I NEED Your help! Can't decide!!

[limeyx]

Wow, manual housings taking a beating here.

Kind of like the PC vs. MAC debate. Each have their pluses and minuses. Each have their fans and detractors. To me, it's the end result that matters. I've seen good and bad video from each. My decision on manual vs. electronic had more to do with access to certain camcorder controls than anything else.

True, it's the end results (and the ease with which you can get them) that counts.

For me (personally), a mechanical still housing is like wrestling a couple of sets of bagpipes (or a really large GPO and I just dont get along with them.

Obviously plenty of people have got really good footage and pics with manual housings.

 

[diversteve]

Curious to see how manual white balance on the Amphibico works. On the smaller cams it appears pushing the touch screen is the only way to do it.

It doesn't, since you can't. (push the screen)

 

[drbill]

I would caution against the HC-7. I bought one and am discovering new problems with the camcorder with every new video film situation. I am a sony fan and this is the first of six Sony camcorders I've owned that I've had problems with. It is possible that I received a lemon, but here's what I found.

AWB on the HC-7 seems to be very poor. I often get dark shadows rendered in a sickening green instead of black like all the other Sonys.

While filming Jean-Michel Cousteau during an interview and musician Roger Connelly during a performance, I discovered my HC-7 doesn't focus properly on tele shots (and I'm not referring to extreme tele).

The response time to start recording after pressing the record switch can be as long as 10 seconds... you'll miss that quick action.

Stills captured while playing back video are often butchered... frequently only half a frame is captured. Useless despite what they say about the 6 megapixel still capture.

Does not have good low light capabilities... also underexposes blue water shots.

However IF you have very even (and strong) artificial lighting, it does render some nice results.

 

[limeyx]

The response time to start recording after pressing the record switch can be as long as 10 seconds... you'll miss that quick action.

This is same on the FX1 too. I believe there is an option "Quick record" which is off by default (on FX1 -- not sure about HC7)

If you enable it, you dont have to wait the 10 secs *but* your timecode may not be correct on the tape, which can confuse things in the editing phase.

I leave Quick record off for now and deal with the annoying startup pauses.

 

[ronscuba]

It doesn't, since you can't. (push the screen)

I guess Sony and Amphibico think manual white balance is a feature most consumers and hobbyists don't use.

That's too bad. For UW video, I like to call the MWB button, the "Magic Color Button". The filter gets the image to match what I see through my mask. MWB makes the colors look even better. Colors through the camera look better than what I see with my eyes.

When the other divers on the boat see my videos they all say, it looks better on the video than they remember seeing it on the dive.