Admitting Defeat

[marshallkarp]

I will be retiring my homemade video housing and buying a commercial made one. I no longer trust it. It leaked in Key West this summer and I thought I had repaired it, but it really leaked bad at White Star.

I noticed what I thought was a slow leak at White Star, but when I opened it, water came pouring out. The CAMERA SURVIVED! The water soaked up into the two soft weight packs below the shelf, which kept it from sloshing around. I did not even know there was a problem until one of my dive buddies saw the water inside on the way out of the water.

I think the o-ring is hard rubber and was too hard due to the 64 degree water temperature. Never had this problem in my usual 80 degree temperature in the Atlantic Ocean. The warmer temperature seemed to give the o-ring more smoosh factor.

My camera is a Sony DCR-TRV33 that I have had for three or four years now. I would have been mildly upset to ruin it, but there are even better cameras now for less than $300. However, I hope to get the Sony HDR-HC3 HD camcorder and there is no way I want to take that kind of a chance on the housing holding up or not.

It was a good try, but like they always say, in the end, you do get what you pay for. I admit defeat, give-up, and surrender. Shame too, I really liked my housing, when it worked, and it was cheap, too. Someone built it for me for $200. Can you feel my disappointment coming through as I write this?

Anywho, onward and upward. Now which new housing to get? My choices are so pricey. And, I don't know why Sony doesn't just make the camcorders with the right lenses. You have to buy a wide angle lens to compensate, somewhat, for the underwater optics. Anyway, I need the housing and the wide angle lens. I will let you know how things work out. I will be off to Grand Cayman in November and I sure want to record that.

Humbler, but wiser.

Marshall Karp
Dover, OH
September 5, 2006

 

[Charlie59]

Watch out, the sony will come HD that records to HD (hard disk)! The mini DV is a thing of the past.

 

[marshallkarp]

The Sony HDR-HC3 use mini DV tapes. I have a concern about those hard drive camcorders. I can pop in a new tape for every sightseeing excursion and dive and the tapes can be bought almost anywhere. However, generally, I don't take the laptop on trips, so there is no way to download the video, should you run out of camcorder hard drive space.

I take my Dell PDA on trips for email and internet and I take my Mustek Personal Video Recorder to watch movies and shows. With all the gear and stuff I need to take, the laptop sits at home.

 

[diversteve]

Watch out, the sony will come HD that records to HD (hard disk)! The mini DV is a thing of the past.

They have - except that Sony dumbed it down so much that it's mostly useless for u/w use - no Lanc port, no firewire etc.:
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INT..._HardDiskHandycamCamcorders&ProductSKU=HDRSR1

And I agree with Marshall, having to dump raw video from it's 30GB drive - seems like they could have gone bigger - to a laptop seems like a pain. Although I do currently bring mine, it's probably the next thing to stay home if I need the space. I can stuff a lot of DV tapes in my luggage and edit when I get home. Not to mention the fact that how many times can you dump 30GB of video to a normal laptop, for me that would be about 2+X before I used up all my freespace.

Marshall, fwiw, I'm pretty pleased with my Amphibico EVO. Some people over on Digital Diver like the Seatool, but I'm not convinced about it, there seems to be a couple of potential problems with it imho.

 

[marshallkarp]

No firewire? I just checked the specs and you are correct. So, how do you download? With the USB I suppose?

 

[marshallkarp]

Check that, I was looking at the wrong camcorder. The HDR-HC3 does have a LANC Control and firewire. Their new hard disk HD camcorder does not.