hesilveira - 29 May 2008 07:54 PM
Hello!!!
1. as deep as 60m
2. Do the cmos or 1 chip cameras work Or should i go for the 3 chip cameras???
3. What if I used external lighting for say a sony HDR HC9, would it help???
Hello
1. Depth is only related to the housing; there is no criteria that one camcorder would be better than another related to depth.
2. CMOS, 1 Chip, 3 Chip is no longer a real quality criteria for a modern camcorder as it clearly was in the past. There are 1 Chip CMOS camcorder with better quality than 3 Chip and vice versa. You need to study tests, I am afraid.
3. Low light is a criteria under water, but I find it overestimated as you will mostly use external light. We all use external light; a red filter will do up to 10 m but below you definitely need external light.
I suggest that you check the “articles” section here (especially if you can read German) there are some tests and opinions, also, you may check comparisons such as on http://www.slashcam.com. A good camcorder is a good camcorder, there is not much specific under water (although some may say).
Then, check out in the listings here which housing will work for you. This is the real challenge once you have decided on 3 or 4 possible camcorders.
Most people here use Sony’s HC’s and have good results. Due to the LANC and their popularity, they fit into most housings. By the way, there is a recent test on slashcam which says, the HC7 and HC9 are nearly the same and the HC9 has nothing which is worth the higher price ... I do use a Canon which some people consider the better HD camcorder, but it has the clear disadvantage that Canon has given up LANC which makes it more difficult to find a housing - some of the housing providers listed here provide Infrared for Canons, and there is nothing wrong with this compared to LANC. Or - you decide for a manual control of the camcorder. This will save you money but you loose the flexibility to change the camcorder. With manual control, the camcorder and the housing become everlasting twins - no problem for me, but you need to decide on this.
Regards, g
