About 2 months ago we bought a new underwater camera.
The Sealife Reefmaster Mini is very nice for beginners like us. It has hardly any settings and you can blame all the bad pictures on the lack of adjustments.
We have not yet mastered the Reefmaster and hence the exposure is sometimes completely off and the picture becomes all grainy. But we really like that camera for the following reasons:
- It is small (12×7×3.5).
- It does not need an underwater housing for down to 40m.
- It is easy to handle: opening and changing the batteries as well as shooting and changing settings (the buttons are hard to press and should be spread further apart but this is not important at all).
- It is rugged (do not want to drop it though).
- It takes two AA batteries and so we can use standard rechargeable batteries and can take over 150 pictures spread over two dives (but probably only 10-20 percent of that with the flash).
- It was cheap (314 AUD including the freight) for an underwater camera.
We only did two dives per day which is 11 dives in 6 days compared to 11 days in 2,75 days in Cairns which is far more relaxed. I could have had more as well, but Martina was not easily convinced to do more. We saw the white and purple wall which is a must. But they were far less interesting for us (we are outspoken anti-drift divers) than the cabbage patch with great cabbage corals or Mike’s Corner. I/we just love floating around at the same spot for a long time and enjoying the view. Since we are beginner divers and especially with the dry-suits, we still have less than perfect buoyancy control. The last two days we used short leg wet suits and it was colder even with our shark skin on and less fun to get in and out as well but still easier to dive. Btw. all underwater pictures are taken with our new underwater camera.