Which camera for UW video? (1400$ budget)

[Duarte]

Hello

I want a nice camera for UW video but I'm just having so much difficulty to choose one.

I started by thinking about he Canon 6D but the housing and the lens ports are too expensive.

Now I was thinking of the Sony RX-100 II but I just found out that there are some incompatibilities with the .MTS video files and the MAC OSX. Basically you cannot preview the files in Finder like you would with a .mov file. You need to convert them to .mp4 or .mov which can be time consuming and can lead to loss of video quality.

So my budget for a camera and the UW housing is around 1400$US

Can anyone suggest me any other nice cameras for UW video? I want to get some really good UW videos for semi-professional use.

Thanks!

 

[kkfok]

Hello

I want a nice camera for UW video but I'm just having so much difficulty to choose one.

I started by thinking about he Canon 6D but the housing and the lens ports are too expensive.

Now I was thinking of the Sony RX-100 II but I just found out that there are some incompatibilities with the .MTS video files and the MAC OSX. Basically you cannot preview the files in Finder like you would with a .mov file. You need to convert them to .mp4 or .mov which can be time consuming and can lead to loss of video quality.

So my budget for a camera and the UW housing is around 1400$US

Can anyone suggest me any other nice cameras for UW video? I want to get some really good UW videos for semi-professional use.

Thanks!

How about getting FCPX which can import .MTS files? I also read that you can actually rewrap AVCHD into quicktime without transcoding.
Re-wrap AVCHD clips to Quicktime in no-time - EOSHD

Or you can get a Panasonic LX100 and wait if Ikelite will make a housing for it or not. Nauticam will have a housing for it but it will not be cheap.

 

[Duarte]

I do have FCPX and I can import the .MTS to FCPX but my problem is when you're browsing on Finder thru all the files you've recorded you cannot preview them.
I usually select the .mov files and just hit the spacebar to preview the file. But with .MTS files you have to actually open the files to view them and this can be quite time consuming, specially when you're trying to edit a 20/30 min video.

It's just a workflow problem. For example right now I'm editing a 30 min video and I have thousands of clips to select. Imagine having to open each one of these to preview them.

Any ideas on how to overcome this problem?

Thanks for the suggestion on the Panasonic but I need the gear now and the nauticam housings are usually expensive like you said.

 

[kkfok]

I do have FCPX and I can import the .MTS to FCPX but my problem is when you're browsing on Finder thru all the files you've recorded you cannot preview them.
I usually select the .mov files and just hit the spacebar to preview the file. But with .MTS files you have to actually open the files to view them and this can be quite time consuming, specially when you're trying to edit a 20/30 min video.

It's just a workflow problem. For example right now I'm editing a 30 min video and I have thousands of clips to select. Imagine having to open each one of these to preview them.

Any ideas on how to overcome this problem?

Thanks for the suggestion on the Panasonic but I need the gear now and the nauticam housings are usually expensive like you said.

I am a windows user so actually I know nothing about Mac
I read that HD quick look(Shedworx) or Movist can help...but I am not sure.

About getting a camera, how about Canon G7 X? The 35 Mbps bitrate and 1080 60p seems not bad. With a Ikelite housing it accepts wide angle wet lens.

 

[doctormike]

Does your budget include lights? Getting good coverage of a full wide angle field could involves at least $1400 for lighting alone. Modern cameras do pretty well in ambient light at relatively shallow depths, but might be hard to shoot "semi-pro" quality without some sort of lighting system. Even with good ambient light conditions, on camera lighting really brings out the color and detail.

I have a buddy who is a professional underwater videographer - here is his comparison of the Panasonic AF-100 / Equinox housing (around $8000) with the GoPro Hero 3+ (around $400):

 

[Duarte]

I am a windows user so actually I know nothing about Mac
I read that HD quick look(Shedworx) or Movist can help...but I am not sure.

About getting a camera, how about Canon G7 X? The 35 Mbps bitrate and 1080 60p seems not bad. With a Ikelite housing it accepts wide angle wet lens.

Well from what I've read the RX-100 II is better than the Canon G7 X.

Does your budget include lights? Getting good coverage of a full wide angle field could involves at least $1400 for lighting alone. Modern cameras do pretty well in ambient light at relatively shallow depths, but might be hard to shoot "semi-pro" quality without some sort of lighting system. Even with good ambient light conditions, on camera lighting really brings out the color and detail.

I have a buddy who is a professional underwater videographer - here is his comparison of the Panasonic AF-100 / Equinox housing (around $8000) with the GoPro Hero 3+ (around $400):

That budget doesn't include lights, I have a budget of about 600$US for lights, arms, tray (I'll get two Archon D32VR lights)

Still very impressed with the GoPro. I just got a GoPro hero black 4 but haven't tried it underwater yet

But still I know I need more than the GoPro quality.

 

[doctormike]

Still very impressed with the GoPro. I just got a GoPro hero black 4 but haven't tried it underwater yet

But still I know I need more than the GoPro quality.

Yeah, check out that comparison. From what I can tell, unless you (1) are really a professional videographer with very specific equipment requirements, or (2) want to also shoot stills, it's pretty hard to see why one wouldn't just use a GoPro at this point for UW video. Especially if you have the budget for good lighting. Just think, if you put what you save over the RX-100 into lighting, you could get some awesome illumination.

 

[bvanant]

If you are only doing wide angle stuff then a gopro is fine, the quality is quite nice even compared to say a GH4. That is probably the only housing/camera in your budget that you will be happy with. But why not just use say VLC media player on the sony?
Bill

 

[haha49]

I find it all depends on were you want to film. In Hawaii no filter with just a gopro hero 3 plus and a red filter (had to color correct it's just turn red down a little) you can get resualts like this [video=youtube_share;FJEEVNNxnDI]http://youtu.be/FJEEVNNxnDI[/video]

Now it all depends on what you want were your shooting and how. This was just a gopro on a mono pod (stick) you can get good results with a simple setup like that and it's cheap. Now if you add handles and 1 or 2 dive lights you have a much better setup. For video point and shoot the gopro seems to do just fine. Get the hero 4 black for best results this is a 3+ silver. Now for editing I did the following color balance turned the red to -29- -32 (each clip was done a custom balance) then for inside the cave I use stablazation software (mercil) to take the rolls out so it's zoomed in allot. Then I also sharpened the videos allot as well to get that result.

Now if you want to zoom in and out then get a Cannon G1X with the Cannon dive houseing you can do everything the camera can with that housing. For most people a gopro hero 3+ black is good enough that video was with a silver at 1080p

The hero 4 black is 499 then handles for a grip are 120 then (i bought I das ones) Filter is 30 bucks for a red filter that fits the case. Then a light 299x2 a mount for the light 80x2. Well within your budget. Or gopro mono pole done.

 

[diversteve]

it's pretty hard to see why one wouldn't just use a GoPro at this point for UW video

IDK..Zoom maybe? Or Focus?

Not everybody shoots 170^o wide angle fixed focus footage all the time...seems like a "semi-professional" user like the OP describes himself might need one or the other occasionally.