New Toy

Last year, I tried putting my camera in a zip lock bag in order to protect it in the pool. Didn't work so well! I also got a disposable underwater camera, but was very disappointed with the results. When I saw the Aquapac, I thought it might be a good solution. I ordered it a week ago, and when it arrived Friday, I was really excited. I finally got to give it a test run today.

Overall, I'm glad I got it. Definitely worth the $35. However, it's not perfect. Getting good underwater pictures is incredibly difficult, although that isn't because of the bag, really. You can't really look through the viewfinder, so it's hard to see if your subject is in the frame. I got at least 5 pictures of Sarah's body--no head. And even if you do get the subject reasonably centered, chances are good it will look distorted.
If I only wanted to be able to get underwater pictures, I'd be somewhat disappointed. But the other aspect to taking the camera in the pool is that I can get closer to the kids, and get different angles. Last year, I was really limited by being on the sides, even with the zoom.
I could never have gotten this shot last year. I also got some close ups that I like.

It was almost impossible to see if I'd gotten a shot or not--the bag combined with the sunshine made it hard to see the LCD screen. Taking the camera in and out of the bag was a little unwieldy, but not too difficult. I did leave it open on the table for a while, because even though I had a bag of silica gel desiccant in there, I did get some condensation, which I was trying to avoid.

Overall, I'm glad I got it, and I'll keep using it at the pool. It's going to be hard to narrow down the swim pictures for this year's Christmas album!