Scuba Diving – September 2019

SEALIFE
MICRO 2 .0

MSRP $499 (32GB), $549 (64GB) ;
no housing required
CONTACT sealife-cameras.com

Slightly larger than most cameras in our test,
this point-and-shoot has leak-proof con-
struction rated to 200 feet and gave many
of the more traditional action-cam contend-
ers a run for their money. The design helped
it earn an excellent score for ease of setup;
with no housing or O-rings to contend with,
there’s not much to worry about. Testers
gave the Micro 2.0 top scores for ergonom-
ics thanks to its large, clearly labeled buttons
and easy-to-grip shape and size. They also
appreciated the separate controls for photo
and video capture. “Easy to handle and oper-
ate,” one tester noted. “Feels and operates
like a normal camera,” another remarked.
The Easy Setup option allows you to go from
land-based to underwater shooting modes—
complete with digital color fi lters for shal-
low and deep water—in mere seconds. Divers
gave the Micro a very good score for intuitive
operation, and praised the camera’s 2.4-inch
thin-fi lm-transistor liquid crystal display.
“Nice big screen makes it really easy to frame
shots,” one tester said. As one of the older
cameras in our test, the Micro doesn’t shoot
4K video or have image stabilization. While
the quality of the resulting footage was no-
ticeably lower than the other cameras, the
Micro still ranked well for clarity, color, fram-
ing and stabilization. The camera also cap-
tures sharp, colorful photos thanks to its
16-megapixel image sensor—the largest in
the test. The rubberized camera body and
preset dive modes make the Micro more suit-
able for handheld shooting than most others
here, but it’s just as easily mounted to a tray.
With a comfortable, user-friendly design and
leak-proof construction perfect for newer
divers, the Micro was a test-diver favorite.

Ergonomics

Video Quality

Battery Life

SPECS

»Depth

200 feet

» 4K Frame Rates

Doesn't shoot 4K

» FHD Frame Rates

60, 30

» Image Sensor

16 MP

» Released

November 2015

SCORES

/ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 / 31

continuously and were
used to fi lm fi ve minutes of
1080p/60fps video once ev-
ery half hour until they shut
down due to no remaining
battery life. We rated battery
duration using the following
scale of 5 (excellent) to 1
(poor):

5 = Four hours or more

4 = 3-4 hours

3 = 2-3 hours

2 = 1-2 hours

1 = less than 1 hour

SEEING IS

BELIEVING

To see footage from each ac-

tion camera that ScubaLab

divers captured during the

test, go toscubadiving.com.

ROBBY MYERS

is the associate

gear editor and a

ScubaLab test-

team diver. He

has been diving

since 2014.