Won a camcorder on eBay...plus, question on mics in housings

[meekal]

kudos on the EXTERNAL MONITOR project. if it makes you feel better i was quoted by GATES

"This kind has a wet pluggable cord that will simply unplug from the housing. You would send the housing to us (making sure to include the mount plate) and we would install a video out ($210.00). You would also have to get the appropriate bracket ($85.00). Also, probably best would be to send the monitor and we'd test it all together."

that $295 (plus shipping!!!) would be nice in the back pocket!

 

[peterbkk]

The Light and Motion housings have an underwater mic on the front below the lens that has a wire and plug inside the housing to put into the camcorders mic port. The internal mics on most camcorders will pick up too much motor sound in the confined space of the housing to be useful.

Underwater, the external mic picks up most underwater sounds: regualtor breathing, bubbles, boat propellors, signalling devices, reef crackling noises, dive computer beeps and, occasionally, me mumbling through my regulator. Depending on the topic of the video, I will sometimes leave the sounds in, somewhat lower than the music track.

Another advantage of having the external mic on the housing is for video cut topside. I will often add some foootage of the boat, divers, islands, etc. I don't want to have to open the housing to do this topside footage. With an external mic you get good quality accompanying audio (divers chatting, engine sounds, waves, wakes, etc). With the internal mics in a housing the external sounds will be too muffled.

Regards
Peter