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Photograph courtesy of Sony
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By WILSON ROTHMAN
In the two years that I've been in love with digital cameras, I have only taken them on the water twice — once kayaking on the Hudson River, and another time boating on Lake Maxinkuckee in Culver, IN. On both occasions, the camera spent most of the time sealed tight inside a Ziploc bag, as I was afraid that any errant splash might put it out of commission. When I set out to test Sony's Cyber-shot U60, a sporty 2-megapixel fun cam, one of the first things I did was hold it under a running faucet and start shooting.
While it's not the same as snapping fish at the Great Barrier Reef, it did satisfy my initial curiosity. Later this summer, when I re-visit my aquatic haunts, I hope to try out the camera at greater depths: it is officially rated to go down about five feet, but my sources inform me that it can probably go as deep as five meters. In other words, the "deep end" of the swimming pool is fine.
The camera is unique for more than just its waterproofing. Its vertically oriented design forces you to hold it upright and press down with your index finger to shoot, as if it were a small aerosol can. Sony's goal was to give you more of a grip when you're, say, rappelling down a mountain — the only downside is that it's so geared to shooting landscape (horizontal) pictures, you have to really twist your arm to take a portrait shot.
While I miss the 3x optical zoom that many similarly priced (non-waterproof) cameras offer, the real let down was battery life. With a pair of plain-Jane AAAs, it can hardly run for more than a day, and its rechargeable Ni-MH batteries are no match for a good lithium-ion. Otherwise, as a camera, the U60 fares well. I was most impressed with the speed of the auto-focus — you can point and shoot at anything as you zip along, and it turns out crisp and clear. It's just the thing for the wet-n-wild set.
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