Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

This camera is fun to use and lives up to everything I read about it before purchasing.

Besides using it for pictures of my open water certification class. I used it for a dashboard camera to record the scenery as I drove our rental car on the roads of Maui. Some of the roads use one way bridges and and the locals get pretty good at bluffing their way around the corners. I bought a suction mount to attach the camera to the window to record the traffic in case someone might collide with our car so I could show the insurance company that it wasn't my fault. However, everything was good and no worries.

The wide angle lenses is spectacular when we drove up the 10 thousand foot volcano to watch the early morning sunrise.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

We recorded swimming with Dolphins, following Humpback Whales, even 'Getting Dirty on the ATV' trail! It even recorded the sound of the Dolphins as we swam with them.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

Although I did find all of the buttons rather stiff I am very pleased with the HD recordings. I am hoping that the buttons become a little less stiff over time. The underwater housing works perfectly and will be a huge benefit for my dive students and customers.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

I plan to use this camera for diving in the Yucatan. I saw from my dive partenr that this camera was the best value for the price.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

Used it only once so far. Picture/video quality is good for the price. The biggest complain I have is the 5 buttons in the back are very very stiff. I need to use both hands and pushes very hard to operate the buttons. Thus making changing mode (video/picture), changing whiteblance etc difficult to do especially underwater, real bummer. To power off, you need to hold for 5 sec or so, another PIA. Neat little shortcut to turm off the LCD display, but no easy way to turn back on. I think you need to turn off and turn on again or something, i haven't figured that out.

The power on and shutter buttons are much easier to operate thou. Menu setup is quite intuitive. Very good for the price in general.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

This camera is a lot of fun. I like the super wide angle, the ease of operation, the durability, and the features. I've had it in the pool but not in open water yet.This is a portable, rugged sports video camera. It is not very suitable for home movies or vlogging, nor is it a great still camera - though it can perform those functions in a pinch.I'm using a Class 4 32GB card which looks to hold about 8 hours of 720p video. I'm settling on this resolution for most of my work. The 1080 looks quite good too, though some of my PCs don't play it back well. This is a consumer camera, not a pro, so the optical quality is not like my Nikon. For what it is, it's quite good though. The wide angle hides a lot of sins. (And at 140 degrees coverage, expect a lot of distortion of nearby objects at the edges - not fisheye, but getting there.) I saw some digital artifacts akin to posterization in dim areas of a scene with a wide range of lighting - par for low light situations I think. Auto exposure seems to work well and adjust well - I'm playing mostly with the Center mode (there is also Average and Spot, or something like that.)The viewscreen is small but crisp. Audio playback is muffled by casing. Moreover, audio reception is muffled, and my audio contains a faint pulsing sound that almost sounds mechanical - not something I can remove adequately with software (and I'm very good at audio restoration.) Will play with other resolutions and see if this persists. You should not expect to get hi-fi audio from a consumer U/W camera, and for my purposes, the audio is adequate. When people are talking, it picks it up okay, but drops off quickly with distance. You won't get much if people are across a room, say. So this isn't for home movies - it's for outdoor dynamic shots and underwater videography. UW audio is good, since sound conducts better there - you can hear the bubbles, for example.I like a couple of the extra features such as burst mode photography, and time lapse. I like the TV out port. Cable included is flimsy but works - 3 connections, 2 for audio, 1 for video. The charge port is a standard, and cable provided has USB at the other end. I would have liked a wall charger too, but have some of those around anyway.The electronic manual is adequate, perhaps better than average for this type of thing. It would be better if it included explanations of the various modes however. It only tells how to set them, but little or nothing about why you might choose them. Menu navigation is easy; I grew accustomed to the buttons quickly.The lens and back window came with a clear protector sheet on them which I removed. Later put a better one on the back since it was starting to get scratched. I recommend this - I can only imagine how scuffed it will get when used in the surf and such, which would eventually make it hard to see the image on the viewscreen. In bright sun the screen can be hard to see, especially due to the reflectivity of the casing. And don't forget to lubricate the seal - mine came prelubricated, but it doesn't come with silicon. Buy some at a dive store and keep it with the camera!I boosted the saturation by using the Vivid mode. It's a bit oversaturated, but I will play with that during editing. I found that without it, the saturation felt a little soft. Most sample videos you see for sports cameras are oversaturated - that seems to be the style of extreme excitement!In the pool the camera performed flawlessly. No leakage, no fogging in 70 degree water. Buttons work fine. Most water streams off when emerging, so video looks good bobbing up and down. Exposure compensation is reasonably quick in this application. The camera focuses well about a foot away from the subject in a bright underwater setting, and is quite soft but not blurry at an inch. No macro mode.Battery life is about as advertised.Adressing a couple comments from others. Someone complained that opening the casing will take off your fingernails. No, if you look carefully at the manual and packaging insert, there is a little curved lever to the latch that pops the back open - no problem. It's quite clever actually. About the buttons being very stiff. Mine seem to have loosened a bit, and I don't generally have a problem. Sometimes I use both thumbs with nails together, which makes it easier. The button sleeve has a groove from top to bottom so that your nails will easily depress the buttons. (Long nails would be a problem here.)Problem: I got a fleeting pink vertical "scratch mark" on a few occasions shooting outdoors on a bright day.Bottom line: Very good at what it's designed for, and much better than the much costlier, highly-marketed competition.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

This camera is fun to use and lives up to everything I read about it before purchasing.

Besides using it for pictures of my open water certification class. I used it for a dashboard camera to record the scenery as I drove our rental car on the roads of Maui. Some of the roads use one way bridges and and the locals get pretty good at bluffing their way around the corners. I bought a suction mount to attach the camera to the window to record the traffic in case someone might collide with our car so I could show the insurance company that it wasn't my fault. However, everything was good and no worries.

The wide angle lenses is spectacular when we drove up the 10 thousand foot volcano to watch the early morning sunrise.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

We recorded swimming with Dolphins, following Humpback Whales, even 'Getting Dirty on the ATV' trail! It even recorded the sound of the Dolphins as we swam with them.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

Although I did find all of the buttons rather stiff I am very pleased with the HD recordings. I am hoping that the buttons become a little less stiff over time. The underwater housing works perfectly and will be a huge benefit for my dive students and customers.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

I plan to use this camera for diving in the Yucatan. I saw from my dive partenr that this camera was the best value for the price.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

Used it only once so far. Picture/video quality is good for the price. The biggest complain I have is the 5 buttons in the back are very very stiff. I need to use both hands and pushes very hard to operate the buttons. Thus making changing mode (video/picture), changing whiteblance etc difficult to do especially underwater, real bummer. To power off, you need to hold for 5 sec or so, another PIA. Neat little shortcut to turm off the LCD display, but no easy way to turn back on. I think you need to turn off and turn on again or something, i haven't figured that out.

The power on and shutter buttons are much easier to operate thou. Menu setup is quite intuitive. Very good for the price in general.

Comments about Intova Sport Pro Waterproof HD Video Sports Camera:

This camera is a lot of fun. I like the super wide angle, the ease of operation, the durability, and the features. I've had it in the pool but not in open water yet.This is a portable, rugged sports video camera. It is not very suitable for home movies or vlogging, nor is it a great still camera - though it can perform those functions in a pinch.I'm using a Class 4 32GB card which looks to hold about 8 hours of 720p video. I'm settling on this resolution for most of my work. The 1080 looks quite good too, though some of my PCs don't play it back well. This is a consumer camera, not a pro, so the optical quality is not like my Nikon. For what it is, it's quite good though. The wide angle hides a lot of sins. (And at 140 degrees coverage, expect a lot of distortion of nearby objects at the edges - not fisheye, but getting there.) I saw some digital artifacts akin to posterization in dim areas of a scene with a wide range of lighting - par for low light situations I think. Auto exposure seems to work well and adjust well - I'm playing mostly with the Center mode (there is also Average and Spot, or something like that.)The viewscreen is small but crisp. Audio playback is muffled by casing. Moreover, audio reception is muffled, and my audio contains a faint pulsing sound that almost sounds mechanical - not something I can remove adequately with software (and I'm very good at audio restoration.) Will play with other resolutions and see if this persists. You should not expect to get hi-fi audio from a consumer U/W camera, and for my purposes, the audio is adequate. When people are talking, it picks it up okay, but drops off quickly with distance. You won't get much if people are across a room, say. So this isn't for home movies - it's for outdoor dynamic shots and underwater videography. UW audio is good, since sound conducts better there - you can hear the bubbles, for example.I like a couple of the extra features such as burst mode photography, and time lapse. I like the TV out port. Cable included is flimsy but works - 3 connections, 2 for audio, 1 for video. The charge port is a standard, and cable provided has USB at the other end. I would have liked a wall charger too, but have some of those around anyway.The electronic manual is adequate, perhaps better than average for this type of thing. It would be better if it included explanations of the various modes however. It only tells how to set them, but little or nothing about why you might choose them. Menu navigation is easy; I grew accustomed to the buttons quickly.The lens and back window came with a clear protector sheet on them which I removed. Later put a better one on the back since it was starting to get scratched. I recommend this - I can only imagine how scuffed it will get when used in the surf and such, which would eventually make it hard to see the image on the viewscreen. In bright sun the screen can be hard to see, especially due to the reflectivity of the casing. And don't forget to lubricate the seal - mine came prelubricated, but it doesn't come with silicon. Buy some at a dive store and keep it with the camera!I boosted the saturation by using the Vivid mode. It's a bit oversaturated, but I will play with that during editing. I found that without it, the saturation felt a little soft. Most sample videos you see for sports cameras are oversaturated - that seems to be the style of extreme excitement!In the pool the camera performed flawlessly. No leakage, no fogging in 70 degree water. Buttons work fine. Most water streams off when emerging, so video looks good bobbing up and down. Exposure compensation is reasonably quick in this application. The camera focuses well about a foot away from the subject in a bright underwater setting, and is quite soft but not blurry at an inch. No macro mode.Battery life is about as advertised.Adressing a couple comments from others. Someone complained that opening the casing will take off your fingernails. No, if you look carefully at the manual and packaging insert, there is a little curved lever to the latch that pops the back open - no problem. It's quite clever actually. About the buttons being very stiff. Mine seem to have loosened a bit, and I don't generally have a problem. Sometimes I use both thumbs with nails together, which makes it easier. The button sleeve has a groove from top to bottom so that your nails will easily depress the buttons. (Long nails would be a problem here.)Problem: I got a fleeting pink vertical "scratch mark" on a few occasions shooting outdoors on a bright day.Bottom line: Very good at what it's designed for, and much better than the much costlier, highly-marketed competition.