Bought Top Dawg II and need camera advice

[wilbkr1]

Hello,

After many hours of research and review I have just purchased a Top Dawg II housing Package (not Mini) along with the monitor back.

It includes the Top Dawg II Housing, two Top Dawg Classic Lights, overnight chargers, spare lamp, o-ring kit, and a travel case with custom foam. There is more room in the case for another camera battery and tapes.

A 2.5 inch active matrix color Monitorback replaces the standard rear plate for exceptional viewing. Powered by 4 AA batteries for a 2 hour burn time. You'll never go back to a viewfinder again!

Now it's time for camera research.... I plan to video tape for my enjoyment and documenting family memories above and below the water. I am a novice to both filming arenas and would like to hear the communites thoughts on camera selection.

I am open to all media type HD,DV and film but would rather stay away from film if I can. I do have a budget that may not exceed more than 1500.00 if I plan to stay married. Here is a link to Top Dawgs compatability list

Thank you for taking time to help a novice. Please feel free to offer advice about the Top Dawg camera Housing aswell. Have a great day.

 

[drbill]

Congrats... you have purchased one of the more flexible and foolproof housings I've ever used. I own two of the older Top Dawgs and they have accommodated (without adjustment) every camcorder I've owned from Hi-8 to digital-8 to mini-DV. Next month they will house my new HD camcorder.

The Light & Motion staff that dive with us down here off Catalina say that some of the best footage comes out of these reasonably priced set-ups.

However, I won't make suggestions re: what camcorder to buy. I'll just say I currently use a Sony TRV-17 but would recommend a three chip unit for better color rendering.

Enjoy your new system!

 

[marshallkarp]

I just got back from Grand Cayman, made four dives, and videod them all. I am starting to edit it, but I looked at the video from the Handycam on my 37 in HD LCD TV and it looks pretty good. I own a Sony Handicam DCR-TRV33 and just bought an Equinox ProPak 6 housing especially for the trip. One of the reasons why I bought this housing was that I hope to get the Sony Handicam HDR-HC3 Hi Def videocam next year and this housing will accommodate it, with some modification. As I said the video looks pretty good and you can sample it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6463960296284954241&q=Joe's+Tug

All that said, I believe the HD will even be better quality video, so that is my plan.

 

[diversteve]

If you want to shoot HDV, then the Sony HDR-HC3 will fit your housing. Downside is that to edit in HDV requires a computer with some horsepower not to mention the cost of an HD-DVD burner. Also I think your monitor view will be compressed as the HC3 outputs 16x9.

If you want to stay with MiniDV but get into a higher end 3chip camera I've seen some used TRV-900's go reasonably on eBay lately. Can't remember how much but certainly around/under $1500. Or maybe that was for a TRV-950.

Personally I'd stay away from DVD camcorders, they're less functional.

There's also a whole range of HDD camcorders hitting the market now in time for Christmas. But they're using AVHCD coding which will yield a poorer(mpeg2) output than DV. And there's currently no editing s/w to speak of. But if you can live with the quality, the camera will store between 4-7 hours of video before you have to offload 30GB of data somewhere.

I have an HDR-HC1, comparing the footage against MiniDV, mine is better. Not just my opinion, one of the people in our diveclub mentioned it unsolicited while viewing some of my downconverted WMV's.

Hook your 1080I HDV camcorder to a 1080P HDTV and you'll never buy a MiniDV.

 

[wilbkr1]

Thank you for the input so far. Hope to hear more from others. It seems that HD seems to be the wave of the future but read a post about the TVR 950 providing better color than the HDR-HC3. Since this is my first purchase would the community recommend starting with somthing like a used TRV 950 or jump right into the HD-HC3. Both options seem to fit my budget. My background is related to the IT industry and seem to have the hardware needed for editing HD video.

@ DRBILL "Next month they will house my new HD camcorder."

It would be great to hear what your HD selection is. please.

@ marshallkarp Thank you for posting the link to that outstanding vid about Joe's Tug boat. You are correct about the quality of video. Very Nice.

@ sjspeck Thank you sharing you thoughts. Could you expand on HDR-HC1 vs. HDR-HC3.

Thank you for your help.

 

[drbill]

I'm looking at the HC-3 since it fits the housing I have.

 

[diversteve]

sjspeck Thank you sharing you thoughts. Could you expand on HDR-HC1 vs. HDR-HC3.

I've only briefly looked at an HC3 in the store. The one thing I didn't particularly like compared to mine is that it has a fixed viewfinder. A good review of it is here.

 

[drbill]

I agree with Steve that the HC-3 viewfinder is a potential PITA. It is hard to see through it when in the housing. The Light & Motion folks suggested I use the monitor back if I buy that camera. However, in my case, the cost of these two items is still far less than getting a higher end HD camera and housing.

 

[limeyx]

Thank you for the input so far. Hope to hear more from others. It seems that HD seems to be the wave of the future but read a post about the TVR 950 providing better color than the HDR-HC3. Since this is my first purchase would the community recommend starting with somthing like a used TRV 950 or jump right into the HD-HC3. Both options seem to fit my budget. My background is related to the IT industry and seem to have the hardware needed for editing HD video.

@ DRBILL "Next month they will house my new HD camcorder."

It would be great to hear what your HD selection is. please.

@ marshallkarp Thank you for posting the link to that outstanding vid about Joe's Tug boat. You are correct about the quality of video. Very Nice.

@ sjspeck Thank you sharing you thoughts. Could you expand on HDR-HC1 vs. HDR-HC3.

Thank you for your help.

for Hi-def, I would say HC1 or HC3 (although I have not used either).
I believe the HC1 is discontinued, but some prefer it over the HC3 for U/W work.

I agree with the comments to (for now) stay away from the DVD recorders and AVHCD

The HDV cameras (HC1 and HC3) are already MPEG2 compressing down to 25Mbps, which for me is about as much compression as I think is acceptable. From my understanding, the AVHCD will use H.264? and may compress even more, reducing quality.

If you plan on filming in reasonably clear water, I think the HC1/HC3 would be great, but they are single-chip cameras and so may not be as good in low-light/murky waters. Also there is a direct correlation between the number of pixels on a given sensor size and low-light ability. So Hi-def with its inherent larger pixel counts tends to have worse lowlight performance than a Single def camera with the same sensor size.

I have not had a problem editing HD footage compared to SD (except the final batch rendering is a bit slower), but I have a Dual G5 PowerMac. However, probably a modern PC should handle HD just fine.

Even though HD/BluRay burners are not here yet, you can still export to a regular DVD and all reports are that the footage is noticeably better than SD cameras (although see above for low-light issues)

if you want a single-def camera, then a 3-chip camera like the TRV900 or 950 would probably be good. Awesome lowlight, reasonably cheap on eBay etc.

I think the 900 is out of production, but some say they like it better for U/W

you can also check out wetpixel.com and HDVinfo.com for more inputs.

 

[wilbkr1]

Hello,

Thank you for all the helpful information and great advice.

@ Limeyx You bring a good point to the table. I am land locked in Indiana. A large portion of my diving is in the lakes and quarries in the midwest. I do 1 exotic dive per year. Last year was Cayman Brac and this year is Bonaire. Maybe the 900 or 950 is a good all round solution. Is HD that much better than SD? Would like to hear the communities thoughts on that.

@ DRbill I bought the back monitor with my TDII just for that very reason. I figured I wouldn't do to well trying to look through a view finder while filming.

Thank you for taking time to help. Have a great day.