INTOVA INWD-IC600 6.0 Megapixel Digital Camera with Waterproof Housing -180FT,Silver

When I originally purchased this camera to replace an aged 35mm for a trip to the Philipines all I was trying to do was get some souvineer shots for my vacation. I was impressed with the quality of the images and the construction of the case with no leaks to 120 feet. Some things that I do not like are Very slow response time between taking the picture and the actual capture, the relatively poor battery life, and the high cost of the red filter.This is what I did for my next Dive in Belize. I purchased rechargeable batteries and memory cards and change them after each dive, and purchased the Red Filter which dropped in price. I Thought I either lost the filter adapter or was not included in the package and CALLED Intova and they sent another immediately (I paid for Postage)- Customer service is very good. I did eventually find the original so I now have an extra.I also run the camera in movie mode with the red filter on below about 20 feet and the images are good - not great! but good enough to run on my 58" plasma to show the land lubbers what it looks like down below. The movie mode gets rid of the lag time in taking still pictures. I find that if I turn the camera on and set it to movie mode before I go under it is easier to take the video, just hit the shutter release button. The 2Gb flash memory card will last about 2 hours, almost about the same as a good set of batteries. The sound is also a bit of a bonus - even though I am hearing a bit of a background Buzzing noise.After seeing some fellow divers with Professional camera setups and knowing that my camera cost was less that half the cost of one of their strobes and seeing them struggling with their bulky gear, I feel that I made a good choice. It enabled me to enjoy my dive without the cumbersome equipment that others use. Granted my picture quality was not as good as more expensive camera systems but enjoyed my dive and have a great memory of my dive. I do highly recommend the camera to novice photographers like myself. I couldn't help notice that that the price almost doubled since I bought mine - but still worth it. Hmm, I wonder how well the 8 Mega Pixel Camera works?? and if it will drop into my housing?

I bought this camera over a year ago and have photographed over 10 dives, probably 500 pictures. It was one of the cheapest cameras I saw for fairly deep underwater photos so I thought I'd give it a shot as a first underwater camera. Overall, this camera has exceeded my expectations. Couple of specific points:1. I read reviews of terrible battery performance, but while worse than a typical point and shoot, I've taken 100 shots and 10 minutes of video with Energizer rechargable 2450 Ma Nickel Metal Hydride batteries, more than enough for a two dive outing. I carry a backup set and have never used them.2. Only real complaint is that bootup and picture taking are a little slow. You have to click the pic and hold for a good "One 1 thousand" before moving. A little annoying, but you get used to it.3. Simple to use, but you'll have to memorize the buttons because it's impossible to read once inside the housing and underwater. I assume any camera in a housing is going to be the same.4. Picture quality doesn't seem that great when you initially review on the camera or view once pics are on your computer, BUT, if you get into photoshop (or some pic editing SW) and play with the contrast and tone, they look AWESOME! E.g., I get into photoshop and batch autotone, autocontrast, and autocolor (set up a script for all 3) and the difference is simply astounding. The originals that are somewhat washed out green/grey come to life with perfect color as I recall seeing it underwater, and look absolutely beautiful, 1000% better. I don't know if this is the case with other cameras, but since the picture/color quality is NOT a problem with pics taken with this camera out of water, I'm thinking that almost any underwater photography will need editing. I tend to modify all the pics I'm going to keep/post, so it's no big deal for me. I wish I could post a pic here of a before/after of a 2 second tone/color/contrast change.5. Note I bought this in June 1999 and paid only $99 for it here on Amazon. That was a GREAT deal.

I found this item was listed at a terrific price and decided to order it even though other similar under water cameras were selling for 3 times as much. When it arrived it looked like a decent quality set up, especially for the money. However the camera did not work at all. All that would happen when it was turned on is the green LED it would blink and then go to an off state again. I tried six sets of brand new batteries since the trouble shooting guide said it had to be battery related. I immediately sent the camera and case back and knew it was too good of a deal to be true.

I got this dinky little camera with casing for the first time as a gift. I managed to take some really decent pics in the first 20 odd dives that I used it on. Sadly, the case developed a crack (I still don't know how that happened, I've been fairly careful using and maintaining it), leaked and all but ruined the camera. Second time around, I bought a new camera with case, only this time the lens is stuck halfway, neither going in nor out, nothing on the LCD display, and a whining sound from within the camera. All this, the first time I put in the batteries and switched on the camera. Living as I do in India with extremely long shipping times and whopping rates for return shipping, I've decided to simply write it off as a bad investment. If you are a diver interested in getting good photos with a trouble free camera and case, stay away from this piece. The low cost does not offset the headache.