GOING UNDER WITH YOUR HD VIDEO CAMERA

DXGTech USA sent us over the latest inexpensive HD Video camera with this model offering a little something extra. As the tag line for this review mentions going under with your video camera, I'm not talking about an extended vacation to Australia to video capture kangaroo or koalas hanging out in the trees. It's the ability with one of the newest products from DXG Tech USA to actually take your HD Video camera for a swim. The new DXG U579V Underwater Value Pack ships with a plastic housing designed for submersion to depths of up to 15 Feet. This would be perfect for catching the coral and brilliant sea creature colors of Australia's reef on the camera which is capable of recording up to 1280 x 720 at 30fps referred to as 720p High definition. The camera unit can also capture still images up to 8M of resolution while above or below water. The images on the camera can be displayed on the cameras 2.4" TFT screen.

The camera housing is made of a lightweight durable plastic which can easily be opened for access to the camera for connecting to a television or computer for playback. The rear of the handle type housing features easy to use buttons for the functions of the camera. The user can even zoom in and adjust settings all without having to remove the camera from the housing. The camera features a wheel for zooming in and zooming out, it isn't as smooth as I would like however I found a good rule while shooting is to never zoom in and zoom out.

Setting up the camera for use is easy with a menu screen offering options such a silencing instead of beep when a photo is taken, power saving features and selecting NTSC or PAL video settings. This setup screen is selected with a wheel on the top right hand side of the camera. Selecting Video or Photos is also setup from this wheel.

Even for users that may feel they wouldn't submerge the unit under water, the housing provides safety for operating the camera in a wide range of situations. The housing can protect the camera from rain, snow, sand and salt whether at the beach, Water Park or a pool. The DXG U579V is powered by 4 AAA batteries and also comes with a traveling pouch, AV cables, USB 2.0 cable and even includes a HDMI connection cable for enabled televisions.

Operating the camera while in the housing is easy to operate with large buttons for accessing the camera functions including a light for darker then usual scenes up close. This is especially handy when underwater.

The DXG camera features 128MB of Flash Memory of which 90MB is available to use for image storage. Additional storage can be added with an SD, SDHC Compatible card up to 8GB. The Video files from the camera are captured in H.264 MOV format while the still images are captured at JPEG, DCF and DPOF. Personalization is even capable with five different color models, silver, black, blue, pink or red. The camera also ships with a suite of software from Arc Soft to create and customize your videos.  

The DXG U579V is a wonderful bundle for not only having a HD Camera to capture fun moments but also allows the camera extra protection and peace of mind when in settings that could get the camera wet or in the sand. The price is also a great factor at around $149 for the bundle.

Photo taken with the DXG 579v
getting ready for the KOLD TV Tech Tuesday Segment

More information can be found
at http://www.dxgtechusa.com