Polaroid X800E 8MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 8x Digital Zoom - Blazing Yellow

This camera performs well, takes great pictures and video and is waterproof (so far).

It's well worth the money to have a digital camera that you can use in and under water for trips to the beach, waterpark and pool without putting your more expensive digital cameras in harms way.

It is difficult to see the display with sun glasses, and the camera will wait for the flash to be ready before it will take a picture, you can solve this by turning off the flash, you probably won't need it outside in the sun.

Overall the pictures and video are fantastic, way better than the disposable water cameras.

I highly recommend picking one up

What a fool I am... I saw this cute yellow camera, supposedly reduced by over a £100, and thought "ah, Polaroid... must be fairly decent". I'm always paranoid about getting sand / water in my more expensive cameras at the beach and thought this could be a good alternative. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that Polaroid - although a household name in the 70's and 80's - were all about gimmicks and not really about quality images. Seems this ethos hasn't changed in 2011.

Indeed this camera is waterproof (I popped it into a fish tank, to see if it would break. Shame it didn't really, otherwise I could have returned it as not fit for purpose!)

However, the big disappointment is the image quality for both the photos and video mode. Bad colours, over-exposed sky, too much 'noise'... all the sort of thing you'd associate with the junk that Vivitar produce. Come to think of it, this camera's menus are surprisingly similar to some horrible Vivitar thing we bought for my daughter a few years ago! I wonder....!

Sadly prior to my purchase, there were no reviews anywhere on the web. Now there is - this one ! My recommendation is don't buy unless you're not that bothered about image quality!

This review may be a little premature as I bought the camera so that I can take underwater pics in the Galapagos Islands next Feb. However as soon as I received it I put it thru its paces.....to some degree. The first thing to bear in mind is the price.....(£40Polaroid X800E 8MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 8x Digital Zoom - Blazing YellowPolaroid X800E 8MP Waterproof Digital Camera with 8x Digital Zoom - Blazing Yellow). I have a £400 Canon and didn't want to go thru the same expense again for basically one holiday - so I thought I'd take a punt with this 'cheapER' camera.

The pics are nothing like professional - but then no-one would expect them to be! They are of a reasonable quality. Good enough for my, hopefully, underwater wild life but I don't expect David Attenborough rushing to buy them off me!
And the pics will stand some enlargement using simple software such as Arcsoft and still be acceptable. As a result it will allow me to use the 8x digital zoom as little as possible. That is not to say the zoom is not good - it is as good as any other, it's just that digital zooms, generally, are not the best. Optical is always the answer but I guess for obvious reasons an underwater camera (at £40) can't have moving parts unless they are waterproof.

The only waterproof test I have subjected it to, so far, is submerging it in a sink of water and taking pics. It survived that test.

The controls may be a little fiddly, but then the camera is only small. And although there are many different settings on it (eg resolution, pic quality, scene mode), I shall be using everything in auto or default mode as I am not convinced that any camera at this technical/price level gives any better results when customising the settings. The only non-default setting I use is the resolution - max is 8 megapixels I shall use 5mp. This is because the camera has a 5mp CMOS sensor and 8mp gives no better results than 5mp - this is clear from my test results. Also '5mp' pics take up less space on my PC.

So what ain't good? So far the only 'challenge' I find is that the shutter button is a little hard to press. May be it's the waterproofing around it, I don't know. But the result is that you must make a conscious effort not to move the camera when taking a shot.
Although it has provision to attach a wrist strap it doesn't come with a strap. To my mind, if you're going to go swimming/snorkelling with the camera a wrist strap is essential. Fortunately I had one off an old camera, but for a few pence (or cents?) I'd have thought Polaroid could provide one with the package.
The X800 does not come with a memory card or batteries, but this is made clear at the outset and I guess many cameras don't anyway.

In conclusion, taking into account the price tag, I am more than happy with this little waterproof camera.....so far - but I don't expect that to change. Clearly it will never replace my Canon but I am confident it will do the job I bought it for. After the Galapagos it will mainly be used when playing with my kids and grand kids in and around swimming pools, where, as a simple snap shot camera, it will be used for what it is really meant for - simple snap shots in the wet.

I have given it 4* but maybe after Feb I shall uprate that to 5* - watch this space.