bubblebrain:
Thank you for the very useful information . As many divers are from Europe , what about NTSC and PAL formats ?
For the usage you're anticipating, I'd go with a Gates or Amphibico housing. I think you'll find metal housings will hold up better under continuous usage. Also consider the previous suggestion for shooting in HD with the Sony camera, imho it's what everybody will be doing in a couple of years as HD programming becomes mainstream. It's obviously a pricier option though, maybe something to grow into.
Given any thought to lights? You'll probably need them to bring out the details, even in the tropics.
60 GB probably isn't going to be enough storage space. By the time you add an operating system, a couple of editing packages, a DVD authoring package, filters/processors, special effects, a sound editor/files, you'll probably have less than 40GB to work in. Which is not enough space to edit/store more than 1 or 2 projects simultaneously, especially at DV quality. Maybe not even enough room for 1 - depends on what capture quality you use and how long the final output will be. You can "cheat" with some packages, they allow you to edit using a low-res version of your raw footage and render the final version using raw footage that's pulled from the camcorder during the final output processing.
Also what processor/memory are you considering? Get the best you can afford. Most serious video editing platforms have separate 7200rpm drives dedicated to video capture and storage, hard to do on a laptop.
Unless you really need the portability, I'd get a P4 desktop with two drives, a smaller primary for the system files and editing software and a 2nd 160-200GB 7200rpm hard drive for capture/storage. Make sure it has Firewire for video capture and a good(great isn't necessary) video card with 256MB of memory. Also since memory is cheap, get 1GB of system memory. Even then, you'll probably need to invest in some offline storage solution for all your raw footage and finished output backups.
The only reason you might want to work with a laptop would be if you were planning on delivering the output quickly. I was on a boat once where the videographer did some simple editing during the ride back in so we were able to preview the semi-finished product on a small TV prior to docking, she sold a few extra that day.
And have you thought about software? Adobe Premiere Pro - which is one option - has some pretty high hardware recommendations to work well. The last thing you want is slow production times due to hardware constraints, especially when you're trying to edit and deliver your product quickly for the tourist market. I know I'd prefer delivery of the finished product while I'm still at my vacation destination, rather than waiting a couple weeks for delivery by mail.
Also get a fast DVD-burner. Current standards are 16X Dual Layer, Sony makes a nice one - #DRX-710UL. I have one, it's an external drive so it will work with a laptop if you go that route.
To convert between NTSC/PAL you'll need a hardware transcoder. Or since DV footage is platform independent all you probably need do is use DVD authoring software that writes either format - I'm not certain of this though.
Any questions?
