We Bought An Intova Edge X And Surprisingly, We Weren't Embarrassed

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!