vacation and thinking about having your own digital camera outfit for shallow water, this is the answer. Of course, for colse to at most diving centers you could rent a camera with all things included. Sometimes the selection is not easy, but you can know a lot more from man who has tested the Svp out. It is a great still and video camera outfit for colse to the water and underwater to about 35 feet.
Specifications from the Manufacturer:
· Waterproof design: Don't be afraid to take this Aqua camera to the water-even underwater. The waterproof case will protect this camera to depths of 30 feet.
· Very sleek and small camera design
· Takes Pictures, Video, and Audio Clips with it's built in microphone.
· Resolution sensor gives you the selection of taking: 5 Mp, 3.1 Mp, 1.3 Mp, and 300K Resolution Images.
· Takes, 12 and 8 Mp pictures straight through hardware interpolation.
· Movie mode: When a photograph isn't enough, shoot 640 x 480 (Vga) video, with sound, at 30 frames per second.
· 2.0" Lcd screen: This covenant color screen has plentifulness of room to help you construct your shots.
· Zoom: The 8x digital zoom enlarges pixels to fill the frame with your favorite part of the image.
· Adjustable Flash
· Self timer: 2/10/10+2 Seconds
· Tripod Capabilities
· Onboard White Balance
· Waterproof to 50ft
· 16Mp Built in Memory, Takes Sd Cards to advance memory.
· Power Source: 2 triple A Batteries
· Time Stamp Options: Off/ Date only/ Date and Time
· Comes with software, hookup via Usb 1.1
· Video/Tv out supported- Via video out cable.
· self-acting power mode- Prolong batteries life by auto-switching the camera power off.
· Auto Flash, Auto Flash with Red-eye reduction, Slow Sync, Fill-in Flash, Flash off, Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent, Tungsten, Sunset, custom etc...
· Multi-Lingual Interface 8 Menu Languages including: English, Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, T. Chinese, and S. Chinese.
The Svp Digital Camera recite
