My camerapaedia: Splash

What?
An underwater camera consiting of a very simple plastic point and shoot camera encased in a plastic waterproof casing. Focus free 28 mm lens. No settings,I’d guess more or less the same specifications as a cheap disposable camera. I call it splash, but I don’t think that’s an offical brand name. Just a bit of decoration on a cheap no-brand toy camera.

When?
Still being made (in China, where else?), judging from Google…

How
Thrift store (€1,-).

Well?
I stumbled upon this camera on one of my thrift store visits, and thought, why not? It looks kind of dinky, but you never know when you might want to use a waterproof camera… It turns out it was a lucky find, because since then I’ve seen several more of these things, but every time the lock on the waterproof shell had been broken. Obviously a vulnerable part.

Anyway. I’m not much of a beach person, but I do find myself outside in the rain often enough (too often…), so opportunity enough to test it out. I had pretty low expectations, it being such a simple little camera. But, it’s actually not all that bad. The waterproof casing works like a charm (as long as you wipe the rain drops off the front every now and then), so I was able to just clip it to the outside of my backpack, leaving the water proof coat pockets for my less waterproof cameras. Combined with a suitably high ISO to compensate for the small lens (and grim weather) it provides pretty good pictures. Nice, saturated colors, reasonable sharpness in the centre, and a pleasant blur in the edges. Plus, the plastic outer casing can add a nice hysterical flare when shooting into the sun.

written by stratski on 2012-11-15