My Water Moments

Posted by Mrs Imran on Jun 30, 2010
Filed Under Contest, Gadgets | 9 comments

Sometimes I wonder why am such a sucker for gadgets? If I were to be given a choice, I would definitely choose gadgets over handbags. I love handbags too, but I love gadget more. Surely, it could be lot easier if I can have everything I want in this world, but for now I think handbags can wait. [but hope not too long lah...]

I have been shouting and showing tantrum [ok I exaggerate] ever since I got back from my latest vacation trip, Tioman Island. I want an underwater camera, that is! Everybody knows why I want that camera I guess. If you don’t seem to understand why, here are some of the reasons….

This photo could have been better if I had a water-proof camera like the Sony TX5 because…
EASY TO FOCUS

We [my husband and I] were using a lousy camera to snap this photo. No offence to lomo lovers ok. I do love lomo ..a lotttt, but when it comes to underwater photography, I think it is much easier to use digital camera rather than “ancient” camera that uses film.

I found it sooo difficult to focus with the super small view finder! Since, I am so used with digital camera big screen for image display, using view finder underwater really testing my patience . With snorkeling equipment covering 85% of our face, we can’t even bring our eyes close the view finder, let alone to focus! So, we just simply press the button to snap. Look at that picture it’s  an ultimate mess with the subject is errr…everywhere?  I really want to say BIG thanks to the camera since more than half of the film wasted simply because of we couldn’t focus. Thank you soo much.

Well, underwater creatures such as fish, starfish or shark [if you are lucky] are not things that you can see everyday [except if you are an "orang pulau"]. It’s rare. Hence, when you got those tiny chances to capture moments of you swimming with fish [or shark again if you are lucky], you surely want to capture everything and every seconds without silly gadget mishandle [we missed lots of precious moment, including  a chance to snap a photo of shark [no joke], because we were too busy counting how many times we have rolled the film, how many film has left, did the flash has already being turned on or not and ya da ya da. Bummer!

This photo could have been better if I had a water-proof camera like the Sony TX5 because IT CAN BE ORIGINALLY BEAUTIFUL WITHOUT THE AID OF PHOTOSHOP

Thanks to Photoshop for such a nice software, without photoshop I don’t think these photo can turned out to be this good. Here I show you the photo before and after being edited by photoshop. Can you see now the ugly truth? [oklah not dat ugly] Haha, but yeah, the colours of the original photos were somewhat dull and gloomy. Obviously, it lacks of the vibrant hue and somehow fail to capture the real excitement that we were having underwater. So, I think the latest digital underwater camera should be able to capture the excitement and pretty colours beautifully, no?

It will be great also if I had a water-proof camera like the Sony TX5 because MY CURRENT CAMERA CAN’T STAND THE SHOCK/VIBRATION {sorry no picture to show, since all shaky photos has been erased from my camera}

I got shocked of my life when my cute pink Sony camera suddenly behaving strangely. At first I felt as if the internal mechanical parts are moving and shocking rapidly. I didn’t suspect anything and just thought could be because I’ve been on the boat for too long and it made me feel everything rocking and shocking. But oh boy, I was so wrong! The boat was fine, myself also fine, but the camera wasn’t. Of course I was very quick to blame the camera at first [haha] but little did I know that, the camera is innocent. It didn’t being designed to stand the vibration and shock. Silly me!

I’ve been observing friends’ verdict in regards of the underwater camera. The most talk about underwater cameras are Lumix, Panasonic and Olympus OT-800. Below are tweets from Jua about her new underwater camera Olympus OT-800. In her tweet she did also mention Sony but hmm I never heard that Sony carry an underwater camera too. It always either Lumix or Olympus, I don’t know any other brand that has a good underwater camera other than these 2 [previously]

God knows that I was hell curious about Sony underwater camera, so suddenly the answer being sent to me at one night without a need to GOOGLE for it. [Haha]. Thanks to Nuffnang.

Quote from Nuffnang… “Presenting the…..new Sony TX5! Proudly bearing the title of the ‘World’s Slimmest Water-proof Camera’, the TX5 is – get this – not only water-proof, but shock-proof, temperature-proof and dust-proof too. And it doesn’t only look pretty; it comes with some awesome functions like Sweep Panorama, Handheld Twilight and anti-motion blur. Yes, the TX5 is not only the ultimate package of beauty and brains, it’s darn near indestructible as well” …Unquote

Here are the specs, but you can also visit SONY website for more details descriptions;

10.2 Mega Pixel T Series 4x Optical Zoom Cyber-shot (Silver)
The compact Cyber-shot TX5 is built to be water-, shock-, dust- and temperature-proof! With features like Intelligent Sweep Panorama, Handheld Twilight and Anti-motion blur, TX5 give you the photographic power to shoot in style whenever, wherever.
• Water-proof (up to 3 meters)
• Handheld Twilight
• Intelligent Sweep Panorama
• “Exmor R” CMOS Sensor
• BIONZ Image Processor
• 25mm wide angle Carl Zeiss® Vario-Tessar lens [Carl Zeiss always my fav since it is the same lens like my Nokia N95 and N97, great picture it takes]
Standard Retail Price:  RM 1,499.00 *

Here are few sample of photos showcasing what this little monster is capable of.

Anti-Motion & Handheld Twilight : Clear and sharp images in low-light environment. No more shaky photos when shooting with high ISO setting and without tripod. You can now take sharper and clearer indoor photo (especially under dim light or dark area). This is truly brilliant. I can take picture in dark better than you, envy? Oh please do…

Sweep Panaroma! : Good news, all can be include in 1 photo! Awesome..simply awesome A picture of ocean anyone?

10 photos per second! : You can now jump and select the best photo of you jumping in the air! Or even create an animation with it. Coolness.

Definitely a must have gadget for capturing a perfect photo of you having fun underwater.

So irresistable. Period.