Genesis

PS: Offers welcome.....

Ok folks, its time to say goodbye to this great video rig. Here's what's included, base and optional. Base: USVH Housing and TRV-33 Camcorder, extended battery, external charger, complete. Never had water inside (lots outside though!), great setup. Full electronic controls, high-res screen viewfinder/display on the rear of the housing - no "shooting blind." Wide-angle lens matched for the housing included plus color filter, spare O-rings for the housing. HDPE "skidplates" for the bottom of the housing so it doesn't get banged up (those rubber things that they come with suck.) NTSC. $1,200 for these items. Optional: Everything else in these photos. Two 21W HID lamps, custom light arm with buoyancy compensation tubes (yes, they're PVC, trimmed and DIFFERENT in lengths; the housing weight is removed when using the lights.) 9AH cannister with 2 battery packs; you will have to supply a NiMH charger, as I require mine (it is the same charger that I use for my cavediving light.) "Y" cable to feed both video lights. Both video reflectors. Pelican-style hardcase, custom fit, everything except the battery cannister fits inside. Lamp units are Salvos - virtually indestructable, not the "Halcyon" ones that love to break if you look at them wrong. COMPLETE, AS YOU SEE IT HERE, $2,250. The housing currently has two bolt-snaps rigged on a piece of cave-line and is set up to be "slung" like a stage bottle with the light system attached. The "Y" cord is wet-pluggable so you can have a standard goodman-handle HID lighthead to use for your penetration and/or decent, then switch to the video light system during the dive. In NW Florida (Panhandle) can be seen, bought, paid for and taken with you if desired. I prefer NOT to ship it due to the high value, but will consider doing so; we will have to figure out exactly how to work the transaction. All items are in excellent conditions. The USVH housings feature a unique design in that the lens port is optical-quality acrylic and if damaged can be replaced at a REASONABLE cost (very cheaply, all things considered) where most glass ports are STUPID expensive. The housing's electronic controls use magnetic switches; no hull penetrations except for the one UW-pluggable connector for the handle. Has not been used "in anger" in a year, and it makes no sense to keep it given its lack of use. A great deal on a high-quality, complete setup. Phone: 850-376-9364 (cell) or email me at karl@denninger.net - stick "i-agree" in the header so my spam filter doesn't bop 'ya. Thanks!

Anyone know of commercial options? I've decided to build up my own light kit rather than buy the Mantas, and I'm trying to figure out if I should start machining up a plate or if there's something I can buy and save me some time while spending some money.

I have twin 50W Xenophot bulbs on a video lighting setup from ProWatt. ~50 minute burn time with both bulbs going, or about twice that with one. 12V SLA battery, articulated arms, mounts to the camera housing. Since you can only get 60 mins on a DV tape anyway, this works well - if you are doing more than one dive just take a second battery with you, and charge the expended one (with a smart charger) between. The batteries are cheap from places like RAGE (under $20 each) The battery is a 7AH 12V SLA; I've run 42 minutes of tape without noticable color shift in the lighting, with both bulbs going, so the advertised burn times are quite reasonable. His "video" setup has white-card-style reflectors; you can get silvered ones if you want (somewhat brighter, but you lose on the diffusion this way - I prefer the white reflectors) I like it. I'd like brighter (who wouldn't?) for caves and such, but its more than adequate for most video work underwater. Its supposedly depth rated down to 300' or so. The guy regularly has these listed on eBAY around $300 - a very nice price all things considered, and the bulbs are reasonably cheap as well. General dive-light HIDs have horrible spectral distribution. They're very bright for the power consumed, and very blue, which is great for cave diving illumination and such but they blow bananas for color fidelity. If you want to use some kind of discharge lamp you want a HMI setup, and if you need to ask how much THOSE cost you don't have enough money.

I like mine just SLIGHTLY (about 1/4 - 1/2lb) negative. This allows me to set it down, and also to clip it off if I need to for some reason. A positive camera is a real PITA to maneuver in my experience, and makes clipping it off problematic as it gets "in your face" when secured.

The biggest complaint I have with the various CODECS and video formats is that you MUST use each's "proprietary" web server to get video streaming to work - otherwise, it just downloads and THEN plays. Why these folks won't allow this to work properly with nothing more complicated than a HTTP connection is beyond me - there is nothing technically preventing it, other than the vendors desire to demand extortion money for their server code.

The Ridata 1GB CF cards are blistering fast - much faster than the xD cards.

I have a USVH housing and a TRV-33 and like the combination. I cannot get to the white balance controls from the housing - apparently Sony has been playing games with the LANC protocol for some of these functions with their various cameras, and some work and some do not - this is a "do not". However, Vegas takes care of that topside, so it works out ok in the end. I'm learning when its best to use the filter and when not to (the risk without is that you can end up with parts of the image overexposed, which you cannot correct topside.) Its a nice and reasonably compact package and produces very nice output. The camera works well topside as well; its very nice and small, and has excellent battery life. My one complaint with the optics on the camrea is that it is quite prone to flare with serious backlighting such as you might encounter when shooting a football game at night. A hood partially addresses this, but not completely. Oh, topside it really does need an external mic for decent audio, but that's pretty normal with consumer cameras. Nothing $100 won't fix.

The question becomes one of when the distortion become noticable in a video. Certainly, the standard for still photography is higher, if only because there's no motion Wet lenses are an option, but they're god-awful expensive. Certainly an option, but then you really are "married" to the entire package (camera/housing/lenses) most of the time - more so than you would be otherwise. Its all a trade-off thing...

Pincushion distortion depends largely on HOW wide of an angle lens you're using. I can't detect it in my video, and I shoot enough stuff that fills the frame and has straight lines that if it was happening I'd notice it. Its VERY noticable if you know what you're looking for - and I do I suspect that for most of the flat-port systems its not an issue. If you want to run extreme wide-angle, then it certainly is an issue.

One can hope....

Well I do understand the point vis-a-vis wet lenses, and that you can get a "better" wide-angle conversion thsi way (and more field of view.) That is one solid - and real - argument - but are you SURE your lenses will work on the next housing? What if the external diameter changes on you?

LOL! No, I'm actually not. I own an Ike housing for my Oly5050 and like it. As soon as Ike and the other mechanical housing folks provide me with the balance of protections that I get from the electronic video housings, they'll get more serious consideration from my (in the future, the next time I want or need one, of course.) Unfortunately I suspect that goal is impossible, unless Ike was to simply provide an upgrade path for a nominal cost as a "good will" thing. I have no idea what kind of margin they have in their housings - I suspect they have the "room" to do this, but whether they want to is another matter. My guess is that only market forces would push them in this direction.... after all, why give up the money if you don't have to? Still camera folks are used to the idea that the housing is "locked" the camera. So are SOME video folks. Unfortunately for those who believe in that model (and to whom it is a benefit economically) its being challenged by some of the other players in the marketplace.

Well, that's true for the JVC, but not for the VX-2000. The question often becomes one of where you want to put the dollars and how much you care about part (or all!) of them being "disposable". I can upgrade my existing housing to one that will house a PDX-10 for example, at a reasonable cost. If I had gone mechanical I would have lost the monitor screen (in all probability) and any hope of interchangability. While the former can be fixed with a large application of money, the latter can't. I just don't believe in locking myself into something unless I have to.

That's true Craig, but the investment protection, given what housings cost, is not trivial. Unfortunately the camera manufacturers force us into this, as they change models as fast as Imelda Marcos changed shoes, and the new model(s) NEVER line up exactly as the old one did in terms of where the controls are. This is my one unsolveable gripe with mechanical housings - and no amount of good engineering will ultimately fix it. If you don't mind the concept of throwing away your housing when your camera craps out or you wish to upgrade, then that doesn't matter for you. I find that requirement outrageous and so, for me at least, it IS a big deal.