Best Deals acqua dc 1231 digital camera new

Meh – and not 12mp!, January 21, 2009

By 

Lara Adkins “Largirl” (Omaha, NE) – See all my reviews

  

I got this camera for an upcoming trip to Aruba. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the build quality – it’s cheap and feels and looks like it, don’t get me wrong…but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. The underwater casing is actually probably the best part about the camera – I really wish it fit one of my nicer cameras!

Now, the extremely misleading – even outright wrong – parts of this listing.

“This full featured 12 MP Max. camera…”

The camera is not 12MP. It’s 5MP. And it says 5MP right on the top of the camera body. You can digitally size up to 12MP, but that will be crap picture quality.

“8x digital zoom”

It says 8x zoom on the camera, and when you’ve zoomed in all the way it says you’re zoomed in 8x, BUT…I compared the supposed 8x zoom on this to the 5x zoom on my Canon W150, and the 5X zoom is much closer. There’s no way it’s actually 8x.

“Detachable 46mm underwater filter adapter”

I looked all over the camera, the housing, and the included accessories, and there was no detachable filter.

When you turn the camera’s flash settings from auto flash to flash off, it takes about three seconds for the flash to come on (or turn off). The camera’s LCD screen is pretty bad…I pointed it at a dim corner of the room and the screen was black – didn’t pick up anything. The Canon, by comparison, saw everything. The pictures aren’t great either – a little better than a good cell phone pic, but nowhere near the quality of the Canon. Since it’s 1/3 of the price of the Canon, and I’m debating whether the quality is 1/3 as good….

The best part about this camera is without a doubt the underwater housing. I didn’t want to buy a disposable underwater camera, because I’m kind of lazy and probably would never get the film developed and because you’re limited to the number of pictures you could take and, in the long run, getting four or five disposable cameras is probably close to the price of this one.

I don’t know if it’s worth it, honestly. I’m leaning towards yes since it’s reusable and digital, but it’s pretty crap quality. If I didn’t need it this weekend, I would probably send it back due to the claims made (12mp, etc) that it didn’t fulfill and try to get a replacement that WAS 12MP…if they even exist.

So why the three stars? Because it did work, decently – surprisingly! You can see a couple example pics it took here (note: Aruba is not known for snorkeling – these reefs were really pretty green and not very colorful):

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Decent Camera for the Money, July 12, 2010

We bought this camera for our 14 year old son to take on a trip to the Florida Keys. As we have not gone yet I can’t say how it will perform in the ocean. He has taken photos in the pool and at a lake and they actually came out pretty good. It is what we expected given the price, a decent underwater camera, suitable for amateur photographers or folks who really only need an underwater camera occasionally. If you are into serious photography, I would recommend you spend a little more money but, if you are just looking for something to take fun underwater pics, this is worth the money.

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SVP Acqua DC-1231R Digital Still Camera with waterproof case, September 28, 2010

I’m very pleased – I bought it to replace the same model I’d borrowed from my daughter for a holiday. It was fun taking pictures under water as well as in a downpour! I like to take pictures while kayaking and this is ideal. Photos look good on my pc and in print.

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