Intova IC-600 camera and underwater housing

Right after starting my diving career I got interested underwater photography. I thought it would be cool to capture the things I see during my dives and thus be able to show them to my friends who were really curious about my underwater encounters.

After an extensive search I decided to buy the Intova IC600. Main reason for this purchase was the combination of camera and housing. The reasonable price also was an important reason, as I only started photography recently after doing the Underwater Photographer specialty course, and first wanted to experiment to see whether I really liked it.

The equipment

The Intova 6 megapixel camera is nice and compact and handles pretty easily. The 2.4" color LCD display provides a good view on the subject and composition. It features a total of 12x zoom, 3x optical and 4x digital, and can shoot movies clips (QVGA 320 x 240 pixels).

The camera has a nice internal flash and 16 MB memory, which can be extended to a total of 2 GB by inserting a separate SD memory card.

The accompanying underwater housing can be taken safely to a depth of 54 meters and weight a mere 170 gram.

Two o-rings ensure proper sealing against water penetrating the housing. The housing's lock is easy to use and allow you close it without any effort.

Usage under water

Under water, the set is slightly positive buoyant. It is powered by two AA-type batteries, which will last me one dive when fresh. The functions of the camera can be seen through the housing, and the housing's buttons are easily operated with your bare hands. When wearing diving gloves however, pushing the buttons is somewhat difficult.

I noticed that in some cases, the internal flash of the camera will cast a shadow at the lower left portion of the photo (see example on the right).

An external strobe or dive/video lamp should solve this, so I am thinking about buying a good lamp. The housing itself can be operated quite easily with one hand, so holding a lamp in the other should be no problem.

Overall, I am quite satisfied with the quality of the underwater photos.

Pros:

• reliable sealant by the o-rings
• compact
• functions are understood easily

Cons:

• somewhat difficult to operate when wearing gloves
• shadow cast when using internal flash

Conclusion

I really like the set given its price. For the time being I will therefore keep photographing and further develop my skills using this underwater camera set. It is my intention to buy a dive lamp for use instead of the camera's internal flash.

But once I have gotten better in photographing under water, I will likely buy a better set.

Review by: Kevin Groot.

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