TODD

This deal is still available.

I would sell it for $2600 not including the camera or any camera accessories. You would get: Light & Motion Stingray HD underwater housing with monitor back, standard lens, color correction filter. - L&M 80-Degree HD Wide Angle Lens - L&M Stingray HD Weight Bracket - 2 UK Light Cannon 100 HID light with video filters, rechargeable batteries, and AC adaptors - Complete Ultralight Control Systems arms & mounts for lights and housing - Pearlstone Ultra Rapid Charger plus 8 2900mAh NiMH batteries for monitor back

PRICE DROP. $3,100.

This awesome deal is still available. $3,200

No.

Hi, there is nothing at all wrong with it.

Yes.

Thank you, but I am not sure what I will be replacing this system with.

PRICE DROP. $3,200. This is killer deal!

Light & Motion Stingray HD underwater housing with monitor back, standard lens, color correction filter. - L&M 80-Degree HD Wide Angle Lens - L&M Stingray HD Weight Bracket - Sony HDR-SR12 HD 120GB Hard Drive video camera with all accessories & box - Sony AC-VQH10 quick battery charger/power adaptor - Sony BC-TRP travel wall battery charger - Sony NP-FH100 high capacity battery - Sony NP-FH70 medium capacity battery - 2 Sony 8GB Memory Stick PRODuo cards - 2 UK Light Cannon 100 HID light with video filters, rechargeable batteries, and AC adaptors - Complete Ultralight Control Systems arms & mounts for lights and housing - Pearlstone Ultra Rapid Charger plus 8 2900mAh NiMH batteries for monitor back ---- $3,500 picked up at my house in Massachusetts or shipped anywhere in the continental U.S. Payment via PayPal to confirmed address. This setup has been used to make only 3 U/W movies.

Nothing is easier to edit with than the HDR-SR12 in my opinion. Unless you are filming dive movies on a daily or weekly basis you will not run into the archival problems. Yes, you will need a significant scratch or back up drive, but this would be needed anyway. The HC9 is the last of a dying bread of quality Sony consumer level HD cameras that are all AVCHD now. Unless you are bound to a housing that is specific to the HC9 or absolutely need a couple more controls, or tape + hard drive archives vs. just hard drive I cannot reason why you would consider tape based for a new camera, unless you were after really high quality, in which case you are looking at the wrong cameras. If I compare video between my SR12 & HC9 to my Canon XH-A1, there is NO comparison, it's very obvious to the naked eye that there is a huge difference between a consumer level camera and a pro level camera. However, I don't want to travel with that large of a housing. Also, you could archive on Memory Stick too with the SR12. I have used miniDV cameras for years, even used the HC9, and recently got the HDR-SR12 and it is truly a life changing innovation and huge time saver for me. The quality is great, probably better overall than HC9. Read this: http://www.sonyhdvinfo.com/showthread.php?t=13610 My workflow for a dive trip is so easy now: -Shot video -Open housing every couple days and edit, cut down clips(all within camera UI) to desired content, and backup to the Memory Stick. Wow no wasted content on tapes. -Do final cutting while waiting for or on plane ride home(all within camera UI), and backup complete content to 8 or 16 GB Memory Stick. -Insert Memory Stick into computer, processing only the already chosen content instead of wasting time processing tape after tape after tape. -Create Movie and I am done.

I never have used a cable successfully with AVCHD. I move the clips over to the Memory Stick card within the camera and only use the Memory Stick card in the computer, it works flawlessly. When I first got the HDR-SR12 I had issues with the cable so I never used it again.

Hi Steve. I get lost in Final Cut which keeps me using iMovie HD. Hopefully my work flow can aid you? 1- After doing some in camera cutting and editing I back up my clips on an 8 GB Memory Stick, there are 16GB available now. 2- I open iMovie 08 & insert the Memory Stick into a card reader, the AVCHD clips automatically load and I save the movie, no editing, this is just a go between program. 3- I open iMovie HD and create a new movie as iMovie 08 is the worst thing Apple ever created. 4- Find the .mov clips in the iMovie Events folder created by iMovie 08 and copy them into the new iMovie HD movie, edit the movie and I am done. ****You Need iMovie 08 to initially import the AVCHD video. iMovie HD cannot process them.****** I use a Macbook Pro 17" with a 26" external HD display, and a 1 TB external hard drive for scratch and saving these very large files which would eat up all the space in the laptop with just a few movies. One day I will take the time to master Final Cut, maybe. Apple realized their huge mistake with iMovie 08, so they allow a free download of iMovie HD to qualified iMovie 08 owners from their website. Maybe someone here can chime in to better answer you Final Cut Pro question?

Hi Meimei, sorry for the delayed response, just got back from Cozumel yesterday. My personal opinion is the SR11 or SR12 is the future of camcorders so why not take advantage of it now. The actual quality difference between the SR11/12 and HC9's lower compression is negligible, I have used both. However, you gain the huge benefit of recording on a hard drive and being able to do in camera editing and backup to Memory Stick with the SR11/12. I cannot stress the benefit of this enough. I have my desired clips all cut to size and backed up prior returning home, saves hours. You are not comparing a pro camera to the SR11/12, if so MiniDV might be a better choice as pro/semi-pro hard drive cameras are computer processor hungry. I usually edit in iMovie HD, but sometimes in Final Cut Express. The weight kit for the L&M Stingray housing is necessary. The Stingray housing does not offer much camera control as the L&M Bluefin & Gates housings do, but for what I do the Stingray works great. If I ever decide to get a pro camera, then I would expect to have more control over white balance etc. I am satisfied with the SR12 and Stingray package, but know that it's a huge step down from a FX1. However, I can fit my Stingray housing, SR12, 2 Light Cannon 100's with batteries, one regulator complete, all my power adapters & cables, a Manta Jr. reel & float, and more in my approved carryon. Whereas, the FX1, housing and lights alone would put me over my 50 pound checked bag allowance. This would leave no room for a bottle or two of quality Tequila.

Hi, Since the SR-12 always starts in video mode when inside the Stingray housing it is necessary to switch into photo mode regardless, that's when the camera/housing becomes unreliable and locks up. I have committed to using the housing for video only now. Honestly, the photos from the SR-12 were not that great anyway. The May Cozumel video was shot with one UK Light Cannon 100 + 2 video filters, the July Cozumel Video was shot with 2 UK Light Cannon 100's + 2 video filters in each, these light are great. I have the L&M Stingray wide angle lens, but have not found the right opportunity for it yet, so all video is show with the standard lens. Overall, I am happy with the results I am getting with the SR-12, and love the in camera hard-drive editing/cutting I can do prior to brining video into the computer.

Hi Jon, I don't know about trailing images on either camera, but can say that I am happy with the results I am getting with the SR12. Personally after enjoying the benefits of the AVCHD I would not look at a tape based system again. I have 2 high quality videos up now on my website from recent Cozumel trips using the SR12, if that helps you look for quality.

I have used both the CX7 and SR12 on 2 consecutive dive trips both inside my new L&M Stingray HD. The Stingray HD is a great housing for these types of cameras. Even though I have had some recent problems with L&M I really do think their housings are tough to beat for quality and function. This housing moves so smoothly through the water, it's perfectly balanced with the needed weight kit, which should be included as the housing is miserably buoyant without it. I have 2 UK Light Cannon 100's on ULCS, the whole package is a great combination. The first trip to Providenciales in April I took a Sony CX7. The CX7 was pretty disappointing for video quality, and I was not having a great time with the Stingray HD either. The Monitor Back would barely make it through 1.5 dives on fresh Duracells, and I occasionally could not see much more than shadows of my subjects through the Monitor Back as it was way too bright and overexposed. After a conversation with Paul Barnett of L&M, who does a great job of advising me through these situations via Email, I learned that rechargeable NiMH batteries are the way to go for the Monitor Back. As for the rest of it, I was the first L&M customer using this new housing and camera setup. For the next trip to Cozumel in May I had some 2900mA NiMH batteries, the OEM Stingray HD weight kit instead of my 2 one pound weights zip tied to the housing, and the Sony SR12. The 2900mA batteries totally fixed the Monitor Back going dead and rendering the whole system useless problem, and the SR12 eliminated all the brightness and overexposed display issues on the Monitor Back. Everything was falling into place and I was impressed with the video quality. Then on one dive I switched from video to photo mode and everything went to hell. The camera kept trying to take photos, and endlessly simulated recording photos to the Memory Stick, while actually continuing to shoot video, then locked up completely in video mode and was totally unresponsive to any combination of attempts to turn the system off via the housing controls. I had to open the housing and manually turn the camera off later. I immediately sent this information the Paul, who got to work on it. I also ran the camera through dry tests in and out of the housing to recreate this issue. Basically the camera does not like going from video to photo mode while recording video, or even in standby while using housing controls. This is not an issue when outside of the housing if you toggle from video to photo, but if you hit the photo button while shooting video the camera takes issue and will lock up. Apparently the signal the housing gives is to the direct photo button, not the toggle to photo mode which switches into dedicated photo mode as opposed to snapping a photo while in video mode. Anyway, this is not really the fault of L&M, more Sony's design flaw. However, the end result is a "use at your own risk" photo mode. After testing this underwater several more time and getting locked up trying to take photos, I decided that this camera was going to be a dedicated video camera, and that's that. Fortunately I am very pleased with the video quality and like the whole system. The best part of the SR12 is that every couple days I would take some time to edit and cut down my video. This worked so awesome! All totally within the camera UI I was able to take clips and cut both ends to end up with the perfect, finished product ready to import right into my software timeline. I repeated this clip after clip taking 5 minutes down to 15 seconds etc, deleting some clips altogether, sometimes splitting and cutting as many as 20 times on the longer night dives where I pretty much left the camera running. It was amazing, what took hours of importing into the computer and tons of time editing was all done before I even left Cozumel, and the best part was I backed my finished clips up throughout my dive trip to a Memory Stick card directly from within the 120GB SR12, and when I got home I stuck that Memory Stick card into my Mac and in no time was ready to arrange and add music. The SR12 may not be perfect, but I have seen the light and am never going back to tape.

How much brighter if at all are they than the UK Light Cannon 100? I currently use 2 LC 100's, but like the Darkbuster features of not having to take out the batteries to charge and Li batteries are appealing to me.

Very informative photos. Are you using the AD-UK, or some other ULCS adaptor on the light? Thanks.

I received a response from Paul Barnett of Light & Motion which I do appreciate. He apologized, again mentioning the condition of my Monitor Back was "unacceptable". He appears to have implemented "corrective steps" "in both production and service areas" within L&M. My response to Paul: "Paul, I appreciate the response, although I have been quite concerned about the situation. I did resolve the problems myself since not hearing back from you, I had no choice due to the time constraints of my trip. I was able to disassemble, remove the LCD, clean both the LCD and plastic display back in a matter of minutes, it's perfect now. All bolts were loose, and as mentioned one was only threaded halfway. I obviously tightened them all down correctly when I reassembled the Monitor Back. I hope my repair will not cause any warranty issues with Light & Motion should the Monitor Back need further service. Again, I had no choice but to do the work myself as I am off to another dive trip and want my housing to operate correctly. I am trying to pack and get ready for a 4am car to the airport tomorrow, so I will let you know how it goes on this trip with the 2900MA NIMH batteries, and will now be using a HDR-SR12 camera which I hope will produce better results with the LCD display brightness. As you can understand I have lost confidence in Light & Motion, and should I need repair in the future I hope to regain this. I honestly feel that no attempt was made to do any repair with my Monitor Back except loosen bolts to leave the illusion of a repair. This really upsets me. You and Light & Motion have always come across as very professional, producing what I think is the best housing available. I can't say for sure that I will ever purchase another housing from Light & Motion again after this, but if I do I hope to receive the same incident free quality product that started my relationship with Light & Motion several years ago." Todd.

I am previous Light & Motion Stingray customer and recently bought the new Stingray HD from Paul Barnett. Upon arrival I noticed hairs and other debris on the inside of the Monitor Back screen. I emailed Paul photos and he admitted that it was unacceptable and to send the Monitor Back into him after my trip, which I did. Yesterday I received my "Serviced" Monitor Back and to my amazement not only were all the hairs and debris still there, but one of the bolts had only been threaded back in halfway. As a Dive Professional I have always held L&M in the highest regard for producing what I thought was a top quality housing, and an impeccable reputation. However, I just don't know what to make of this, wether it's very poor and careless service, or a deliberate act to ignore the concerns of a customer and create new ones? Either way I am done with Light & Motion as I feel insulted to have sent in a service issue on a brand new housing just to have it come back in even worse condition. I emailed Paul yesterday morning and still have not heard back form him, but felt it was important to share this experience since quality post sales service is so important for something that is going underwater, without it one cannot expect to have any confidence that their housing and camera are going to perform and be safe. I am off to another dive destination Tuesday, so after not hearing back from Paul, I disassembled and cleaned the Monitor Back myself today. It took all of 5 minutes and it's perfect now, and to think I waited weeks to get it back from L&M unfixed. The only reason I did not do it myself before was I did not want any warranty issues, but clearly Light & Motion does not have any quality standards for repair, or customer service. I still cannot believe the bolt only threaded in halfway on something I am taking down to 200 feet, makes me wonder what else is lacking. TODD.