I just bought the camera too last week.
Just a few comments for everyone;
The price you just cant beat. For that price you are getting a shockproof, waterproof, metal camera. You cant even buy a decent underwater case at double the price of this cam.
Yep its heavy for a compact, which may not be a bad thing, the thing is made of metal able to withstand shocks and pressure.
From experience, the LCD can be hard to see in bright light, especially when you are all wet, and you are swimming without goggles.
Underwater itself, the screen is fine with googles, but its impossible to see without goggles.
The lens area is quite small, so if you want to take those nifty half underwater half out of water shot, it can be quite a challenge. To get the water level between that 2 cm square area of the lens
The camera seem to have separate focusing for underwater and out of water, I find the underwater focusing to be quite slow. Water quality may have been a factor I dont know.
This coupled with the difficulty of viewing the LCD underwater makes it impossible to take a properly framed shot, in fact most of the time I was just shooting blind.
BUT... despite of the shortcomings... its a very interesting camera to take around.
You can just dip it in the water without worrying about cleaning seals, putting cream all over the seals, like for those underwater casings. Its almost 0 maintenance.
Think of it as an underwater point and shoot toy, and at that price, who can complain?
If you take your family out to the beach often, I highly recommend the camera.
Forgot to mention it takes great VGA video underwater too, amazing!
If you want to venture further, I have tried snorkelling at the following places and they are pretty good...