newbie camcorder setup JVC mg-255 or your choice?

Hi,

I've been reading many of the post about video cameras but haven't seen much in my price range. I been a recreational diver for over 20 years diving in the Tropics, Hawaii, Mexico and Caribbean and at home Northern California, Monterey kelp beds etc and have decided to try my hand at video. I'm linking for a vidoecam versatile for land and sea all for no more $2000 USD including camera, housing and lighting, if necessary. Most of my diving is in clearer tropical water so the lighting so maybe the lighting could wait? epecially if it's only needed for kelp beds or darker locations/night dives. I probably would want to pull stills but I'm curently not interested in lots of post production magic

My starting point is an Ikelite JVC MG-255 Camcorder package with the following features;

Camera features

1/3.9" CCD (2.18 megapixels)

F1.2 aperture with 10:1 zoom ("bright" len)

2.7" 16:9 Widescreen LCD

Up to 1632 x 1224 Digital Still Resolution

3-Dimension noise reduction

Direct DVD Button / Direct Backup Button

USB 2.0 High-Speed Transfer

Everio Dock Provided

3.5 hour battery

tropical blue water filter

and of course the housing but no light for $1600 USD

http://ikelite.com/web_two/jvc_mg255pkg.html

Let me know if you know of a better camera/housing in this range and any thoughts on lighting.

I know there will be trade offs at this price range but let me know what you think is most important.

Thanks!

As far as lights go, one you might consider is the Fishey FIX HG20DX model. It's a halogen light, but with a filter can be brought to the same temperature as LED lights. It costs about $420. I have one and really like it. It has a dial so that you can dim it to any variation you wish. Fisheye also has a similar version that's an LED light, called the LED48DZX, for about $290. I don't kjnow anything about that version, though.

I thought one of the real virtues of the HG20DX was it's lack of a hot spot, and a good strong beam, etc. I would like to have two of them, but for now started with one and for the limited usage I've given it I was very pleased.

There are probably as many lights and hundreds of opinions about them as you could want, but these were fairly new and I like what I've seen so far.

I called Reef Photo and asked about the LED48 model, and they didn't recommend it. Said it had too little light output capability and needed a diffuser which made output even worse. They still strongly recommend the HD20, though. And my experience with it has been great. I'm even thinking of getting another one for my big trip this next January.