The silica housing itself is great for protecting the camera from nicks and scratches and can be used without the rest of the pieces for day hikes, sports events, or anywhere else that you'd take your camera but risk scratching it. The silica casing allows full access to the buttons on the back of the camera (you press them through the silica) so you're not losing functionality. The screen and lens aren't covered so you do risk damage there if you're not careful. The flash is covered but I haven't noticed much of a negative impact of this in the test shots I've taken so far.
The water-tight housing fits over the silica housing and fits over the screen and lens. It doesn't wrap around the entire camera (which makes me a little nervous) but it snaps down so tight that I'm sure it's fine. You still have full access to the buttons on the back of the camera, which is a big bonus over the APK-WB. One of my other beefs with the APK was that the lens housing was so large that it obstructs the flash on the DSC-W290. This is still an issue with the SPK, and can create a shadow effect when you take pictures of things a few feet away with the flash. The diffuser (the white piece that fits over the lens housing) seems to fix this issue pretty well. I took a couple shots using the housing+diffuser and with the camera on its own (no housing) and got pretty much the same image. It's kind of a pain in that it's one more piece to keep track of when you're out snapping pictures, but I'll get over it. Sony might look into providing the diffuser for the APK-WB as well since it has the same flash-obstruction issue (presuming they can't just redesign the housing to not obstruct the flash).
Overall, I'm still not satisfied that the flash is obstructed at all...it seems like such a basic design flaw that it surprises me Sony didn't correct it when they tested these cases prior to mass production (rather than doing a band-aid fix with the diffuser). Of course, fixing this issue might be a detriment to some other feature, so I don't know. Overall, I still like this housing better than the el-cheapo universal housings on the market and love that Sony finally brought the price down and offered a line of these housings rather than a one-model-fits-all for $300 like they've done in the past. The versatility of the SPK-WB is also a big plus if you're like me and you take your camera in a variety of settings and would appreciate a couple of protective options (the silicon housing by itself or with the water-tight housing).
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I purchased this item in anticipation of our upcoming holiday to Barbados...we swam with sea turtles and through under water shipwrecks!I was a little skeptical of item underwater housing when it first arrived, but as it was made BY SONY for my particular camera I thought it must be okay.
The rubber casing that protects the buttons etc is a good idea. We left this rubber casing on when we were at the beach to protect our camera from sand etc.
The underwater casing itself, once on, snaps tightly closed, however after using it to swim with the turtles we noticed that it was starting to get condensation under the rubber section. We had followed the instructions... so we dried out the casing and wiped the camera down. next time we went in the water with it (again it was within the depth specified), again it filled with condensation (afer about 10 minutes).
Everything appeared to be okay. The photos and video footage was amazing!
BUT on the last day of our holiday we went out for dinner and we were about to get the last romantic photo of my husband and I and....the camera wouldn't work.
upon our return to the US we sent the camera back into sony, the repaired it under the warrantee; they didn't say what was wrong with it...but even so...i cant help but think that it was as a result of the underwater housing.
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Worked wonderfully. The seal kept water out and allowed me to take beautiful pictures. Didn't risk using it for diving but I used it plenty of times snorkeling.Honest reviews on Sony SPK-WB Sports Pack for DSC-W290 Cybershot Camera
UGH sad and very disappointed. Sony's website says this housing is compatible with the WX1 it is NOT the camera is too small for this housing, I could not get the buckles to stay closed it was so loose. Thank goodness I'm smart enough to realize that was a problem!Sending back tomorrow =(
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