Upcoming Sea & Sea DX-1G camera

The DX-1G will be available in the US in early August with an MSRP of 1049.00 and a MAP of 999.95 for camera and housing. The set will be available in a variety of packages with the YS-27DX and YS-110 strobes. Yes, an LED accessory is in the works for the hotshoe.

Accessories include: W/A conversion lens for equiv of 16mm, W/A lens caddy, additional DB-60 batteries and charger units.

Hi,

Right, should've clarified -- the LED device in the hotshoe will be TTL. The Sea & Sea literature explicitly pushes its compatibility with their YS-110's TTL slave system. Cool stuff...

And with Inon D2000 and Z240 ?

Is this new camera work well without the LED accessory.

I hope that better than compatibilty with the YZ-110

Because in S-TTL this function is not useful.

... Dave, you misunderstand the issue with slow recycling. It's not the external strobe that you're waiting for - it's the camera's built-in flash that takes so long. Since the built-in flash is generally blocked and/or too weak to reach the subject, the camera will choose to dump its full power with essentially every shot. Not only does that kill your shot-to-shot time, it drains the camera's battery faster....

Normaly in S-TTL the internal flash don't dump full power.

The problem exist in manual mode, for exemple in Canon Powershot camera, the trick's in doing reduce the manual power of internal strob. It's possible.

But if this option don't increase the price, why not.

Otherwise, I am very interested by this camera. It come up my expectations.

Greeting

fp

You can read a french review of Inon S-TTL system on my web site :

http://www.fplanglois.com/plongee/technique/inon_sttl.php

Sorry for my bad english, I am froggy (but I have my head examined )

I think the DX-1G looks interesting and I'm thinking about carrying it together with my film SLR. Here is part of my blog post on the topic:

So what intrigues me about the DX-1G is that it looks promising as a second underwater camera that plugs some of the functionality gaps I have with my film SLR. So the question is why on earth would I not switch to a digital SLR housing.

You can read the full post here.

I am quite interested in the first reviews of this too. I currently use an Olympus 5060 w/ YS-90DX and really don't want anything with a larger footprint. The S&S brochure states a wide angle lens will be available. I also like it does 640x480 movies at 30fps.

Here's a link to S&S's pdf brochure:

http://seaandsea.com/DX-1G/release.pdf

And the specs:

http://www.seaandsea.com/DX-1G/specs.pdf

I also like it does 640x480 movies at 30fps.

Frankly, this should be taken for granted in 2007. Anything above supermarket $49 cameras can do this. The variation from camera to camera is now the compression algorithm. In this case, the 1G/GX100 uses regular old motion JPEG, which should fill about 70 megabytes per minute (14 minutes per gigabyte).

There's a 20-sec sample of the video at the bottom of this page:

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews_ric...lio_gx100_3.php

Frankly, this should be taken for granted in 2007. Anything above supermarket $49 cameras can do this.

I agree totally, all cameras *should* be able to do 640x480. What is totally annoying about the current market is the lack of sophisticated point-and-shoot cameras which still have manual capabilities. I still use my Oly 5060 because my choices seem to be either nice and small and totally automatic or go to dSLR and lose the LCD real time view on the back and lose movies and lose Macro.

The DX-1G looks like a viable replacement for the high-end prosumer cameras available prior to the advent of the cheap SLR.

JP

Other than RAW I dont see the Sea&Sea doing anything that isnt already on the market now. The G7 will do everything except for the raw and can shoot 1024x768 at 15fps as well, has a hotshoe for TTL with an Ikelite housing and even has two custom C1,C2 settings so you can preset the camera for Macro and WA quickly. In addition to the Macro setting it also has optical telephoto presets at 1.4 and 2.3 you can use for very tight macro shots too.

If someone doesnt like Canon I would think that the Nikon coolpix would be a nice camera as well as the Olympus. With Casio already in the market with a 12.1 megapixel camera it wont be long for all the other companies push the technology envelope soon as well.

Yeah, the Canon G7 does look like a nice camera. Some of the pics posted here by G7 users are incredible and nobody can take anything away from them.

Of course, the DX-1G is just "vaporware", but if it is really just the Ricoh GX-100, I think it has a few features the G7 does not:

- 1/10 second shutter response in RAW mode

- 24mm standard lens vs. the 35mm in the Canon

- 16mm WA add-on lens vs. no add-on for the Canon

- plug-in optical attachment for S&S strobes ( I currently have a YS-90DX)

- fast Auto Focus (again based on Ricoh GX-100 reviews)

The biggest problem I have with the G7 is the slow shutter (I have that now on my 5060 and it drives me nuts) and the lack of RAW mode (I prefer making exposure modifications myself rather than the camera).

Based on the feature set, the DX-1G *might be* the P&S underwater camera of choice - we'll see....

JP

Yeah, the G7 has marginal AF speed, and a terrible extra lag added in, when using flash.

If the DX-1G gives all the features, without any extra bad lags, plus RAW, it will be what many hoped the G7 should/would have been!

Accessories include: W/A conversion lens for equiv of 16mm, W/A lens caddy, additional DB-60 batteries and charger units.

How will the rebranded camera compare with the original Ricoch? I would assume that the changes would be superficial, and that it will be possible to use the Ricoch vifinder with the Sea&sea version (for instance).

Is this the experience from other sea&sea rebranded cameras?

/O

Yes.

The DX-1G will be available in the US in early August with an MSRP of 1049.00 and a MAP of 999.95 for camera and housing. The set will be available in a variety of packages with the YS-27DX and YS-110 strobes. Yes, an LED accessory is in the works for the hotshoe.

Accessories include: W/A conversion lens for equiv of 16mm, W/A lens caddy, additional DB-60 batteries and charger units.

What about add-on lenses for macro?

Mike

What about add-on lenses for macro?

 

Mike

Will it need an add-on macro lens? In macro mode it focuses from 1cm to infinity.

JP

Well - at 1cm you'll be bashing whatever you're trying to photograph. An add-on macro lens lets you get the same magnification but move back a bit. It's easier to light and shoot the photo that way.

My guess is that if there is an add-on WA lens there will be add-on macro capability too.

James

Look back at my original specs... Not only can it focus at 1cm at wideangle, but it can also do 4cm at telephoto. So really, I don't think any diopter would be necessary or even make sense.

Well - at 1cm you'll be bashing whatever you're trying to photograph. An add-on macro lens lets you get the same magnification but move back a bit. It's easier to light and shoot the photo that way.

 

My guess is that if there is an add-on WA lens there will be add-on macro capability too.

 

James

I see -- that makes perfect sense. I use an Oly 5060 right now and the macro mode pics are excellent; probably the best thing that camera does, but you are correct, I have to get very close and be very careful.

Look back at my original specs... Not only can it focus at 1cm at wideangle, but it can also do 4cm at telephoto. So really, I don't think any diopter would be necessary or even make sense.

It remains to be seen what that boils down to in terms of usability underwater. What does that correlate to in terms of magnification (1:1, 1:2, etc.)?

Whatever the case, this seems to be the first serious attempt in a while at a very capable compact underwater digital. Might make a nice complement/backup to an expensive DSLR system.

Mike

yup, i'm eagerly awaiting the launch of this camera too. on paper the specs are impressive and seems like the answer to us non-DSLR users.

i hope it doesnt turn out like the Oly SP-550 again - impressive specs on paper, but less than satisfactory in real life.

one question: are S&S cameras usually rebadged Ricoh ones? If that's the case, I could probably get my hands on the cameras first to try them out.

Any difference between Ricoh and rebadged S&S cameras in terms of functions or fit?

Thanks in advance!

yup, i'm eagerly awaiting the launch of this camera too. on paper the specs are impressive and seems like the answer to us non-DSLR users.

 

i hope it doesnt turn out like the Oly SP-550 again - impressive specs on paper, but less than satisfactory in real life.

 

one question: are S&S cameras usually rebadged Ricoh ones? If that's the case, I could probably get my hands on the cameras first to try them out.

 

Any difference between Ricoh and rebadged S&S cameras in terms of functions or fit?

 

Thanks in advance!

S&S has two lines of point and shoot cameras. What used to be the "thousand" series now the DX-1G has been Ricoh cameras. The lower models (what used to be the "hundred" series) were re-badged cameras of less distinguished heritage.

Should be almost exactly the same as the Ricoh if history is a guide.

Mike

Forgive my ignorance on such things, but could someone explain why a flat port will be a big disadvantage with this camera? (I have never used a dome)

My Fuji F30 isn't quite wide enough to suit me. I realize this Sea and Sea isn't out so no one has used one, but theoretically, do you think this would be a good way to go, or should I just add an INON WA lens to my Fuji? I would like to be able to shoot RAW, but can live without that.

Thanks