Introduction
This is a partial review of the Sealife DC2000 camera only. I have not been able to test it underwater and won’t do so until October when I head off to the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia for a week. I have used information from various web reviews and the manual to complement my observations and will include links to those reviews were appropriate. I will update in October.
My requirement was for a “rugged” camera to complement my Nikon Cooplix A and Nikon V1 and lenses. I have 4MP canon A520 and underwater housing that I have owned since 2004 which is what I have been using to date. However a 1.8” screen coupled with deteriorating vision and the overall bulk led me to deciding on a new camera that did not require a housing and was suitable for snorkelling, boating, occasional kayaking and hiking and of course had a bigger screen.
Prior to discovering the existence of the DC2000 I was looking at getting the Olympus TG-5 but was hesitant due to the small sensor. The DC2000 is normally bundled with the 40m housing for divers. The “inner” camera only is waterproof to 18m which is plenty for me. The price of the bundle at $US699 was too high for me and I couldn’t find any way to purchase just the camera. An email to Sealife clarified that the camera could in fact be bought by itself as spare parts. This is not obvious so for anyone interested here is a link.
http://www.sealifepartsdirect.com/list.php?action=accessoryPage&model=DC2000
The camera itself is $US398 less than the TG-5 although you will need to buy battery and usb cable. To all intents it is about the same price.
Interestingly it looks like you can purchase almost the complete $699 bundle for $549 as spare parts including the housing.
The Camera
The DC2000 is a small compact camera with a 20MP sony CMOS 1” sensor and a fixed 31mm equiv f1.8 lens 7 elements multi-coated aspheric with mechanical 7 leaf shutter. You can get all the detailed specs at Sealife. The body is mostly metal and rated shockproof to 5ft or 1.5m. Its temperature rated from -18deg C to 50deg C. its every bit a modern rugged camera.
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/dc2000
The lens apertures go to f11 in 1/3 increments. PC Mag Australia did a review and tested lens sharpness. The lens looks suitably sharp from f1.8 to f8 but dropping substantially at f11. F2.8 is the sharpest stop. You can check that review here.
http://au.pcmag.com/consumer-electronics-reviews-ratings/48256/review/sealife-dc2000
The camera has the full array of PASM settings plus 4 underwater modes and 3 built in underwater correction filters. There are also auto scene and manual scene modes as well as panorama. The PASM dial is quite firm and it would be very difficult to accidently change it. When you select the underwater mode on the dial the last underwater settings you used are selected. Snorkel scene mode automatically sets the shallow water filter and max ISO of 800. The camera can focus to 4” or 10cm in macro mode and there is a useful infinity focus setting that focus’s from 3ft (1m) to infinity.
Other features are: Shoots jpg and RAW(.dng), Mechanical shutter 15 sec to 1/2000, Exposure compensation, Timelapse, Continuous and burst shooting (in jpg), 3” 920k LCD, Wifi, GIF capture, Geotagging, Micro SD storage up to 64gb, CCD shift OIS (video), Exposure bracketing, 1080p 60fps video, Battery life rated at 200+ or 2hrs+ video one site said 292 pictures.
In the Hand
The camera is small and compact and very well made. It’s not overtly heavy but has a solid heft to it. The grip is ideal and the camera is easy to hold. The thumb sits nicely around the PASM dial which as previously noted is quite still so won’t move unless you want it to (The sealife image of the camera can be deceptive but there is definitely a nice grip there).
The shutter button and the navigation control have a touch more travel in them than normal (for underwater use no doubt) but it’s easy to get used to it. The other buttons have a nice firm click to them.
The strap connector is solid and provides the opportunity to attach any number of clips or straps to it. I would say you could attach a lanyard with clip to hang around your neck or clips to attach to pack straps or a belt.
The battery is quite small and slips in easily. It’s a bit trickier to get out as it doesn’t pop that far out when released. However even with my stubby fingers I managed. The micro SD card is also fiddly to get in and out but not overly so. I found it easier to plug the camera in to my laptop rather than remove the micro sd card, insert it into its sd holder and then re-insert into the camera once I had downloaded the pictures.
The camera has in built usb charging. You can buy an external charger. As a camera primarily to take on holidays and outdoors the in camera charging means one less charger to take so I don’t mind it.
The door to the battery/card door has 2 buttons to release it. This can be done one handed but you couldn’t do it accidentally. It’s a firm push and click of the top button to re-lock.
The camera seems to turn on quickly, no doubt helped by not having the lens already in place.
I could fit the camera in my jeans pocket quite easily although there is a slight bulge from the lens. The camera is not super slim but it’s not super think either.
In use
Focus- The camera focuses quite quickly. Sealife says its 0.1s and one review says 0.25s. Some reviews say it’s slow. When I half depressed the shutter focus was locked in less time than I could say “one” so that was quick enough for me. There are the usual 3 focus options (and exposure), multi, centre weighted and spot. I left it in multi but will try the others. There is a macro mode and an infinity mode which seems to be some sort of hyperfocal thing were its in focus from 1m to infinity. I tried this and it seems to work fine.
RAW-JPG settings – There aren’t many! You can set the camera to jpg normal, fine or superfine or you can set it to RAW + jpg. RAW files are 40mb dng files. One review says the write time is 6s. I did a quick (and rough) check with my iphone stopwatch and some poor coordination with camera in one hand and phone in the other. I got a rough 7s so I think the 6s is right. It doesn’t seem that long in real life. Continuous shooting only works in jpg. Note there are no other jpg settings. You can’t adjust the default jpg settings other than compression. No vivid, no sharpen etc.
ISO – ISO starts at 125 and goes up in the usual increments to some ridiculous number. There is an auto ISO and you can set the maximum ISO at any of the usual levels. There is NO minimum shutter speed setting for auto ISO. This will affect how you use the camera. The OK button can be set for a number of shortcut options. I set the OK button to ISO so it’s very quick and easy to push the ok button and change the ISO manually.
LCD Screen – The screen is a 3” 920k LCD screen. I took it out on a bright winter’s day and had no problem seeing the screen. There are 3 display setting and found the middle one quite adequate. Shutter speed, aperture and ISO are displayed. The 3 option which is the most complex has a histogram.
Menus – menus are straight forward and fairly basic. They are simple to use.
Shooting Modes – I usually use aperture priority (A) and leave the camera set on the sharpest aperture unless I need to change it. When A is set you give the OK button a short press and then use the up down buttons to adjust. I found that in A the camera will drop the shutter speed down to low levels rather than increase ISO. It does display a “shaky hand” symbol but will still use a slow shutter speed rather than bump up the ISO to any more than 200 or 400. Possibly it’s set for predominantly landscape photography but a minimum shutter speed setting in the ISO would have helped a lot here. As long as you see what the shutter speed is you can deal with this by manually adjusting the ISO. This is quite quick if you set the Ok button to ISO shortcut. When in Aperture, Shutter and manual modes the Ok button serves two purposes. There is a short button push to adjust aperture (and shutter in shutter priority and both in manual) and a long button push to engage the shortcut ISO menu. Shutter priority (S) works the same as A except the up down buttons change the shutter. In manual mode you change the aperture, then push OK again to adjust the shutter. The EV is shown in white if you are within 2EV of the right exposure or red if you are more than 2 EV out. In S the camera will drop the aperture down to 1.8 before going up above ISO 400 to whatever maximum you have set. My conclusion is that as long as it’s a reasonably bright day the A is fine but if it’s a bit dark it would be best to switch to S or M.
There is also a Program mode which is more like an Auto mode with the ability to set EV adjustments and ISO. The camera picks the shutter speed and aperture but you can’t adjust them like you can on some cameras.
While I haven’t had the camera underwater (other than in the sink to test it worked) I have had a look at the underwater modes. When I first turned it to underwater mode on the dial it was set to Dive which had a strong red cast on the LCD, I switched it to snorkel and the cast decreased. This is the inbuilt filters. In snorkel mode exposure is automatic and the shutter only went down to 1/40 while pushing ISO up to the maximum of 800 so it works a bit better than A mode. Note that when the camera is turned off then back on it keeps previous settings. This includes scene modes, ISO setting, EV and underwater settings. So the camera is now set to snorkel mode. I like this but you do have to remember to change things back if you change something for a particular shot.
There are a bunch of scene modes that I haven’t really looked at yet. HDR, Panorama and time lapse look like they may be worth further exploration. Otherwise there is the usual suspects. There is an intelligent scene mode that selects the scene for you. I haven’t tried this yet.
Overall First Impression
Having only used the camera for a couple of days my first impressions are positive. I like the camera, it sits well in the hand, takes very good pictures and is straight forward to use. The fixed lens is what it is. It’s a nice lens and I don’t mind a fixed prime. 31mm is a nice compromise between 28 and 35. If you prefer a zoom get something else.
I quite like the jpg’s produced. They work up ok and while I use RAW on my Nikon V1 I think I will tend to use jpgs most of the time and just use RAW when the light requires it.
The lack of a minimum shutter speed setting for A mode is disappointing but easily worked around. Definitely something that could be fixed in the future.
I am pleased with my purchase. In terms of IQ for a small compact rugged waterproof camera there is nothing better (other than the Leica X-U). All the other rugged cameras have tiny sensors and the Nikon Aw1 is quite bulky and has some issues. For snorkelers, kayakers, hikers, sailors etc who want a compact rugged camera that will produce images better than the small sensor options this is a really your only option. But it’s not just its rugged capabilities, its fine on dry land and I would be happy to take this away for a holiday to the South Pacific or Caribbean as my only camera.
I will update further after my trip to New Caledonia.
More DC2000 Reviews & Manual
Here are reviews with underwater samples of the camera with its full diving setup.
http://www.divephotoguide.com/underwater-photography-special-features/article/review-sealife-dc2000-underwater-camera/
Also one with some comparisons with Sony RX100 MkIV
http://deepshots.co.uk/blog/2017/02/quick-review-sealife-dc2000-underwater-camera/
Some samples taken in an aquarium
http://www.scubadiving.com/scuba-diving-with-new-sealife-dc-2000-underwater-camera#page-16
A short review with samples
http://www.sportdiver.com/scuba-diving-with-sealifes-new-dc2000-underwater-camera-in-central-florida
A good hands on review with samples
https://alexribeiro.co/2017/03/03/958/
You can download the Manual here
http://www.sealife-cameras.com/sites/sealife/files/products/manuals/DC2000-EN.pdf
Samples
RAW vs JPG this one is the jpg. I have just done some quick auto enhance and brightness and colour slider adjustments maybe 20 seconds work to all images. Comments refer to image below.
This is the RAW version exported to jpg
This is the same scene at f1.8 and using infinity focus mode.
This is an indoor shot at ISO1600. The first is OOC and the 2nd one is heavily processed to see how the shadows behave. Its on jpg and I should have shot in RAW also but didn't.
Processed
And these are some samples on my winter walk at various f-stops
cheers
russell
