First Video Package

[bfisher]

Ok folks, it's time for me to ask for some sound advice. I just stated shooting photos a couple years ago with an MX-10. Well, it didn't take but a year for me to figure out a distinct advantage going to digital. Being budget minded I ended up with an Olmpus Sp-350 and Olympus housing, then adding a Sealife 960 DS strobe. So much for that. It's decent within my budget.

Now my wife, God bless her, says I have to go video. I've been doing a lot of research over the last couple months and think I'm ready to make a decision. I've pretty much narrowed my camera choices down to a Canon HV-20 or Sony HV7. I'm leaning more toward the Sony just because of housing choices.

Housings!!!!!! Oh Boy!!!!!!!! OK, I'm about narrowed down to one. I like the specs and size/weight of the Seatool HC7 housing. Small, lightweight and with lots of features. And we all know about airline restrictions on weight, etc, these days. So much for being budget minded.

I'm not considering lights at this point. I've never owned a camcorder so this is my first venture. I'm asking for those who may know, what do you think of my choices? I'm also open to suggestions for comparable packages.

For anybody who wants to really help, I've found what might be a very good deal on the camcorder. I'm looking at the Silver package at www.bestcameraprices.com.
Anybody have any views on this?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Barry

 

[ronscuba]

Which other housings were you considering ?

I'd be careful with that camera dealer.

 

[diversteve]

Sounds like you've made your choices. The only thing I'd add is that if you're diving locally with gloves, the buttons on the Seatool are pretty close together. I handled one this summer and it's a sweet housing otherwise. It's so tiny, it might fit in a standard camcorder bag.

Buying it from Reef Photo/Video? They're the Seatools U.S. Importer.

fwiw, I have an Amphibico EVO and it also fits in my airline-approved roller bag. I think the Gates HC7 housing does also.

No LANC on the HV20 so you'd have to look to Ikelite, Equinox or Aquavideo for a housing. Maybe Gates will do one soon, although I doubt it, haven't seen any announcement.

The link to bestcameraprices doesn't seem to be working now. Maybe check them on resellerratings.com. B&H Photo/Video is another good alternative - I've bought from them for years.

 

[DaFireMedic]

For anybody who wants to really help, I've found what might be a very good deal on the camcorder. I'm looking at the Silver package at www.bestcameraprices.com.
Anybody have any views on this?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Barry

Bestpricecameras.com (I believe thats what you meant) has a very poor reputation among the video population on the net. As Ronscuba said, be very careful with them (actually, you should probably avoid them). They are known for advertising prices that would leave them with virtually no profit margin if everything was on the up and up. Avoid the "too good to be true" dealers.

As pointed out above, B&H is well known for good prices and service, and I've had good experiences with Tri-State.

 

[marshallkarp]

bfisher

You may get some insight listening to our Underwater Videographer podcast at Underwater Videographer

sjspeck

You gave me an idea to check into about a possible interview at Reef Photo about that Seatool housing. I'm sure there are listeners that want information about this to make buying decisions.

 

[bfisher]

Looks like I'm on my way. Reef Photo Video had a Seatool HC7 housing on Ebay. I made them an offer and they accepted. Guess I'm kind of committed to getting a Sony HC7 now.

Oh well, so much for the budget. Hey, I have my wife's blessing and everybody tells me they never saw a Brink's truck following a hearse.

I just can't believe the price disparity between retailers on the camcorder, though. I've found prices from $550 to $1400 on an HC7. Somebody has to convince me there isn't a huge markup on these things.

 

[DaFireMedic]

Oh well, so much for the budget. Hey, I have my wife's blessing and everybody tells me they never saw a Brink's truck following a hearse.

I just can't believe the price disparity between retailers on the camcorder, though. I've found prices from $550 to $1400 on an HC7. Somebody has to convince me there isn't a huge markup on these things.

Congrats on the new housing (and the cool wife.....)

There is obviously some mark-up, just as there is on Scuba gear, but most local camera store owners are not rich. The problem occurs with places like bestpricecameras.com offering the HC7 for $549. They obviously have to make money somewhere, but they certainly would not at that price. I have read that the "seller ratings" site which is advertised on their site and looks independent is actually their own. Obviously all the ratings are stellar on this particular ratings site, but if you look on the independent seller ratings sites which are known to be legit, bestpricecameras.com gets slammed. Avoid them.

Also avoid Broadway cameras, I had a bad experience with them about 10 years ago, and see now that they too have almost unanimously bad ratings.

If you buy online, stick to the reputable sites.

 

[diversteve]

I just can't believe the price disparity between retailers on the camcorder, though. I've found prices from $550 to $1400 on an HC7. Somebody has to convince me there isn't a huge markup on these things.

What you'll find is that the lower-cost dealers are going to try to upsell you things you might need - like a memory duo stick, the adapter for it, things like that. They even sometimes break out all the pieces that you normally get in the box from Sony and sell them separately.

So when it says camera/charger, with some that may be all you get. I've read that some even replace the battery with a cheap oem battery - which won't smart charge with your AC series charger. And some of the cameras sold are grey market as well, foreign imports with menus/manuals labeled in Japanese - not too convenient.

I followed one down the rathole once, they had even copied the Sonystyle webpage data down to the last sentence. Except for their disclaimer hidden near the bottom that mentioned that the camera I was buying was a store return that had been checked over by their "expert" technicians.

So if you go strictly for price, read the fine print...

I follow a lot of the threads here and I've seen at least a 1/2 dozen posts from people in the last year who went for the low-price and then didn't get what they'd ordered, the box was obviously opened previously or were backordered for months.

resellerratings.com is the first place I'd look if I didn't recognize the seller.

 

[diversteve]

You gave me an idea to check into about a possible interview at Reef Photo about that Seatool housing. I'm sure there are listeners that want information about this to make buying decisions.

Call Ryan, I'm sure he'll be glad to talk about it.

 

[DaFireMedic]

resellerratings.com is the first place I'd look if I didn't recognize the seller.

Lol, I looked here for Best Price Cameras and on a scale of 0 to 10, they rated a 0.29. This was based on 337 ratings. Virtually every review contains the word "nightmare". Then again I stated that I had a good experience from Tri-State (which I did), and they didn't fare all that well either (much better than Best Price though), although people are much more likely to post a rating if they have had a bad experience.

Bfisher, its not my intent to discourage you from finding a good price, only to avoid inscrupulous retailers. I just want to you to be happy with your purchase and post cool videos when you are all set up.