I had just been scuba diving certified and was headed on my first trip abroad to Belize. I came to the realization that I didn’t had a good digital camera, little lone one that could do underwater pictures.
I browsed the internet and was shocked to see that most underwater camera’s capable of going more the 10 or so ft deep were well north of $1,000. Then I stumbled across the Sealife Mini II. At a much more reasonable price of $179, it came with claims of underwater capability to 130 ft, and shock proof if dropped from up to 6 ft. It sounded just perfect for my diving and jungle travel adventure.
Pros:
I did 6 dives in Belize with this camera (and another 15 in Roatan) to a depth of up to 150 ft. It never leaked. It was also very easy to operate.
Cons:
However like most things in life you get what you pay for. Nearly half of all the pictures I took (1,000+) underwater or above came out completely blurry or out-of-focus. Even the ones that did focus and didn’t blur don’t come close to matching the picture quality of any standard digital camera priced at $200.
If it did get banged or dropped during any activity it would magically not recognize the memory card. You had to open the sealed latch and remove/re-enter it. This is a major problem because you’re either underwater or in the water when you’re using it. I missed several full dives worth of shots from this.
The camera has a zoom, but anything I zoomed in on was out-of-focus.
Basically any semi-keepable pictures this camera took needed a lot of correction and adjusting with computer software.
The Bottom Line:
Even for the price I wouldn’t recommend this camera to anyone. Definitely not as your main camera anyway. Shame too, if it matched good picture quality with all of its awesome features it would be perfect for travelers, hikers and divers.
You can visit the camera’s official page here: http://www.sealife-cameras.com/cameras/mini-ii
