RogerAGrimes
Contributor
I'm a 12-year U/V hobbyist that does mostly Caribbean type diving. I've used an older model Light & Motion Stingray housing with Sony Hi-8/Digital for 8-10 of those years. Yesterday, after doing a few hours of forum reading and vendor information review, I bought L&M's latest Stringray G2+Premium pack, along with a Sony HDR-XR550V.
Although I haven't received it, I feel like I made a fairly decent decision and purchase. I'm going to love the 240GB hard drive to record to, instead of putting in tapes (and the 12MP stills). All my major camera repair incidents came from replacing tapes between dives. No matter how hard I tried to keep the environment dry, I would end up gunking up the camera heads and would have to send it off to be repaired (after trying to fix it myself for hours). Here's to never opening the housing while near water!
Besides all the great camera features, it seems like the L&M housing has excellent controls, easy to operate, well positioned, and the controls physically separate from the main housing using optical to connect (so less failure points). I think that must be far better than their old way of using magnets (which would sometimes fail to respond).
It's not like I didn't have other problems with my current L&M housing. The external monitor often use to quit on me, ruining the dive or forcing me to always carry the regular external back viewer. I'd send the monitor back, and they would say no problem (this happened a few times over 10 years). The battery lights were horrible in quitting, quick to die, and in general, often didn't work. The camera connection came apart. In the end, over the past year, I would basically turn the camera on, shove it into the housing, and tape continuously during the dive. Turns out that wasn't such a bad idea because I caught more scenes than I missed (waiting for the camera to unpause and resume recording), but I had no controls. I would just pre-set mid-zoom and shoot everything the same. Not optimal. That's why I've been coveting a new camera.
So after doing research yesterday, I was surprised that I choose L&M again. Maybe it's a lot of experience comfort (i.e. I know how to handle the camera). I was even a little put off by the high price (as compared to much of the competition), and the larger size/volume. I was previously salivating over the many very small, low weight, and low price competitors.
I really wanted something smaller (easier to carry and pack during trips). I looked into the single handle handhelds, the other competitor's housings, and even the integrated dive masks. But I didn't see anything that had the feature set, construction, and easy of actual use that L&M did. I was surprised by how many housings didn't even have a red filter or manual WB. Who would use a camera without a red filter? In the end, L&M won me and my dollars again (they've always been an excellent company to deal with). With the exception of the lights and external monitor problems, the old unit was a good unit for 9 years of rough sea handling.
I've already bought my new dream setup, but I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on the other alternatives, competition, or L&M comments...just to hear them.
Plus, I use Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate software to edit my videos. It has everything I need (plus three hundred other features), but after 10 years, I still struggle to easily integrate music into my videos (e.g. timing, stops, etc.). Anyone use that product and come up with something better?
Although I haven't received it, I feel like I made a fairly decent decision and purchase. I'm going to love the 240GB hard drive to record to, instead of putting in tapes (and the 12MP stills). All my major camera repair incidents came from replacing tapes between dives. No matter how hard I tried to keep the environment dry, I would end up gunking up the camera heads and would have to send it off to be repaired (after trying to fix it myself for hours). Here's to never opening the housing while near water!
Besides all the great camera features, it seems like the L&M housing has excellent controls, easy to operate, well positioned, and the controls physically separate from the main housing using optical to connect (so less failure points). I think that must be far better than their old way of using magnets (which would sometimes fail to respond).
It's not like I didn't have other problems with my current L&M housing. The external monitor often use to quit on me, ruining the dive or forcing me to always carry the regular external back viewer. I'd send the monitor back, and they would say no problem (this happened a few times over 10 years). The battery lights were horrible in quitting, quick to die, and in general, often didn't work. The camera connection came apart. In the end, over the past year, I would basically turn the camera on, shove it into the housing, and tape continuously during the dive. Turns out that wasn't such a bad idea because I caught more scenes than I missed (waiting for the camera to unpause and resume recording), but I had no controls. I would just pre-set mid-zoom and shoot everything the same. Not optimal. That's why I've been coveting a new camera.
So after doing research yesterday, I was surprised that I choose L&M again. Maybe it's a lot of experience comfort (i.e. I know how to handle the camera). I was even a little put off by the high price (as compared to much of the competition), and the larger size/volume. I was previously salivating over the many very small, low weight, and low price competitors.
I really wanted something smaller (easier to carry and pack during trips). I looked into the single handle handhelds, the other competitor's housings, and even the integrated dive masks. But I didn't see anything that had the feature set, construction, and easy of actual use that L&M did. I was surprised by how many housings didn't even have a red filter or manual WB. Who would use a camera without a red filter? In the end, L&M won me and my dollars again (they've always been an excellent company to deal with). With the exception of the lights and external monitor problems, the old unit was a good unit for 9 years of rough sea handling.
I've already bought my new dream setup, but I'm interested in hearing other thoughts on the other alternatives, competition, or L&M comments...just to hear them.
Plus, I use Pinnacle Studio 14 Ultimate software to edit my videos. It has everything I need (plus three hundred other features), but after 10 years, I still struggle to easily integrate music into my videos (e.g. timing, stops, etc.). Anyone use that product and come up with something better?
And there is this Steve Douglas guy out of California who will be along as well. Like Rick, he is quite an accomplished uw videographer. I don't know what he shoots with but he will also want my housing. Maybe I'll get to film he and Rick in an uw James Bond type of battle to see who will get my Stingray +! 
