Sealife DC300 3MP Underwater Digital Camera

Sealife DC300 3MP Underwater Digital Camera
Manufacturer: SeaLife
Product Type: Photography

Editorial Review:
Product Description
The multi-functional Reefmaster 3.3 Megapixel Digital Camera with 1.6" LCD Screen takes pictures on land and underwater, and is depth-tested to 200 feet. Features a removable inner camera for land use; land, sea and external flash mode; 2x digital zoom, movie JPEG compatible; uses SD memory card; instant-delete option; and 8 MB built-in memory. Includes USB cable, A/V cable, case, care kit, and software CD.

Average customer rating:

Cheap flimsy plastic camera.
Strongly recommend against
Reefmaster Leaves A lot to be desired
A cheap digital camera in an underwater housing

Sealife DC300 3MP Underwater Digital Camera

Manufacturer: SeaLife
ProductGroup: Photography
Binding: Electronics

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Accessories:

SimpleTech 256 MB Secure Digital Card (STI-SD/256)
SeaLife 3X Close Up Lens and Underwater Filter
PhotoImpact 6.0
Olympus B-50SU 4 AA NiMH Batteries and Charger
Samsonite Worldproof 1.4 Digital Camera Bag -Blue/Black

Product Features:

Land Mode, Sea Mode and External Flash Mode
Instant delete option after each picture in both Sea and External Flash Modes
One-button operation
Expandable with all ReefMaster lenses, flashes and accessories
Depth tested to 200 ft / 60 m

ASIN: B000098SZC
Release Date: 2003-09-11

Product Description

SEALIFE DC300 -- This all new 2003 model Underwater Digital Camera is customized for divers, and is easier to use underwater than any other digital underwater camera. This 3.3 Megapixel camera captures underwater and land based encounters in high resolution and bright color! Compatible with all optional SeaLife snap-on lenses and flash units Rated to 200 feet -- well beyond sport diving limits! Large 1.6-inch LCD display Super fast lens 8MB on board memory, expandable to 256MB with optional SD ( Secure Digital ) cards Includes MGI Photosuite IV editing software, USB cable, Video cable, carry case, instruction manual and care kit

Customer Reviews:

Cheap flimsy plastic camera........2006-01-21

I have had this camera for a few years and gotten lots of good shots with it on dry land. And lots of blurred underwater shots where the subject wouldn't wait around while the camera brought up the title screen and slowly got itself ready to shoot.
After downloading shots off the memory card on day, I found that the card would no longer click into the holder. The memory card and battery holder portion of the camera is just cheap plastic. Looking at that, it seems amazing that it lasted as long as it did. I tried to contact Sealife about fixing it and got no response at all.

Strongly recommend against.......2006-01-17

I strongly recommend against buying a SeaLife ReefMaster digital underwater camera. While their low-end underwater film cameras were a good buy, their digital cameras are not.

I purchased a SeaLife digital-camera/housing combination for over $400, only to discover later that the camera included in the package is a relabeling of the lowest-end, poorest-quality digital camera available: a $60 Vivitar not even sold by Vivitar any longer. The camera has problems with very basic functions (see flash discussion below) and consumes batteries at 3-4 times the rate of "normal" low-end digital cameras. These days you're far better off buying one of the many waterproof housings available separately from your digital camera: you'll pay much less overall and end up with a much higher-quality setup.

In addition, SeaLife customer service is problematic. I emailed a question about what turns out to be an undocumented flaw in the flash functioning of their cameras. In the initial series of interactions they cut-and-paste generic answers to questions that were clearly not the one I'd asked. Perhaps they were trying to hide the flaw or were simply not reading my email. Once they finally acknowledged the flaw they did not reply to follow-up questions.

Again, I recommend against the SeaLife ReefMaster.

Reefmaster Leaves A lot to be desired.......2005-04-12

I recently purchased this camera just wanted a basic underwater camera. That is exacly what you get. Most of my frieds are diving with Sony Cybershots with the water housings. Their pictures clarity and detail in comparison to the Reefmaster is way better. The Reefmaster cameras claim to be a 3.3 mp camera but the picture size is always less than 1 mb on the largest sharpest settings. I would say that it operates more like a 1 mp camera. I'm pretty dissapointed in the preformace. Another down side is that when you change the batteries or remove your san disk flash card you loose all of your settings plus the date and time. It's a cheap camera in a fancy housing.

From what I've seen I'd recommend a Sony Cybershot but I'm sure that there are a lot of other really good ones out there. Remember that your always better off getting more than you think you need that way you wont be left wanting more later after the money is already spent. I have learned the hard way.
I'd shop around more if I could do it all over again.
Good luck.

A cheap digital camera in an underwater housing.......2004-06-28

The Sealife DC300 is really nothing more than a cheap digital camera in an underwater housing. The inner camera is very simple and has almost none of the features you usually find in modern cameras. It offers you to turn digital zoom on/off from the settings menu - unfortunately there is no digital zoom at all. You'd think, since the camera is customized for the housing, you could at least access all the features , but not so. All the housing offers is access to the power button and shutter release. If you want to change any settings, you have to open the housing. If you take out the SD card, the batteries are disconnected which resets most of the settings to default, so you'll have to reconfigure the camera frequently. Sealife DC300 claims to be a "dedicated dive camera" which it is most certainly not. You'd be much better off buying a housing for your existing camera. I ended up returning it to Amazon and went for the Aquapix.

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