WCJ, I made the switch from SD to HDV and can assure you that buying the camera is just the tip of the iceberg. When to go 'HD', everything involved must be HD.. (If you want a true 1080, HD picture to view and share). You must have an HD camera, a housing, computer software that can handle HD [such as Adobe Premier Elements], a computer that can handle the software [at least a dual-core processor], a Blu-ray HD burner, Blu-ray disks, a Blu-ray player, and an HDTV. The biggest mistake people make is that they get an HD camera, but then they burn the video to a standard DVD. It'll work, but your resulting pictures will be worse than SD video. (Believe me, I speak from experience!) As I see replies from people in this forum, who aren't that pleased with their HD cameras, I strongly suspect that not ALL of their equipment is HD. Thus, their resulting video is garbage. For some people, editing video and burning it to disk isn't important. But, for us divers, editing and burning to disk is nearly a requirement. Unfortunately, the sellers of HD camera housings aren't telling purchasers all they need to know... so that they can get really good video from their setup. If you can't make the investment in ALL that it takes to take, edit, and burn true HD, then you should stay with SD. Pictures from SD cameras are phenomenal, and editing and burning to disk are straightforward. And, you probably won't need a new computer for the editing software. (By the way, I recommend Adobe Premier Elements for editing either SD or HD).
Good Luck, Kent