Sunday, March 04, 2012

Sony DSC-TX10 waterproof camera review

There's nothing more annoying than seeing your brand new camera go phzzzz at the first drop of water (*) and as I've found out to my cost, not all waterproof bags work as advertised when kayaking on the Thames.

So I decided to invest in a waterproof camera and after the usual googling of reviews I plumped for the Sony DSC-TX10 on the grounds that its small and neat plus Sony are known for their quality images.

It turned out that two of those three assumptions were correct.

So the plus points:

  • It is small and dinky, easy to stash in a small pocket and carry anywhere
  • Despite not having that encased in plastic look it has been dropped on concrete and been well soaked in muddy Thames water without complaint
  • The battery life is pretty good - though buying a spare I've never needed to use it and now rely just on the built in batter
  • It can take HD video and has a 16 mega pixel sensor

However the images aren't that great, with soft images and high noise. For example look at this picture of sea kayakers on the Solent that was taken when out sailing two weekends ago:


That's pretty fuzzy.

In a way its reassuring that all that weight and money spent on a DSLR really is worth while - those big sensors and lenses do have a point.

So overall a camera that does do what its meant to - as long as you don't expect crisp images.


Updated: alas there is a design flaw - see this post.



(*) ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point.

Camera picture from: Amazon

No comments: