My ambition to film underwater

A few years ago I bought an Ikelite housing for my Canon A80 stills camera. Suddenly my enjoyment for diving was given a new lease of life. These housings had dropped in price and were now affordable. Within a year 1 in 3 of my club’s members had a camera. Over the beer at the end of the day we no longer recounted our day’s diving adventure but merely passed our cameras around with a “look what I got!”.

My problem is that on land I prefer to video. Stills are great but theirs nothing like the “talkies” to see what happened next. In 2007 I started my research. I looked into suitable cameras and video housings to match.

Choosing the right equipment

Given that I am entry level to the world of underwater video the criteria I worked to was as follows:

The camera

• Compact domestic
  
• The camera must be HD and SD capable
  
• I must be able to remote control it.
  
• It must have a reasonable number of manual controls: Focus, Zoom, Exposure, White Balance etc.
  
• It must be able to have a wide angle lens fitted
  
• The record media must be editable on a laptop, reasonably priced and give at least 45 minutes record time
  
• It must have reasonable battery life
  

The Video housing

• Good build quality – you don’t want it flooding
  
• A good optical port
  
• Remote controls for the camera
  
• Can have an exterior light fitted
  
• REASONABLY PRICED – I’m not made of money

The record media options available

Good research is important whenever you propose to spend a lot of money on something you know little about. The best research tool is the Internet. Do some Google searches for best video camera or housing and you’ll start to see a pattern emerge of what is good on the market. You can then refine your search looking at the features to see if it fits your criteria. Go into some video forums and ask questions.

There are loads of Camcorders on the market and perhaps four different types of media they can record on to.

Flash memory

Expensive and record times are short. Records MPEG4 material with many editors can’t handle.

DVD Optical Disk

Great if you just want to pop into your player and watch but useless if you want to edit the material. This is a publishing format only.

Hard drive (SD)

I read a number of articles about hard drives failing and frankly was not surprised. Hard drives spin at high speed and do not take kindly to be knocked. I had a 6Gb MP3 player once and went running with it. It crashed and damaged the hard drive beyond repair.

They also record MPEG4 material that many editors can’t handle.
Conclusion is hard drives are not a good idea for an underwater camera.

MiniDV tape

Tape! Yes tape. It’s cheap, reliable and records HD. You can ingest into your laptop and edit with any edit software.

The Camera options available

Concluding from above that miniDV was the way to go, two cameras stood out. Very few domestic cameras have a remote control socket (LANc socket)

• Sony HC7
  
• Canon HV20
  

The winner by a hair’s breadth was the Sony. Of course since my research Sony now have the HC9 and Canon the HV30.

The advantages of the Sony HC7 are as follows:

• miniDV tape
  
• Record in HD or SD
  
• Has an in built HD to SD down converter
  
• External microphone socket
  
• Sony LANc control via stereo 2.5mm socket
  
• External AV socket to feed a monitor
  
• Has thread to take a wide angle lens
  
• Reasonably priced and a great reputation

Not a great number of options here. You can either buy a Sony own, but they are not cheap or you can buy a Raynox HD-5050PRO 0.5X High Definition W/A. I bought my for under £50

The Underwater Housing options

There is a vast array of housings out there from very basic to quite sophisticated. The average price for the reputed makes is between £850-£1700, depending on whether it has mechanical or electronic controls. See the list of manufacturers below.

Remembering my criteria above the first question was the remote control. You can have either mechanical or electronic.

Mechanical

Lots of holes with rods and levers to move the switches and knobs on your camcorder. There are several flaws with this and only one good point.

As you dive water pressure builds up on the outside of your housing. The levers can become very stiff as they are forced in. I was worried that they might cause damage to the camcorder’s touch screen. So many holes in a housing also means the risk of flooding is increased remarkably.

The housing has to be designed for the camera. How long does a camera modal remain on the market?

Electronic

Ok I’m an electronics engineer so I’m biased. Electronics allows for a much more extender range of control. There are potentially no holes in the housing or at least the absolute minimum for cable entry.

Providing a replacement camera has the same remote control interface the housing can be used with a wide range of cameras. In my case that limits me to Sony cameras.

The housing of choice

I'd chosen the camera and the lens and now it was time for the housing with the criteria focussed on cost, build, camera and electronic remote control compatibility.

I looked at quite a range. One of the best was Undersea Video Housings, but the cost was high. Eventually I found a company in Gloucestershire called Birchley Products. They make what looked like a well engineered housing. It has a basic electronic Sony LANc control. It is a tube with a flat persex viewing port that can take a range of cameras. It can be taylor made to fit the size of the camera. There are also a range of lighting accessories.

Most importantly it cost £372!

Lots of ticks in the boxes!!

Underwater Video Housing Manufacturers

10Bar Underwater Housings
Aditech
Amphibico Underwater Imaging
Aquatix International
AquaVideo>
Atmo-Seal Engineering
Birchley Products
BSKinetics GMBH
ClearCam Video Housings
Damm Aquaspace
DeepH20 Industries
Epic Camera Housings
Epoque
ewa-marine
Equinox Video Housings
Fisheye
Gates Underwater Products
Gun-Lux Unterwassertechnik GmbH
Ikelite Underwater Systems
Inner Space Developments
JVC
Kabot lightcontrol
Leone Video Housings
Light & Motion
MediaSub
MultiTec GmbH
Nimar
Ocean Images
Reef Rider
Sea&Sea
Seacam Subsea Systems
Sealux
Seapro
Seascope
Seatool USA
Shellicam
Silverfish
Subspace Pictures
Top Dawg
Undersea Video Housings