Dear Sony: Stop Messing Around!

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

drbill

The Lorax for the Kelp Forest
Scuba Legend
Rest in Peace
Messages
22,824
Reaction score
6,061
Location
Santa Catalina Island, CA
# of dives
2500 - 4999
Dear Sony,

Over the past 20 years I think I've bought at least 18 Sony camcorders, some for organizations I worked for but most for my own underwater filmmaking. The very first camcorder I used to document wildlife was back in 1984 when Jean-Michel Cousteau handed me a Sony Hi-8 camcorder and asked me to film a segment for a two hour documentary he and his father were doing about the SoCal Channel Islands.

For the first 10 years or so of my independent underwater filming, I used Sony camcorders in a single housing thanks to the standardization of your LANC communications protocol. These ranged from a Hi-8 model to an HD model. Then you changed. When I bought my current camcorder, the Sony HDR-CX550V, I had to buy an entirely new housing for it. Your old LANC protocol had been changed. Well, I liked the new rig so I was pretty happy with it. When I bought the housing (a L&M Stingray G2), it was advertised as the housing to accommodate all future Sony camcorders.

Unfortunately you apparently decided that constant change, rather than stability, was in order and the LANC protocol/connectors became even more proprietary. My Stingray G2 was discontinued about a year after its introduction because of this change. It will not accommodate even next years models of Sony camcorders. Thank you, Sony, for making my new purchases obsolete within about a year.

Fortunately I was able to get my old Stingray G2 housing repaired by L&M and even found a brand new one available and bought it as a back-up. It was the ONLY one I could find new anywhere I looked in the USA. I even bought a used Sony CX550V so I'd have total backup.

However, this will probably be the last time I buy a Sony product. I'll be looking for forward compatibility in the future. I want standardization (even if it is proprietary) so that camcorders from my new source will work in my housings again through future models. You won my heart when you continued the LANC protocol/connector unchanged... but you've lost my allegiance now that that is a thing of the past.

Your formerly very loyal customer,

Dr. Bill
 
Maybe it was N Korean hackers who have been changing stuff so often. Seriously though they should regret losing your patronage.
 
Very interesting A.Y. I wasn't aware such a thing existed. I did search for one back when I bought my first Sony camcorder without the standard LANC connection and didn't find one back then. I'll have to check this out since yes, it will certainly fit inside my older housing (now that I've purchased two of the newer ones!) Thanks.
 
I bought a sony above the water camcorder a few years ago. The quick obsolesence and later compatibility issues soured me on their products and I have not been back.
 
[video=youtube;hxloc4TDHM4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxloc4TDHM4[/video]

This video shows a Sony AV tripod controlling a Sony AX100 4K camcorder, using a Sony multi-interface (LANC, USB) to Sony AV adapter. This setup will also work on the latest Sony Alpha cameras with a powered zoom attached.
 
I think it is more than just the interface... if it were just that, the newer models after the CX500V series would work in my housing. I'm told by the manufacturer that they don't.
 
This video shows a Sony AV tripod controlling a Sony AX100 4K camcorder, using a Sony multi-interface (LANC, USB) to Sony AV adapter. This setup will also work on the latest Sony Alpha cameras with a powered zoom attached.

Cameras: Canon Video Systems: HF G30, XA25, XA20, HF G20, XA10, HF G10, S30, S21, S20, S200

Sony: Due to changes in the electronics of Sony Camcorders for 2011, they are currently not compatible.

Bluefin Housing - Light & Motion

IMO the basic premise here is flawed. Sony won't even be making prosumer camcorders in another decade IMHO. They sell 3 cheap models now and the "feature" on their 3 better models is the Projector option. Their lowest price HD model is $179 list. They can't afford to add any sort of interface at that price. I'd bet money if they can figure out a way to reliably add Bluetooth, they may do away with any sort of external connectors at all - except a power adapter - in the future. In some future iteration run the whole camera from the latest iPhone...

I can buy a $700 Sony RX100 III that will shoot equivalent quality 1080P HD video in a smaller form factor than anything costing less than $1000 in Sony's prosumer line. And it also takes great stills....

Sony's market is not people shooting u/w video, it's parents/grandparents and people shooting topside vacation videos to share with friends/family. Any other use is purely a coincidental bonus.

A $900 Panasonic LX100 shoots in 4K now. In one of the lesser housings it comes in around $2K. I also was looking at an AX100 earlier in the year but I don't think I am any longer. For the ultimate in future upward compatibility, I'm considering Black Magic now. Nauticam makes a housing for it.
 
Last edited:
I agree with diversteve.

Consumer camcorders for UW video will not be around much longer.

For UW video, technology has not so much advanced the quality of the video as it has brought pricing and size down. Future housing compatibility is less of a concern with the lower investment costs and technology focusing more on price and size and less on video quality. Today's $1000 consumer camcorder does not really produce video much better than the $1000 camcorder from 5 years ago. It's just smaller and has more "features".

For non professional shooting, the GoPro is an excellent affordable starting point. In the past you had to spend $2k+ for a camcorder and housing to get similar UW video quality. Next step up are the compact cameras like the Panasonic LX and Sony RX.
 
I went by Fry's Electronics yesterday - a western electronics/computer/camera/audio "superstore" that has multiple huge locations. In our area they're bigger than Best Buy in terms of the products they sell. Wasn't really looking at video cameras but I happened to notice as I went by that one whole side of their camcorder display area - about 30-40 individual monitors hooked up to the various models for demo purposes - was empty...monitors dark and holes in the counter that several years ago each held a competing mfr's model up to the very high-end prosumer models. Yet their cellular phone space elsewhere in the store looked about the same.

That's as telling as anything I've posted IMO.
 

Back
Top Bottom