Sea & Sea DX-5000g customer reviews

Having had a slight accident with my Sea & Sea Motormarine II whilst diving at Sharm (the inside got rather soggy), I was searching for a camera to take its place.

I initially starting thinking about another film camera and having used one for many years, my initial thoughts were for the new Motormarine or perhaps picking-up a Nikonos with a brief hesitant thought about ‘going digital’. Having talked to fellow divers, they seemed split in opinion, those using film cameras swearing by these and didn’t (or wouldn’t) believe that digital could give such good results and digital users who seemed to be very pleased with their choice. Several shops that I contacted didn’t have any clear opinion and seemed happy to sell whatever they could just to get it off the shelf.

It wasn’t until I talked to Heather at Alan James that I started to get some helpful guidance. The comment that swayed me was made by Heather, of the club members she knew, nearly all had switched from film to digital in the last couple of years. I visited the shop where Heather and Alan were very helpful and the great thing is, that having used so many different cameras themselves, they were giving clear opinions on the different options.

I settled for the Sea & Sea DX-5000G with the YS90 Auto Strobe, as its compact design with dedicated housing and multi-arm / strobe options seemed to give me options not offered by other cameras. So, not having had any pool time with the camera, I headed for Mauritius with some trepidation.

I needn’t have worried, the DX-5000G proved very easy to use, especially with Heathers tips on the set-up to use (a service none of the other outlets seemed to offer). The first thing that I appreciated with the DX-5000G was the ability to review the shots straight away and how easy it was to make adjustments to refine the picture (Although I was used to bracketing the settings with the film camera, I never knew what I had achieved, often, not until I arrived back in the UK, by which time it was too late).

The other advantage was the ability to zoom-in on the subject and although I used it sparingly keeping to the principal of getting as close to the subject as possible, at times, it was great to have the option.

So, did I make the right choice, There is clearly a place for the film camera underwater, but for me, the DX-5000G proved to be good purchase being easy to set-up and easy to use giving good results first time out, even with my inexperience with using digital and difficult conditions (poor visibility on many of the dives and buddies who were keen to move on), the results were very pleasing- view gallery.

John starts off his comments with ……"My experience was very similar to yours, Heather", says John ( John is referring to my test report about the LCD screen brightness which I solved by adjusting the shutter speed to Auto). I really struggled to see what was going on with the LCD screen during my dives down at St Johns reef. I even tried taping a small loupe to the rubber screen shade (!) - It worked fine on the boat deck but underwater the optics were all wrong and I had to tear it off.

That said, being used to the Nikonos V it was just so wonderful to have back to front sharp detail in nearly every shot, and so wonderful to be able to review a shot immediately and then wind the YS90 Flashgun up or down a tad accordingly - just great.
John also says, "I didn't use the wide angle lens much, since I kept hoping to get a shark shot or two, but they were so shy. I did anticipate using the zoom if anything appeared, but as it happened I had no luck anyway.

The only wreck I dived was the yacht at Abu Galawa, and the dramatic angle on that was obviously obtained with the Wide Angle lens. I found good use for the zoom, having regard to the great water clarity, the "abstract art" shot of the fire coral is a great demonstration of the close-up facility on the standard lens."

John has a nice selection of crisp images and is overall delighted with his DX5000g set-up.

Paul’s diving is all from Ireland in the Temperate Seas that surround the British Isles. He says "all of my images were taken in poor visibility".

Paul was working with the DX 5000g and one YS25 Auto strobe, but since he sent us these images, he has decided to dual up his strobes with another YS25 Auto. This will eliminate the shadows. Paul’s pictures are all either Macro or Close-up shots due to the poor visibility.

The colours are bright and I think this represents a good portfolio in the very challenging conditions and sometimes very poor visibility that we all experience if we dive anywhere around the British Isles.

Paul also said, "I found the Sea & Sea DX5000g easy to use and was very pleased with my images and the help and advice I have received since purchasing the camera."

John says....... "This was my first outing with the Sea & Sea DX 5000g having used two other digital and one other film underwater cameras in the past. It took me a couple of dives to familiarise myself with the camera, particularly never having used an external flash before. All of the shots were taken in good vis- 20-30 metres- and use of the flash was not always needed, when not using the external flash the option to use manual white balance was a godsend- I used the white sandy bottom at about 10 metres to set the balance.

I found that changing the settings underwater was easy and did this when conditions changed during the dive. I was using the rechargeable 2300mAH batteries and found I could get 2 and a half dives from a pair taking about 70-80 pictures per 1 hour dive, so the rule for me was change the batteries after 2 dives the strobe never ran out, but I was in the habit of changing the batteries at the same time.

"The images are taken in Hurghada, and we were fortunate in the sea life that presented itself to us. The day we encountered the dolphins we were very lucky to see three pods in quick succession, the largest being 29, followed rapidly by a pod of 11 and another of 10. If you would like to see a bigger portfolio of my images from this holiday (excuse the many dolphin shots I was obsessed), please go to my web site for the complete selection.

"Just to finish, I have no affiliation to Alan James Photography but have found them very helpful with advice on both purchase and usage of this great camera and would recommend it to both beginners and seasoned photographers alike."

My thoughts on receiving Johns CD selection of images was how really lucky he was to see such a big pod of dolphins in close proximity, John had numerous shots of the Dolphins that were excellent, but reluctantly I had to narrow them down to just two for the for the web site.