Gates HC7 & Sony HDR-HC7

vidodivr

Forgot to mention, to check out, he can make a housing to your needs
AquaVideo

__________________
Have a good one,
Rob LaLonde
CK #087
Narked@90 frame
URM

silentscuba

Thanks for the input, that Wetpixel site is great!!! It does not look like the Seatool housing has a dome port for wider angle lenses and is just set up for screw on.

__________________
Curt McNamee
rEvo CCR Diver
KISS CCR Diver
www.silentscuba.com

vidodivr

There is something to be said for that as well...you can shoot wide or macro just by changing lenses underwater and store the lens on the mounting bracket on the camera.

__________________
Have a good one,
Rob LaLonde
CK #087
Narked@90 frame
URM

silentscuba

Good point- What's the widest angle screw on lens that you can get???

__________________
Curt McNamee
rEvo CCR Diver
KISS CCR Diver
www.silentscuba.com

kieranu

I use the Panasonic GS-400 with the Equinox housing. Frankly, I bought it for the high-depth rating and it was relatively inexpensive. In retrospect, I'd have gone for one of the alternatives, because the Equinox housing have the following downside:

1) No flip-filter (not a problem if you are using powerful lighting at depth or have good access to the white-balance controls and have time to stop and adjust them at the required depth, however I found accessing white-balance with the housing controls to be a pita)

2) Very heavy - 10kg - any savings I made on the alternative probably got offset immediately by excess baggage charges on my first trip

3) Shape of housing prevents opening of the LCD so you have to look through the small viewfinder which is far from ideal.

On the plus side, it balances well in the water and I've got some good footage with it.

The GS400 is a nice camera though, shame they opted to replace it. Unfortunately, it carked it so debating whether to pay for the repair or get a housing for HC7 I got for land shots in the meantime. If I don't repair the Panasonic may be an Equinox housing for sale here soon, maybe I shouldn't have just criticized it

vidodivr

Your best bet would be to call someone who sells them, I don't have that much experience with them yet.

__________________
Have a good one,
Rob LaLonde
CK #087
Narked@90 frame
URM

edasque

Have you looked at the ocean imaging housing for the HC7. I love mine. They're somewhere in Florida.

Dyvrdwndeep

Hey Guy,

Ok first of all the housing.

Gates is a great product, but I am going to be really bias here. If you compare Amphibico to Gates, you will see many differences. Examples are:

Price: Amphibico is WAY cheaper, and yet they perform better, and are lighter.

Mechanical -VS- Electronic: Amphibico has electronic controls as opposed to Gates which is not. Electronic controls let you access your menu's, focus, etc at the touch of a button, and more or less gets rid of the shakes. Manual forces you to adjust by removing your eye from the shot in most cases.

The camera:

I will use nothing but Sony video cameras. I use the HDV HDR-HC1, the pro model is the HVR-A1U. Each has a single CMOS chip as opposed to the 3CCD I admit, however!!!! I have had video/TV production owners tell me my video is excellent. I not tooting my horn, I am only pointing out that a single CMOS chip is no slouch.

As far as low light, all I do is up my exsposure, and BLAM problem solved. On the A1U you can do the same with WB and Gain as well. They do not make the HC1 anymore, but its funny that the next model, the HC3 does not have the ability to match up to the optics or clarity. It seems Sony is trying to make the product smaller for the consumer, but bottom line, it sacrifices quality. I own two cameras, HDR-HC1, and the pro A1U. I dont have the need for anything else. As long as you have good lighting, you cant go wrong.

In the end, I would be wary about the new compact models. If you must get a 3CCD go with the FX1 or the Z1u. Money wise the FX1 is the ticket. If you choose the CMOS chip.. Buy a used HC1 or a new A1U. they also have the FX7 now which is a 3COMS chip!!! I am actually looking a those as well, but I am waiting on my new optics to test before I invest.

Good Luck

Okidiver

Kudos for indicating your bias ... however, having done EXTENSIVE reasearch on housings/cameras (and completed a recent purchase from a guy here on Rebreather World ), I will respectfully disagree on the dreaded mechanical v. electronic housing issue.

I had two video pros (both friends) tell me to purchase a GATES. The electronic housings are great while they work (both of their experiences were with L&M), but "they will evenually fail" and then life isn't good... Both lost a lot of money learning the hard way and I (hope) learned a lesson from them.

That said, those Amphibico housings sure are cool looking...

__________________
Rapid Rick

vidodivr

There are pluses and minuses to every opinion, here are some arguments to yours.

Until you flood it and have to replace the electronics

Manual controls allow you to access many of the same functions as electronics, just with a little more reaching.

There are a lot of great cameras out there and each one has it's points.
My findings are Sony cameras tend to be more blue and Panasonic's tend to be more red/orange, so I personally prefer the Panasonic camera.

Not saying this pertains to you, but have you seen stuff on TV, just because they are production owners and have stuff on TV, doesn't mean that it is quality stuff.

I agree about the CMOS chips, but 3 is always better than one.
I'm interested to see what the XDCAM EX looks like.

Gain=Grain.....STAY AWAY!!!

AMEN!!


CMOS or CCD, both are good, but anytime you can shoot Progressive frame instead of Interlaced is a good day, so look for that as well. For us NTSC people, 30P is the way to go, unless you are going to transfer it to film, but I don't think any of us are doing that.

I suggest anyone looking at underwater camera research should check out wetpixel there is some really great info over there and some really great people.

__________________
Have a good one,
Rob LaLonde
CK #087
Narked@90 frame
URM