what's the deal with video housings ?

[Depth Gauge]

My advice is that if you go the underwater video route, make sure you have white balance, both on the camera and the housing. It's critical for getting professional results. As far as video cameras behaving poorly in low light conditions there are some performers out there that are actually quite good. Sony's VX2000 is a good choice but will definately hit your bank account at around $2k. I decided to go with a Sony TRV900, not quite as good in low light but adequate and far superior to many others on the market. Best of luck.

Jason

 

[Dee]

FallenMatt once bubbled...
...also, anybody knows about any place in Florida that does housing rentals ?

i would like to give it a try one weekend, do few dives, do some videos and see if the whole underwater picture taking is worth $1000 in equipment

The only place that comes to mind is Steven Frink in Key Largo. Some friends of ours rented video rigs from them to try them out before buying.

 

[alcina]

FallenMatt -

I have been using 1 chip cameras for years and haven't had any problems with the footage in low light at all. I mean, you have to give the camera "something" to work with, but that isn't too hard unless you are in a cave/stick camera in hole (which still sometimes works). Sometimes if there are lots of floaties and low light it gets a bit confused on auto focus, but steady hands can usually correct that.

I have sold footage from the 1 chip camera to all manner of people & commercial users (tv stations, film crews etc, too). I do not own lights and simply use the filter that comes with the housing (amphibico). this is great for our water here. Lights are wonderful - especially for macro or if you water isn't exactly right for the filter (or vice versa). I think you do have spend big on lights so you avoid hot spots and get wide enough coverage.

I have had Canon 1 chips and Sony 1 chips. Also the three chip Sony 900 - you can't tell the difference on consumer playback equipment.

Good luck...there are millions of choices and whatever you buy will be superseeded by the time it arrives it seems!

 

[Tkojis]

I recently sold my Ikelite housing. they tend to be a little bulky and the mechanical controls are somewhat difficult to use when trying to do more than one thing at a time. Mechanical controls also have a greater potential for leakage because thet have more holes in the housing itself. I purchased a light and motion Stingray2. It has easy to use electromagnetic controls which are very conveniantly located. One option that is extrememly useful when purchasing a video housing is an internal filter. You will need this at depths greater than 10-15' or your footage will look blue. Filters that fit on the outside of the lens require that you put them on underwater and clear the bubbles off the off. If you use lights or are in shallow water.leaving the filter on will make your footage red,in which case you need to remove the filter and find someplace to keep it. This may not be a major problem, but I found it a pain in the rear end! One option that I found invaluable was a moniter back for the housing. Its like looking at the LCD screen on your camera which helps you frame pictures and see exactly what you are shooting. Most importantly for me was the fact that it was quite easy to see when the camera was recording as I have hours of footage of the bottom or my fins while im hanging on a rope not knowing the camera was on. It was pretty expensive...a $700 add on..but well worth it in my book. As far as lights go,I only use them at night or in very macro situations. I dont know if they are worth the money or not. You could always buy them later if you feel the need. My Sony TRV 730 digital does quite well in low light situations. I went for the cheap option the first time around and it didnt take long to realize it was not what I wanted. The quality was good,but not as user friendly as the Light and Motion.

 

[FallenMatt]

well, i was looking around and found those guys:
aquavideo

i think i dove once with a guy who used this housing. I thiunk it is interesting that the camera inside of it is moved a little bit to the side so that there is a space to put a mirror inside so you can see the camera's LCD display through the back of the housign without having to deal with extra lcd monitor.

well.. i put this idea on a back burner for now, i decided i need to first do some dives with borrowed equipment before i start buying the stuff

 

[Albion]

I have a Sony PC110 in a Gates housing which I have used for just over two years now, i'm no expert but here’s my input.

My choice was based upon small size, weight and not too expensive (that ruled out the light and motion housing which is very nice)

The Gates is an aluminum housing with mechanical controls, which is a little heavy but not as heavy as some plastic housing which need ballast weights. It is also very rugged, I jump in with it all the time. Also it has a dry o ring seal so less time spent cleaning it. I wanted something negatively buoyant but now I have lights I am very negative, I would have been better getting buoyant housing then adding lights.

I went for mechanical rather than electrical, as I was concerned over damp and humidity affecting the workings. Mechanical controls always work but sometimes can be a bit fiddly to get it all working. The Sea quest design with the pro controls does actually look to be very workable and I think I would give that more consideration if I was looking again.

If going for lights then HID is a must have, it gets the colour just right. But lights will only work over short distances. If sunlight is diffused by seawater to remove reds by 7m depth, so then if you had (I wish) a light with the same intensity as sunlight it will only be effective to a range of 3.5M (3.5M to object + 3.5M back = 7M).

Viewfinders, my housing uses the small eye viewfinder, which is a little difficult to accurately centre at first but you get used to it. Some housing allow you to use the flip out LCD, however this uses more battery and more importantly I am not sure the colours will look right underwater. I find that when reviewing my video topsides sometimes the LCD screen does not do it justice, the colours looked washed out and over blue. Playback on TV or through the viewfinder bring the colours back. So I wonder how during the dive you can evaluate the colours. IE when faced with the decision of red filter, no filter or lights.

White Balance – This was mentioned earlier, on a recent trip the dive pro was using a three chip camera with no red filter or lights but was using the white balance feature. His video had infinitely more colour than mine despite my red filter. My housing unfortunately does not allow me to use white balance underwater, and so I just preset before the dive but it’s not ideal. Think this is a Big must have.

In summary think about what you want it to do, what features are must haves and what would be nice, transportability and of course price.