underwater video housing selection limited if not sony , WHY

[Scubatooth]

i have been looking through alot of the underwater video housing and it seems like if you dont have a sony your out of luck or if it is a other brand you get so little control over it.

why is this, me personally i would rather use something other then one of the 200 sony cameras that have been dumped on the market.

the cam im looking at is the 3 ccd canon GL2


any info would be great

 

[Dee]

I can't help you but you might want to check over on Digital Diver.

There are some great videographers there who can probably answer your question.

 

[docmartin]

most housing manufacturers are small businesses that can't afford taking too many risks. it is much more affordable for them to manufacture many housings of the same type than few housings of many different types. sony sells the most cameras so your prospects of selling 1000 housings for a given sony camera are much higher than selling 1000 housings for a specific canon, jvc, samsung etc. it all becomes a vicious cycle because when you look into u/w video you notice that here are more housings for sony so you buy a sony so they make more sony housings...

 

[Scubatooth]

well the problem i have is that i dont like sony at all because they have several bad habits that get compounded as new releases come out

1. is lack of fixing consumers complaints in the current version , rather then that they just come out with a new one with the old complaints fixed or just compound them without fixing them, and plus there customer service and repair facilities just are horrible, i bought a sony 707 over a year ago and it had problems from the start and the retailer i bough it from locally wouldnt do anything about it, and it wasnt till i told sony usa call center manager and a general manager and regional director for the retailer on a conference call that something actually got done. i returned it and got a full refund including the money for the warrenty from sony that was a waste

2. they dump just to much bull cookies on the market, they will take one camera and tweak it slightly and sell it for more , ie the vx 2000 and the pd 150 or the trv 900 and pdx10 (i dont even consider the lower cameras <1k worth looking at)


its just frustrating, i can get a 3 chipper with great quality to to all of the top side stuff i need , but when it comes to housings the options look rather bad

(do any of these companies do custom housing ? sea and sea, amphico, etc for a gl2 or do i have to go with the sony option:fury

 

[drbill]

Although just a basic flat port housing with few bells and whistles, the Top Dawg works not only with Sony camcorders but also with the newer Canons from what I hear. I have two of them and like the fact that they are non-dedicated and I can use any of the three Sony camcorders I have interchangably.

If you're looking for a more elegant solution, you'll need to spend the big bucks.

Dr. Bill

 

[ike]

Canon G2 housing is available as shown in following URL:

http://www.ikelite.com/web_pages/vcanongl2.html

 

[Scubatooth]

the ike is ok i would prefer some electronic control to so that i can keep the cam steady while changing a setting, plus i need a external monitor because looking through the viewfinder the whole time is goingto be not reallyu do able (ie being able to see where im going and whats around me.

plus the ike is missing two controls that i need and that is the ability to switch modes when filming, which the control on the back. and the other control is the expsure compensation which on the first pic of the housing from the manufacture is just to the left of the last control.

plus another thing in wishing for is the ability to plug in a ffm to the audio imputs so that i can put my notes in the video so when i go to edit the video i can extract it and and have my notes.

plus i dont know how i would be able to attach a lighting system to the housing other then ikes, personally i want to use a ball and arm system attached to 2 light canons.

 

[JoelW]

I went with Equinox for the Canon Optura 200MC that I picked up a bit ago.

http://www.underwatervideohousings.com/index.htm

The nice thing about then is that customizing is not a problem. If there is access to the control from the outside they can put a button on it. I have two extra controls that I want on mine and the quoted price was $75 per control. I am going to put ball and arm light arms on mine for the lighting that I am planning. They sell arms but I am probably going to go with the Dive Rite arms since that is what my cannister is.

JoelW

 

[Nitrox Junkie]

Another good thing about the Equinox housing is that if you ever decide to change cameras, they will scrap the old housing(tube section) and revamp a new one for the new camera for a mimimal cost, much cheaper than buying a new one. I think they go new for less than $1000 and they come with a color correction filter, wide angle lense and a replacement O-ring kit. I checked around and that is the best housing deal I could find out there. You can buy directly from them also and not have to go through the markup of a middle man.

Jeff "Great lakes diver"

 

[jhelmuth]

This may be too simple for your desires, but I bougth one of these from Aquatix and found them to work really well - KISS.

Aquatix

It's nice and easy to use, great quality, and it will always work with any camera!