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$1500 puts you solidly into a MiniDV system ($2-300 more gets you into HDV...
)
For housings, look at TopDawg, Ocean Images Dolphin, Light & Motion's Stingray Sport or Ikelite. All are in the $8-900 range for their base models. The first three have electronic controls and are designed mostly for Sony and some Canon camcorders. Ikelite and other mechanical housings require purchase of a specific housing for your camera which limits future upgrades since at the very least the controls would have to be retrofitted.
Any of the better Sony MiniDV or some of the Canon models will fit in one of these housings. The housing mfr's websites list compatible models. Required feature on the camcorder is a LANC port as that's what is used for camera control by the housing. Most of the $400 and up Sony's have one, Canon's seem to be more limited.
Another option is buying an HDV camcorder, currently prices are in transition since both Sony and Canon have just released new models. I expect the price of the Sony HC3 to drop below $800 soon and it will fit into the TopDawg or Ocean Images Dolphin. It actually already is sub-$800 on eBay. Another option is the new Sony HC5, another poster here has found it for $805 online, the best I've seen is $899.
You lose some control features by using a non-specific model housing but the big plus is you're shooting in HDV. The camera will also downconvert to SD for editing, burning DVD's etc, yet you'll still have HDV source footage when you start producing HD DVD's. And downconverted HD footage still looks better than MiniDV.
The problem with any of the previous suggestions about shooting still camera video is that almost all shoot at 640x480 @30fps. Which looks OK on a computer and maybe a small television, but doesn't scale well. As you've noticed.
The housing mfr's list can be found here.
)For housings, look at TopDawg, Ocean Images Dolphin, Light & Motion's Stingray Sport or Ikelite. All are in the $8-900 range for their base models. The first three have electronic controls and are designed mostly for Sony and some Canon camcorders. Ikelite and other mechanical housings require purchase of a specific housing for your camera which limits future upgrades since at the very least the controls would have to be retrofitted.
Any of the better Sony MiniDV or some of the Canon models will fit in one of these housings. The housing mfr's websites list compatible models. Required feature on the camcorder is a LANC port as that's what is used for camera control by the housing. Most of the $400 and up Sony's have one, Canon's seem to be more limited.
Another option is buying an HDV camcorder, currently prices are in transition since both Sony and Canon have just released new models. I expect the price of the Sony HC3 to drop below $800 soon and it will fit into the TopDawg or Ocean Images Dolphin. It actually already is sub-$800 on eBay. Another option is the new Sony HC5, another poster here has found it for $805 online, the best I've seen is $899.
You lose some control features by using a non-specific model housing but the big plus is you're shooting in HDV. The camera will also downconvert to SD for editing, burning DVD's etc, yet you'll still have HDV source footage when you start producing HD DVD's. And downconverted HD footage still looks better than MiniDV.
The problem with any of the previous suggestions about shooting still camera video is that almost all shoot at 640x480 @30fps. Which looks OK on a computer and maybe a small television, but doesn't scale well. As you've noticed.
The housing mfr's list can be found here.
