School me on what I need to shoot and edit tourist Video in tropical water, please

[diversteve]

For now but I'm watching prices on Blu-Ray burners this winter. Since neither I or any of my family/friends have a Blu-Ray player, I'm not ready to switch yet. Also Blu-Ray media is about $9-10 per disk locally so thats a factor.

Since I shoot only for my personal use, I'm fine playing my camera through my HDTV when needed also.

It may be because I'm trying to justify what I spent on a camera/housing ($4K+) lol, but to me HDV rendered as SD looks better than when the source material shot was originally shot in SD.

 

[beanojones]

Yeah, I am looking up stuff online, and it just does not look like Blu-Ray is ready for primetime in a production workflow.

I think I am going to drive down to B&H and yammer at them a bit. Are the better housings only sold direct, or is there a place in say NYC where I can hold the cameras and housings in my hand and see if any question come up.

As far as playing your camera through the TV, do you edit and then export back to the tape? Or do you just keep the edited footage on the computer? I am wondering because miniDV tape was pretty dang reliable, and at that time it was much cheaper than HD space, so completed projects got exported back to tape. But HD space is much much cheaper than it was (I just bought a 1.5 TB drive for the price I was paying for 40GB drives before), and at least some reading online suggests that the HDV tapes are a bit more finicky.

 

[diversteve]

I think I am going to drive down to B&H and yammer at them a bit. Are the better housings only sold direct, or is there a place in say NYC where I can hold the cameras and housings in my hand and see if any question come up.

Um....B&H? They sell Amphibico, Gates, L&M, Ikelite, Equinox etc. I wish I could just "drive down" although it's probably better for my checking acct. that I can't...lol.

As far as playing your camera through the TV, do you edit and then export back to the tape?

Sometimes as it's the only way I can output HD currently.

Or do you just keep the edited footage on the computer?

Usually. I can play video from my laptop through my TV also, but never do.

I am wondering because miniDV tape was pretty dang reliable, and at that time it was much cheaper than HD space, so completed projects got exported back to tape. But HD space is much much cheaper than it was (I just bought a 1.5 TB drive for the price I was paying for 40GB drives before), and at least some reading online suggests that the HDV tapes are a bit more finicky.

Another option is that Western Digital recently released their WD TV media player. I think it's around $200 or so and uses their My Passport USB 2.0 drives (and others afaik) to output HD video.

 

[ronscuba]

I live in NY. B&H is a great place to see and play with camcorders. They sell UW housings, but they aren't really knowledgeable about them and don't have them out on display to play with. If you are going to make the trip, I would call in advance and ask if they have the housings in stock and available to see/touch.

The Western Digital WD TV media player is available for about $100. I got one for Christmas from my sister. I copied a few of my full resolution 1080i m2t videos onto cheap USB flash sticks and connected the media player to my HDTV with an HDMI cable. Worked perfectly and the media player is pretty small at 5"x4".

I can see this or other players capable of playing HD media becoming popular as more and more high resolution stuff is on the internet available for downloading.

 

[beanojones]

I live in NY. B&H is a great place to see and play with camcorders. They sell UW housings, but they aren't really knowledgeable about them and don't have them out on display to play with. If you are going to make the trip, I would call in advance and ask if they have the housings in stock and available to see/touch.

Is there another place in NY that stocks housings and knows stuff about them?

Honestly the only reason I would choose one camera over another is based on what sort of housing features it would allow. And the only reason I am interested in the camera in the first place is as
1. another service to offer dive customers,
2. and/or to get fill-in work on days when I have no customers of my own (I could work as guide/instructor for other operators, but I have done that to death)
3. and/or to use as promotional material for my dive operation.
4. and/or Shooting 'stock' footage for customer video and promo material. (It's hard to guide and shoot at least in my experience. So I'd rather go out and collect footage on no customer days, and just add in some customer shots, instead of trying to shoot them all dive long, and trying to turn that into something worthwhilw for them.)

From what sjspeck has schooled me on, and the further research I have done reading around online, it seems that HDV is the way to go, from the editing perspective. The fact that Sony's have LANC means that the camera is semi-replaceable, so I think I have decided on Sony. But I only choose Sony because of the housing features.

(I won't ever use this topside. I used to play around with miniDV, and found that I am simply not a very good story teller, as far as shooting goes. I tended to do more editing with found clips imported to DV than with footage I shot. So the camera will be dedicated to UW use, where the story is the dive.)

 

[diversteve]

Your best place to see a lot of different gear is the big scuba show in your area. At the Long Beach show a couple years ago I saw products from Amphibico, Light & Motion (next door to each other) Sea&Sea, Ikelite (I think) as well as several of the large dealers: Backscattter, Reef Photo/Video (I think) and H2OPhotopros (my dealer) As I recall H2O had some Gates products, there was mention that they'd loaned the HC7 housing used during one of the seminars. Reef is the US Seatools distributor also. The year I was there, everybody had just introduced their HD external monitor so I was able to see them. But at $2200 not afford them...lol.

When is Beneath the Sea? I suspect they'll all be there also.

 

[ronscuba]

I agree with Steve. He did a good job describing the current options in your price range and I would follow his advice to take a serious look at the Gates HC7/9 housing with the manual white balance option.

 

[beanojones]

This is a stupid question, but what does having Manual White Balance do for you?

 

[ronscuba]

Gives you better color. You can get away without it for macro shots if you use strong lights. Some also get good results without it by color correcting in their editing program.

If you do a little research you'll find some people feel it's not worth the hassle/cost while others consider it a necessity.

 

[beanojones]

I guess the thing I am really wondering is (and I guess the answer is yes) whether people actually carry the white cards around and set it up where they are at.

But I guess if it is a once in a lifetime shot, it's worth it.