Pixtreme PX2 3.2 Megapixel Digital Sports Camera & Waterproof Underwater

List Price: $80.00

Our Price: $80.00

You Save:

Customer Reviews:

Pixtreme Underwater Digital Still and Video

I bought this camera for a snorkeling trip on Maui last year. I put rechargable batteries in it and it took some nice stills, relative to the silt level in the water. It has some shutter lag, and as with any underwater camera the flash lit up the silt when it was present. To my amazement, the video setting turned out to be the strong point of the camera. I ran into some areas that were heavily populated with fast moving fish and the video was incredible. There is no audio, but it is not needed. The colors are clear and the resolution is very good. Several times a turtle or fish nearly hits the lens, but the camera keeps it in focus to a very close range. I got nearly ten minutes of green sea turtle video and it was spectacular. I put them on DVD and the resolution is very good. The manual says it can only handle 512 mb SD cards, but mine took a 2 gig SD without problems. The recahrgable batteries are a necessity as the AAA heavy duties don't cut it. I used 2 900 mah rechargable AAAs, and brought along backups if needed. I never had to change on the fly, but the battery monitor showed low levels frequently. It worked much better than any of the $60 35 mm underwater camers I've used. I'd go take photos and come back and load them on my laptop and go back and take more. It was a lot of fun. ...more info

Pix-treme Disappointment

I bought this camera specifically to take on a dive trip to remote divesites in the Bahamas earlier this month. Although the camera worked fine on land, it malfunctioned almost completely underwater(three dive companions checked and rechecked my operation, both on land and underwater), Consequently we lost almost all photo records of the spectacular dives (since the camera worked fine on the surface, we had brought along only one additional disposable underwater camera).

Here are the main problems:

1. I purchased an SD Memory Card to increase the limited memory. The card fits, but then the rubber cap does not close (or if you force it in, the card pops out)

2. the control button on the housing that is most raised is the crucial "set" button. Works fine on land with bare fingers, but when wearing gloves underwater, every time you grab the camera to take a shot, you hit the set button and go who-knows-where and lose photo capability.

3. the battery case kept popping halfway open when underwater. A red light went on, and the only way to reset was to remove and reload) the batteries on the surface.

...more info

Pretty Good Camera for the LOW Price.

I purchased this camera last year to use for diving in Cancun. (The year before, somehow my Canon camera w/ housing leaked and ruined the camera. I had paid $400 for the camera & $175 for housing, and my warranty had expired 5 days before the leakage. I will NEVER take my good camera diving w/ a housing again !! But at this price for a camera just for diving, I couldn't go wrong.
DISAPPOINTED must have gotten a defective camera. My experience with batteries was more like REBEKAH'S. I had to change the batteries after every dive, but I got a lot of pictures (and movies) with that use. And for the cost of a few AAA batteries, that's nothing compared to the cost of (1) Margarita after the dive !! I think I got a good deal. Got some great pictures of a large shark, too.
I only paid $99 for this camera on eBay (new). That includes the underwater housing. What do you expect for that price? You get what you pay for, so be fair to Pixtreme.
I would recommend this camera to any of my friends who wanted a decent camera for occasional diving / snorkeling at a low price. If you dive a lot, then you would certainly want to invest a few hundred dollars for a better camera. But for $99 bucks, this ain't bad !!
...more info

Disappointed!

Other reviews did indicate the fact that this camera is hard on batteries, but I did not realize how hard. With the included batteries I was able to take 3 pictures without flash. New NiCads gave me about the same result. New rechargable (fully charged) Nickel Metal Hydride batteries did somewhat better, but still gave me only about 1 hour of use (still with no flash)....more info

Spend an extra 100 bucks for something decent

This camera sucks! The quality is so so soooooooooo bad. IF your just looking to save some money by buying this dont! It is just a waste you will wish you spent an extra 100 bucks for something way way better. The camera is cheapo plastic the quality sucks.....EVERYTHING ABOUT IT SUCKS......more info

Pretty good and not too expensive!

I bought this camera to make sure that if I dropped it in a puddle or a river it wouldn't break. I also wanted it to be able to withstand minor shocks. It works pretty well but sometimes seems to want to flash and then will not, so it won't take a picture... It also seems to drain the battery too quickly!...more info

For the price, it's a great deal!

First off, know that I purchased this camera after tallying up the costs *last* year for about 5 disposable underwater cameras - the kind that only go 10 feet under water and you're lucky if you get anything that deep? I spent as much on those 5 disposables as I did on this digital camera and I can still *use* this camera!

Housing. The housing is really what you're paying for. Yes, it will actually go down to 125 feet just fine. It is rugged, locks easily, has a nice fingerhold on the front for better stability when taking a shot, and works as well as any other underwater housing I've seen. I really like the buttons and how they work. I've seen some housings with a flimsy spring that jogs out of place right in the middle of a great dive or snorkeling session, screwing up the rest of your dive, but these buttons have strong built-in springs enabling you to access the whole gammut of menu options without removing the camera from the case.

Capacity. Get a card for it so you can snap as many pictures as you want to/need to. It will hold about 20-25 pictures at the "Super" quality without a card, but well over 300 *with* one (512mb), and I would recommend keeping it at Super for every picture you take. Be aware of one little issue however: when you put the card in, don't expect to be able to put the little rubber cover over top of it! If you attempt that, you'll push the card enough to make it think it's supposed to come out again. The rubber cover is only supposed to be pushed in if there is no card in the slot! So I just leave the camera in the housing for safe-keeping, even if I'm on land. It just seems easier that way.

Flash. Don't expect to be able to use the flash. Pretty much at all, unfortunately. You'll be better off holding a flashlight at your subject because it has no power to it. I may get the add-on strobe attachment and see if that works any better.

Batteries. This is one of two reasons why it only gets a "3" rating. It eats batteries for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then a midnight snack. I got about 60 -70 pictures out of each set of batteries before needing to change them. Which basically meant, every dive, I had to change them. I had read reviews about the earlier version eating batteries as well, so I was prepared with a TON of batteries. It was okay, because I knew about it ahead of time, but the flash will eat your batteries faster and be worthless to boot.

Shutter speed. This is the second reason why it only gets a "3" rating from me. The slow shutter time forces you to hold very still and hope the subject is still in the frame by the time it actually takes the picture! Be aware of the lag time between when you push the button and the shutter actually clicks. It's not much, but when you're chasing a fish, it's enough to torque you off! That's why I'm glad its digital: you can take as many pictures as you need to and then choose just one. I learned how to track my subject and then snap a picture. It worked okay, but there were some great shots I missed as a fish zoomed by me at top speed.

Movies. Okay, wow. I was *seriously* impressed with the movie capabilities of this little thing! For it's price, and when its set on "Super" quality, it does really, really well! My neice got to swim with the dolphins for her birthday and I got a great video of her being pushed up and out of the water on a really cool ride by two dolphins pushing on her feet. One word of caution, however: don't try to zoom in.

Zoom. One word: crappy. As long as you know this as don't try to use it (yes, even at "super" quality), you'll be fine. Yeah, it zooms, but it pixilates the photo making it unviewable to anyone who doesn't want to cross their eyes. So don't use it. That does mean that you have to be fairly close to your subject, however. But not too close! As with any older auto-focus/no-focus camera, you have to be at least three feet away from your subject to be sure it's in focus. But with the "super" quality setting, you can crop extraneous items out of the picture later.

Overall? I was impressed and very happy with my purchase. It's small. It's light. It goes underwater. It's digital. It takes pictures and movies. Oh, and it has a timer on it that works just as well as any other timer I've seen, too, so you can get yourself into the shot! I took well over 500 shots while I was in Mexico this January and was able to use about 165 of them in the family slide show. Not bad! :)...more info