Pool Time Fun and Underwater Videos with Vivitar DVR

This summer our family spent a lot of time swimming.  Between the beach, hotel pools and the local water park the kids were little fish.  A pool in our backyard is one of the main items on my wish list.  Normally when I want to capture memories of the kids playing at the water park or pool I have to stand on the sidelines and snap a quick photo while trying to prevent getting my phone wet.

When I was asked to review the Vivitar DVR 850W I knew our family would have fun with this little handheld waterproof video camera.  Little did I know how many times it would be passed between each family member, everyone wanting to play with it in the pool.

DVR 850W includes:

  • Waterproof up to 5 meters
  • Rechargeable lithium ion battery
  • 8x Digital Zoom
  • 2.4″ LCD

We took the Vivitar DVR with us to Louisiana on our family weekend getaway.  We did not take time to read the instructions beyond how to charge the camera.  We also did not take time to test it out at home or outside of the water first.  We just dove right in and attempted to figure it all out.

I would not suggest our approach.  There were a few times we thought it was recording and sad to say, it wasn’t.  We also somehow deleted some footage from the SD card that we didn’t realize we deleted until we were home and trying to view the footage.  I’m sure both times were operator error.  We also forgot to set the date and time.  You cannot see the date stamp on the videos but we took a few still images and the date is on those…. and it’s wrong.

However, we did have a blast playing with it. I was very pleased with the quality of underwater clarity it provided.  The videos picked up all the sound extremely clearly, almost too high of a volume.  I edited our video clips to lower the volume on some of them and even muted one because the kids were being rowdy in the pool (or just loud) and it was too much to listen to on a video.

I have tried out another underwater video camera in the past and was not pleased with it. You could not hear voices very well when above water.  If I take a video camera on a beach trip I don’t want to carry two different ones – one for out of water and one for in water.  What I liked about the Vivitar DVR was you could clearly hear everyone so it made capturing videos great even if above water.  The clarity was pretty decent too. I do suggest having your beach towel or some other cloth to wipe the lens when it fogs up.  A foggy lens is normal when going in and out of water with different temperatures.

I compiled some of our video clips and the only part I edited was the volume to be lower.  The videos themselves were not edited in any way.  The below video shows the true quality of the Vivitar DVR 850W.

Do your kids love to play in the water? How do you preserve those memories?

Full Disclosure: I received the Vivitar DVR 850W complimentary to conduct this review.  All opinions are 100% my own.

6 Comments

  1. How fun! I need to remember this for the future. As of now Jace is scared to put his face in the water, much less his whole body UNDER water! I remember having a cheap disposable underwater camera on one vacation to Florida as a kid. We had so much fun with it! This is taking it to another level.

    1. Erin, I wonder if playing with a video camera in the water might give him a little more confidence. Make water play fun and encourage him to go under to see the camera and then watch himself on the screen? Kids are easily fascinated with stuff like that. Good luck! I remember when mine were too scared to swim.

  2. I love this idea, my boys love watching me under water with their goggles on, I bet if they had something like this they would love to video tape under water. Totally awesome product to have for family pool days and beach days! I would love to record under the ocean water, honestly!

    1. The first underwater video camera I ever tested out I took with me snorkeling in the ocean. The quality of the videos on this Vivitar is MUCH better and I can’t wait to use it at the beach next time.

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