First, Happy New Year!
Yes, I am home writing a review because I am terribly sick and couldn’t go out for new years. Erik + South America + mosquitoes = Erik in Hospital with IV and X-Rays…fun fun fun. Well, I’m out of the hospital and on 20 different meds that don’t allow me to do anything fun, so I figured I could work on getting some things out of the way.
Background: Despite not being in any decent physical shape, I love the water and during the year participate in many water-related activities such as swimming, wave running, boating, and scuba diving. About the only thing I won’t do is surf or water ski because I have 0 balance, lol. I’ve used those disposable underwater cameras, but they are a joke, cost about $35-40 each, and don’t take video. At the same time, I was hunting for a mini camera to leave in my car (I sold my DSC-U20 years ago) and was considering the DSC-U60 to solve both issues. For reasons I’ll explain later, I chose to buy a DSC-U40 (black) and the SPK-THA for my DSC-T7.
Specification: With this item there is really only one spec you need to know, 3m ~ 9.8ft, everything else is trivial. The T7 is one of the smallest and thinnest digital cameras out there, a sports case for it won’t make it too large to carry. When in the case, the T7 feels more like a T1, it’s solid, easy to hold, easy to use, and fit fine in my swimming shorts pocket.
Pictures:
The Case: I had two concerns before I bought the case, especially since I could not find decent pictures of it online.
1. Will all the original functions be retained?
2. Is the closing mechanism a 1 or multi step?
The first one is a bit obvious, I’d like to use the camera to take pics and video…the second one was important because I didn’t want the case to open underwater by itself.
With regard to the first question, the answer is yes, every function is retained. It is very easy to change settings, switch between modes, and turn the camera on and off. There is a port for the flash, and a large clear glass on the back to see the LCD display.
As for the lock, it’s a multistage mechanism. You need to depress a button, turn it, then pull to open the latch. I was fooling around with it a bit, it seems nearly impossible to open it without trying to, so I felt pretty safe.
Usage: Besides the case, strap, and yellow thing you see in the picture, your given a manual, anti-fogger, and grease. The manual shows you how to prepare the case for use and how to clean it after use. In medium size print the manual does state that Sony does not take any repsonsibility if the camera gets wet and if water gets in the case to take it to a Sony service center ASAP at your expense, how nice of them. Anyway, there is a black rubber trim that fits in between the front and back of the case, and apparently this is pretty essential. Everytime you plan to use the case you need to remove the rubber, clean it, check it for rips or tears, then replace it, and finally grease it up. I’d say it’s about a 20 min procedure the first time and about 5-10 afterwards depending on how careful you are. Since the T7 is $350-500, you might want to take a few extra mins to make sure it’s safe. After use, you need to wash the case, remove the rubber, wash that seperately, and put the rubber back. Again, another 10-20 mins or so. Yes, it’s a pain.
Another thing I should mention, if you have a strap on the T7, you need to remove it before putting it in the case. The case has it’s own strap, but again, it’s a bit of a pain.
Finally, the yellow thing, it keeps the camera afloat. And it works…trust me, I tried to drown the T7, and I couldn’t…I threw it in the ocean, and could spot it right away because of the floaty yellow thing. Lot’s of fun, not a pain.
On Vacation: Ok, so the perfect way to test a device is in the real world…no better real world then 3 water events. Kyacking in Panama near the canal, Kyacking in a Costa Rican Rainforest, and Scuba Diving in Belize.
The first two events were essentially above water and the camera only got splashed occationally. The best test in this case was it’s out of water picture taking. If you look at pictures 14, 15, & 16 {I’ll give the link later} you can see that the pictures came out clear and I could zoom into the animals on the trees. Very cool.
The real event was the scuba dive. For those that are unaware, from 0-32 feet, there is 1 atmosphere of pressure, after that it increases…33 feet is 1.5 atmosphere’s and so on. The case is only rated to 3 meters or about 9.8 feet. I spoke with the diver and we both agreed that I should be able to take the camera well beyond the 9.8 as long as i stay above 33 feet. It was a gamble, but I figured what the hell. I dove to about 22 feet and am happy to report that everything worked fine. The camera didn’t get wet and the pics and video came out fine. We think Sony rated it at 9.8 feet because people might go a bit lower then that and be safe, if they said 32 feet and people went below it and it broke people would complain about the case.
The pictures can be found here:
I am not sure if I am having server issues as the thumbnails are not all loading for me. I guess you could try hitting refresh if you want. If you click on a thumbnail it will open to 1024x768. I have all these pics in original 5MP form if anyone wants it, I resized them for speed and space. All pics were taken in the case, in or out of the water.
I must say the water in Belize was not very clear. What you see in the pics is what i saw in person, the caribean water is much bluer and clearer…and I’m sure if taken in that water the pictures would have reflected that. Essentially, what i am saying is the pictures are perfect and not discolored or dark in any way, it was how the water was. :(
Conclusion: The case cost me $73 with 2 day shipping, I think it was worth every penny. I got to take amazing pictures with some great video, and my camera was safe and sound. I went over twice the rated depth without leaking and was easily to use (a pain to clean and prep) and provided a safe locking system. The reason I chose the SPK-THA and a DSC-U40 instead of the DSC-U60 is that I wanted the higher quality pics and video and the U60 is only rated at 5 feet, which is about the depth of most pools, no use for diving. I would upload the video but it’s a 90MB Divx file. The problem is that its not easy to control the camera (video) and swim so the video is very fast…I needed to slow it down x4, so my 3 mins of video turned into 12 mins.
Mistakes: I did make a few mistakes that I learned from, hopefully this will help you:
{For diving only, above water doesn’t matter}
1. You can’t really see the LCD after 4 or 5 feet, it’s just blurry. You just sort of aim by judgement. That being said:
* Turn off auto photo review
* Turn off red eye reduction
* Turn LCD brightness to high
I didn’t get as many underwater pics as I wanted (I got more then I posted) because I assume it took too long for the camera to recover from the auto review, etc. I forgot to take it off and I couldn’t see the menu underwater to change things. Under water (deep) about the only things you can do is turn it on and off, change from Movie to Picture mode and take pics. The menu is useless as the LCD is too blurry to see…at least it was for me.
Feel free to ask any questions, I’ll be happy to answer them. Happy New Year.
Erik
