First, thank you to Long-John-Silver, Kevster and quite a few other whom advices toward the Gh2 and the Nauticam housing have been extremely valuable.
After quite a few months of debates and comparisons, i went with the gh2 and nauticam (instead of nex7, which was a very close 2nd due to its great still and the best camera control I've ever used. Video quality, at least on land, as well as lack of custom settings and wide angle zoom got the gh2 to win).
Pick the 7-14 for WA and the 45mm for macro (havent used the macro uw yet, but it does hunt on land!). The choice over WA vs 8mm fisheye was also a very difficult decision, but i dont really use fiye eye on land, a short experience with a WA zoom on another camera (canon mkII) during a dive made me see the value of having an option for a WA zoom. There is a sharpness and close focus distance price to pay, but you cant get everything !
After playing with a huge housing of the canon mkII, the nauticam gh2 is definitely small. It is not as easy to handle as the P&S I have been using for the last 2/3 years, and getting use to it will take time. But even if not 100% obvious in the video below, the quality offered with the GH2 is far superior. I've only used a small hack (66Mbps) but i think this is really outstanding. Certainly being able to have better lights and stability will make it even better. It was a first try!
Controlling the housing is very easy, even with dry gloves. All the buttons, even the smallest, can be accessible at anytime. It is definitely a great housing (it can, considering the insane price of the all set).
Buoyancy of the housing with camera, port (6" dome) and tray is a tiny bit negative. The 6" dome points up a little and needs to be balanced too. Not as bad as with the huge DSLR dome. With arm and lights it is really negative and needs to be compensated with something better than the yellow pool foam I was using with my previous camera: they work till 80ft, but after compressed to a point they just color the arms...
Here is the very first example of the gh2 video :
https://vimeo.com/42494949
Video was shot on 1080p24, 800iso
Overall, a great (but costly) system which will certainly take a bit of time to get use to, but i think which can stand toward bigger rigs while being significantly smaller, lighter and easier to pack for travel.
After quite a few months of debates and comparisons, i went with the gh2 and nauticam (instead of nex7, which was a very close 2nd due to its great still and the best camera control I've ever used. Video quality, at least on land, as well as lack of custom settings and wide angle zoom got the gh2 to win).
Pick the 7-14 for WA and the 45mm for macro (havent used the macro uw yet, but it does hunt on land!). The choice over WA vs 8mm fisheye was also a very difficult decision, but i dont really use fiye eye on land, a short experience with a WA zoom on another camera (canon mkII) during a dive made me see the value of having an option for a WA zoom. There is a sharpness and close focus distance price to pay, but you cant get everything !
After playing with a huge housing of the canon mkII, the nauticam gh2 is definitely small. It is not as easy to handle as the P&S I have been using for the last 2/3 years, and getting use to it will take time. But even if not 100% obvious in the video below, the quality offered with the GH2 is far superior. I've only used a small hack (66Mbps) but i think this is really outstanding. Certainly being able to have better lights and stability will make it even better. It was a first try!
Controlling the housing is very easy, even with dry gloves. All the buttons, even the smallest, can be accessible at anytime. It is definitely a great housing (it can, considering the insane price of the all set).
Buoyancy of the housing with camera, port (6" dome) and tray is a tiny bit negative. The 6" dome points up a little and needs to be balanced too. Not as bad as with the huge DSLR dome. With arm and lights it is really negative and needs to be compensated with something better than the yellow pool foam I was using with my previous camera: they work till 80ft, but after compressed to a point they just color the arms...
Here is the very first example of the gh2 video :
https://vimeo.com/42494949
Video was shot on 1080p24, 800iso
Overall, a great (but costly) system which will certainly take a bit of time to get use to, but i think which can stand toward bigger rigs while being significantly smaller, lighter and easier to pack for travel.
