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| But That's Not A GoPro! |
If
you wander into a camera shop, wave a few hundred pounds in the face
of the guy behind the counter and say “I want to buy a camera that
works underwater”, chances are he'll smile knowingly and sell you a
GoPro. Just as the BMW is the must have car for estate agents,
insurance salesman and Red Bull fuelled investment bankers, then in
the world of the selfie-taking underwater geek the GoPro is the king,
the benchmark by which not only are all other cameras to be judged
but how you, as the owner, are judged. Own a BMW and you must have
made it. Own a GoPro and you're a cool, radical thrill-seeker with a degree in media studies and no extraneous body hair. Walk
into the same shop however, wave the same amount of cash and ask to
see the new Intova, then chances are that counter guy will laugh in
your face. In the minds of many, owning an Intova camera is akin to
owning a washing machine made by Cadbury or buying a house because
you want to live in it rather than as an investment or for that matter, naming your daughter
Michelle rather than Apple Blossom Perky Boobs. It's just not the
thing trend-setters do. It's just not cool. Of course the parents of
Miss Perky Boobs are completely wrong just as the the guy in the
camera shop is. Intova is, and has been for some time, a leading name
in underwater cameras. So successful are they in fact that someone
you know probably owns one, they just haven't told you.
Not
that this road to the success hasn't hit some large bumps. The Intova
IC 12 and 14 were pretty awful cameras with the nasty habit of
turning themselves off and returning to factory settings at the most
inconvenient moment. A problem that still exists with the IC 16. The
video quality was also dreadful and the whole appearance of the
camera was reminiscent of a cheap Chinese import.
The
Intova Edge X is a little different. Being self contained in a rubber
armoured housing the Edge X dispenses with the need for a separate
housing. It also benefits from a small LCD screen with anti glare
hood so you can actually see what you're shooting, something that the
GoPro lacks. A professional photographer we know once told us that
any camera is only as good as the lens. Well the Edge X has one of
those, in fact it is a super wide-angle lens at 160 degrees and the
camera has a video fisheye correction system, so that's alright then.
It shoots up to 12mp photos and has 1080p@60fps HD video
resolution. The whole thing is waterproof to 300 feet/100 metres and
is capable of all the little tricks you'd expect from any camera.
Manual white balance, burst mode, slave strobe function, wifi, 60x
digital zoom, time lapse, motion detection etc, etc. The Edge X can
also be fitted with various external lighting systems, mounts and
accessories to create a complete film and photography system. There
are some downsides however, the buttons all seem to have dual modes,
which means that it can feel like you're trying to play a flute
underwater rather than take a snap. The 12mp photo resolution is also
little disappointing but is no different to other action cameras.
What
sets this camera aside is the LCD screen. Although small you can at
least visualise what you're aiming at. The GoPro is designed to be
bolted into one place and is usually used to show the owners face,
feet or front tyre as they do something wild and trendy, the Edge X
is designed to shoot what you are looking at. That, in our opinion,
makes it worth braving the smirks of shop assistants and the
disdain of men who wax their chests everywhere. So if you're not an estate
agent, you don't want to burden your child with a silly name, are
happy with your hairy chest and don't want all of your holiday videos
to be of your face, dispense with flock mentality
trends and buy an Intova. Yes Miss Perky Boobs and the GoPro crowd
will still laugh at you, but they all have silly names and work in
banks so what do they know!
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