AgfaPhoto Eclipse Explorer takes underwater HD videos

AgfaPhoto Eclipse Explorer takes underwater HD videos:

RedDot Philippines sent me several digital cameras several weeks ago when they were preparing my Visa for the China trip. One that caught my attention was the underwater video recorder from AgfaPhoto.

The videocam is actually out in the market for some months now (I think as early as April when they did the launch event that I wasn’t able to attend). If you’re familiar with the Flip HD, then this is the cheaper counterpart. And, the best thing about it is that it can record underwater (up to 15 feet).

Our visit to Donguan AOF factory showed us how this digicam is made, especially the lenses. For under Php6k, you get a dedicated video recorder that can take stills of up to 5MP.

It’s got a decent f/2.8 aperture and records videos up to 1080p full HD. Aside from that, there’s nothing much to it — 4x digital zoom, an ISO range of 100 to 800 (not good for low-light situation) and a 950mAh battery.

There’s no internal storage on this one so you’ll need to get a separate SD card. Charging and data transfer is done via a built-in USB plug and you can view videos to an external display via the HDMI port.

The closest product I can think of that’s similar to this is the 14MP Sanyo Exacti VPC-CA102YL but that one is only good for up to 10feet and retails for $350.

I’m eager to try this one underwater but have not had the chance yet (maybe this week-end during our surfing trip to La Union). Water-proof, shock-proof, full HD video for Php5,995? Not bad.

Note: Will update once I get those HD videos.