SeaLife DC500 SL150 5.0 Megapixel

I wish I could post some of the pictures I've taken with this camera, because I can promise you'd be blown away.

You will want to practice some before going on a dive or out for a swim with this because you do need to get used to the lag time and how to compensate for it (shark mode if you're taking a stationary picture). Myself, I took pictures with this while swimming in the middle of a pack of wild dolphins and got some terrific action shots. That takes a level of trust in your camera because you're pretty much pointing and clicking. I've also accidently swam down category 5 rapids with this thing (it has a clip that you can attach to your shorts, or whatever gear you might be wearing). Time again, it's proven very sturdy and reliable.

There are a few things to consider with this camera. First, it uses the regular SD memory cards, which is very affordable. If you put a 2 GB card in it, you can pretty much take pictures for weeks on end without having to upload or reload. Personally, I have two batteries for this. The downside is that you can't just use some AA batteries, you have to use the lithium camera battery. If you're out for a whole day on a boat or a wherever you might go, then you certainly need more than one battery if you'll have it on a lot. Further, it's not as easy changing the battery on the boat like the salespeople tell you, when your camera starts giving you the low battery warning and you're near some serious wild-life, you're not really taking your time. You see, you have to open the housing to get to the camera, and if you're around water, that's not really good as moisture can damage it, or at the very least fog up your housing. Still, even with some moderate precautions, you should be able to swap out the batteries safely and allow everything to dry out once you get home.

I bought my SeaLife just before the 6 MP came out. Some pictures that I have taken could probably be sold if they weren't only 5 MP. Therefore, I recommend getting the 6... but if you're just looking for some nice pictures to show to your buddies, then this will do great.

Also, I can't really comment on the seperate flash unit that you can purchase in addition to this. The built in flash seemed to work well for me with very little scatter, but then again, the furthest I went with this was 40 feet and in fairly clear and well lit water. Though the camera has built in color balance, you won't achieve true color without some simple post altering (adding some yellow & red) and actually the auto color function on photoshop seemed to bring almost every picture I took into perfect color.

Speaking of color, if you quickly transfer from the water to land, the color balance takes about 30 to 45 seconds to balance back. That means your initial photos will be off. The only time this affected me was when shooting some whales out in the pacific. One moment I had the camera looking at the deep sea and the next I'd bring it up above water for a breach or a quick breath. I happened to notice this issue mostly when I had it in video mode. The videos were jumpy, almost like a warped record that speeds up one second and slows down the next. However, the majority of the time the video function worked like a charm.

That's pretty much all I can tell you regarding the pros & cons of this camera. It's certainly worth the money.