Simple, cheap, chest strapped HD vidcam?

[Psyonide]

Hi all,

I'm, thinking about making my own cheap VholdR/GoPro HD version (scratch the freaking laser beams).
Perhaps suitable for this will be a damaged small P&S camera from EBAY. One of those poor battle scarred things that had their LCD's broken after a cordless bungee jump or some other parts failing so that they go for cheap. I'm thinking that as long as the video capturing mechanism is unharmed and can be operated with 1-2 buttons than it'll do.
After stripping it from the power hungry LCD and additional unnecessary parts perhaps it'll fit snugly in a little DIY or even a flashlight housing, than it's supposed to be mounted on the BCD strap or something alike. The point is that I wish not to handle it during diving.

Since I'm new to DIY, and this may not be the easiest of projects to start with, I'd like to get your opinion on this, and weather you think it's worthwhile or doable?

Thanks.

 

[antero]

...
After stripping it from the power hungry LCD and additional unnecessary parts perhaps it'll fit snugly in a little DIY or even a flashlight housing, than it's supposed to be mounted on the BCD strap or something alike...

That is good idea! But...you probably will spend time on ebay though to find one. If i would had mine broken I would probably just throw it away as the repair will cost half or more of the cost of new one. Then if you found one how could you tell that besides the LCD other parts are still intact? Chips and boards in our days are fragile too. The owner probably has no clue to what extend he damaged the unit ...

 

[Psyonide]

Well, of course I could ask the seller specific questions and make certain that what I need is intact... true that sometimes sellers are dodgy or just can't really know weather the video is fine while stills are not, however more often than not it seems that finding this out is pretty straightforward. Here's to optimism and human nature

 

[350xfire]

The main thing is lighting.

 

[diversteve]

You do or don't want to shoot in HD?

If so, none of the low-end P&S cameras typically shoot video any bigger than 640x480 at 30fps - HD is at least 1280x720 up to 1920x1080. If you just want a cheap camera to shoot SD, Adorama has a couple of refurbs selling for $59 and $69, one's a Nikon L11, the other is a Canon A470. Limit on the video length will be the size of the SD card they accept.

The lowest priced HD video camera is the Bonica Snapper HDDV. It's a vertical camera so would mount to your BC as desired. They also sell an u/w housing for it. Mozaik has it for $579. http://www.housingcamera.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HDDV-DIVE&click=2

 

[350xfire]

Kind of cool and 180' rated...

 

[Psyonide]

@350xfire - Yes, I agree with lighting being a problem... it's a problem that requires bulk and expenditure for a solution. Is it your opinion that the quality will be so low as to make it not worth while?
Judging from the videos from the Bonica site, granted it's not National Geographic quality, but that's fairly decent still IMHO.

@diversteve - Thanks for the references. I want to shoot in HD. There's a bunch of P&S that shoot reasonable 1280x720 at 30fps, just check at DPreview.com.
(Sorry for not providing links, I need 5 posts before I'm allowed )

I have my own Canon sd870 for which I can buy housing, but I'm leaning towards something different.
Take that Bonica camera for example.
I will not use the camera on land- scratch the housing.
I will not manually handle the camera- scratch LCD and many buttons and options.
That's pretty much what I'm going for here...

 

[350xfire]

I built a housing for my 30GB hard drive Sony cam that is not HD. It takes pretty good video, but it is strickly dependent on how much light you have. I took some video in the caves that was not bad, but I had my 3 SSCP7 custom light providing the background lighting. Now, if you are diving in Cozumel during the day with 100' of vis, it may be a different story. I would still use lighting to help with color correction.

 

[diversteve]

@diversteve - Thanks for the references. I want to shoot in HD. There's a bunch of P&S that shoot reasonable 1280x720 at 30fps, just check at DPreview.com.

Seen these? AIPTEK USA Seems like it would be fairly easy to start it then seal in some sort of waterproof box and let it run. A couple of them (all?) have autofocus.

(Sorry for not providing links, I need 5 posts before I'm allowed )

fixed that for you...I'll change it back later.

 

[350xfire]

You don't want autofocus when using it underwater.