SMALL 1080p HD camera and housing from Ikelite/JVC coming out in November

[bennyscuba]

Tman2: Very curious on your thoughts - particularly how the controls are as that seems to be the main critique...

I would love to get one of these before my holiday trip to Thailand! Do you know what the delivery time is for the ikelite set? If I leave Dec 16th when would I need to order by?

bg

 

[TMan2]

Hey all,

Just got the first one in today and snapped some pics for everyone! Pretty damn cool, full package with video light weighs 4 pounds. Controls on the back are a little close, I am going to dive it this weekend in cold water with 5mm gloves on so I will be able to give you more feedback on that. We have more arriving next week.







Also, if any of you are on facebook (submergecamera) check us out I uploaded a bunch more photos there and will be writing a blog with pics about the equipment we got in today, should be up by friday.

Dive on!

 

[bennyscuba]

Looking forward to the report...out of curiosity how is the quality of the light? is it something that you can "grow" with as one gets better gear or will it probably need to be upgraded too...

bg

 

[sabbath999]

I am checking on the focal length for the JVC.... I think the other thing that sets this apart is the Flip doesn't have image stabilization from everything I have seen.

The JVC image stabilization is digital, not optical.

 

[EAN]

Any underwater video samples for this unit?

 

[cmaha76]

I'm a little concerned with the reviews I've been reading on the JVC... in theory this camera is my favorite of the "flip" style camcorders that ikelite makes a housing for, but I'm becoming wary of all the reviews. I see Ikelite has a housing for the Kodak zx1. Dose anyone know if ikelite plans to put together a housing for the Kodak zi8? As I'm doing my research of the zi8 seems to garner praise as the best of the mini cameras.

 

[bennyscuba]

cmaha76 - i agree with you. i called ikelite the other day and they said there were no plans in the works for the zi8...

however, the reviews about the JVC seem to be about pressing the buttons, so maybe the housing actually corrects that problem - i'm curious to hear the review about it's in housing functionality...if the review is positive i'll probaby pull the trigger on this one as i imagine this would primarily be an underwater camera for me to capture my dives and share with others...

bg

 

[Gombessa]

however, the reviews about the JVC seem to be about pressing the buttons, so maybe the housing actually corrects that problem

You can work around tight buttons. My current Sony digicam housing has REALLY tightly packed buttons, and since the housing was made to accommodate multiple camera models, some of the buttons are decoys that only serve to make the thing more cramped. And I dive in cold water with drygloves (and 7mm gloves before that).

Close quarters on the button layout wouldn't really affect my choice much (though the UI on the camera might, e.g., you don't want to hit 3-4 buttons just to get into record mode, for instance).

 

[deco_martini]

This is a win for the guy who isn't a serious videographer but likes to have a vid-cam on dives "just in case". The footprint is small, its easy to pack, and doesn't look like a hassle to take on a dive even if you see nothing video-worthy.

 

[cmaha76]

Benny- Much to my surprise they responded to my email. They told me the same thing.

I can't imagine why they would support the zx1 and not the far more popular zi8. I hope to play around with the JVC this weekend to at least put to bed the fears about poor controls etc... I'll let you know what I think.

camcorderinfo.com has a pretty in depth review of the Picsio and it fares pretty well, their major beef being the buttons and build quality.