Gates Announces two new video housings!

We just received confirmation from Gates Underwater Products (San Diego) that they are definitely making housings for the following new compact HD Camcorders:

Sony XR500V and XR520V

Canon HF S10 and HF S100.

Although pricing is not set, they estimate pricing to be approximately the same as the current HC series housings, and the new housings will use the SP series ports.

Housings are estimated for availability in July and August respectively. Thats all the details we have for now, but I will post as I hear more info.

One last thing, I was out at PMA last week in Vegas playing with the new camcorders. The new Sony's have an Optical Steady Shot with Active mode, that is absolutely amazing and fully functional. The previous steady shot, although functional never really helped much if you were bouncing around or moving fast. Their new system was displayed on an actively moving machine (see attached picture) and really steadied the image.

Very very cool. Those cameras look interesting.

Part of me still wants to hold off with my current Gates housing until Scarlet gets here and Gates makes one for those

On the otheer hand I have not bought a new video camera and housing in a couple of year now...hmmmm....

Nice Drew...we all want Scarlet thats for sure. I just wonder how long it will actually be before we get cameras, not even counting the time for a housing after that. Scarlet is definitely my plan as well, guess the EX1 will have to hold up a bit longer...hahaha

Nice Drew...we all want Scarlet thats for sure. I just wonder how long it will actually be before we get cameras, not even counting the time for a housing after that.

$5 on Gates getting the housing out alot quicker than when Scarlet is actually released based on anytime frame you pick I ALMOST fell for it when it was suppossed to be last year. Okay I did semi-fall for it. More so from dreams of a small portable camera with those specs dancing in my head

Hahahaha!!

Nice Drew...we all want Scarlet thats for sure. I just wonder how long it will actually be before we get cameras, not even counting the time for a housing after that. Scarlet is definitely my plan as well, guess the EX1 will have to hold up a bit longer...hahaha

I'm waiting (and saving) for Scarlet for sure. No way I am gonna put $10-20K into anything else and since it's not my living, I can afford to wait and use the Sony FX1 until scarlet is here.

Just got to decide if I want 2/3" or if I can afford and make the S35 happen

Ahh the choices in life

Ahh the choices in life

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.ph...080&page=42

Just to wet you appetite!

Looks pretty good... albeit from a still!

Also

I think I just wet my pants!!

We can all be sure that the housing and decent port for it will be at least twice the cost of the camcorder itself. I will never understand that.

Steve

We can all be sure that the housing and decent port for it will be at least twice the cost of the camcorder itself. I will never understand that.

Steve

You know what is sad? The thought of paying 2x of the cost of the camera is beginning to sound low

With all the design and uniqueness of each houing it is not that hard to see unfortunately. If the cameras manufacturers would stop changing design and just put a different chip and software inside for at least a few generations, it would be better

Drew,

You are so correct. The cam manufacturers used to do just that, bring out a cam and it would hold steady for years,(Think Sony 101 Hi-8 and then the Sony DCR1000 was king of the hill for a very long time. Even the Z1-U was tops for some time. Now Sony, Panasonic and even JVC bring out 10 new models every 6 months, many using different forms of the same codecs that the NLEs can't keep up with, and the housing builders have to decide which ones to build for and which to forget about. There is a lot of re tooling and design work that must go into housings and if it is for a cam that is discontinued after only a few months, I guess they must be a bit stuck in that regard. I still think, however, that with the economy the way it is, with people being laid off and buying less, that if the manufacturers lowered their prices a bit they would more than make up for it in increased volume sales. Kind of like the way Walmarts is the only business making profits every quarter.

Steve

I still think, however, that with the economy the way it is, with people being laid off and buying less, that if the manufacturers lowered their prices a bit they would more than make up for it in increased volume sales. Kind of like the way Walmarts is the only business making profits every quarter.

Steve

Always the concern about price and elasticity of demand in there.

My guess is that people who do the underwater shooting thing may be a bit more inelastic to price changes (given the nature of the cost of dive equipment and travel) while more of the items (particularly housings) may not be quite as variable in cost due to the intense nature of design and other issues you mentioned.

Some of the housings, such as the Ikelite designs, seem to be more flexible, but others require alot more tooling and redesign. If the cameras were not so wildly changing it may mean less "going back to the drawing board." Pick a housing and look at the current prices. Let's say the housing I have an eye on is $2,500. I am not sure that if dropping it to $2,300 would make me jump barring something other than the old equipment is really long in the tooth. If it was dropped to $1,750 (though of course every body has their own price tipping point ) then that would be a different story (may grab one) though it may be getting close to not worth it for the manufacturer. There were some posts about how many housings are sold for each model and it did not seem very high taking account manufacturing and design work plus overhead. Maybe there is more room in there, who knows.

On the electronics side of things there is probably some more play in there and also more economy of scale/market, but they have to be a bit careful of canabilzing themselves with the price points they set. And the 10 new models every 6 months is starting to get a bit tiring and is now making me hesitate to buy things. Used to be changes were worth a jump, now they are not quite as great and I always have tthe nagging feeling they are holding back a bit.

Walmart gets really good pricing to begin with due to their size, wish they carried underwater camera equipment