Compact Setup for Video & Photo

I am wanting to get a setup I can take on every dive with very little hastle. DSlr is fine and all for when I want to take photos, but i find myself wanting to go diving more and more without a big rig and still be able to shoot.

I also want to get into video a bit more.

So is my best option a compact that shoots HD video and get a video led light?

the Go Pros look great and all .. but I think I would like a bit more control and to see what I am shooting etc.

Compacts have come a long way since I last owned one .. i see a lot of people talking about the Sony RX100, What else should I look at .. any experiences anyone ?

Seriously .. is no one using a compact camera to shoot video underwater at all?

Whilst I have not put my finger on a camera, I have been looking at strobes/video lights. it seems to me that a sola1200 would probably work best for video and not ultra wide (weitwinkel) (weitwinkel) angle photography.

I have other photographic strobes so they will do if i just want to do photo.

cameras that jump out at me so far are .. Sony Rx100, Panasonic Lumix LX5, and Canon G1X. I believe all shoot 1080 rather than 720 video. Not that I think a difference would be seen for my uses.

question is .. then as no one chimed in .. is this better off in the video thread and would a plain video setup be better .. using a video camera? Would the price be much different?

Thanks in advance for any advice,

While I'm not primarily into video I'm looking at the RX100 which seems like the way to go for video too, look for the link to the dp-forums in this thread for a discussion

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=47433

I would def say the RX100. I am looking at this option as well. Here is a good review from a purely video review http://www.eoshd.com/content/8499/sony-rx100-review

for $300 i may get a GoPro with LCD as well ...

I use compacts for video and I teach people how to use them

You can get good results with any camera that:

1. Has custom white balance

2. Has exposure lock

3. Has an housing that takes a flat wide angle lens

4. Shoots 1080p

The go pro is a good start but lacks the first 2 key points and is definitely useless for close range work

I shot plenty of video with a Sanyo xacti that is a mixed video photo and am getting now a sony DSC-RX100 which right now is top of the compacts

Don't forget the oly epl series. The earlier epl2 and 3 are available dirt cheap, with oly housings. And they give full control, raw, and video.

The latest epl5 has a hugely improved sensor, and oly housing for $1500 cam and housing.

I would not define a micro 4/3 a compact set up. For video you want the flexibility of doing macro and wide on the same dive, an option that most micro 4/3 do not offer

Video camcorder have very small sensors and therefore allow the operator to operate without even focusing when shooting wide angle, on the other hand shooting with DSLR or micro 4/3 requires pretty much the manual operation of the camera, this is not stuff for beginners

A compact camera with a 1/1.7" sensor works perfectly well as it takes perfect macro without diopters and great wide angle with a wet lens

The Sony RX100 would seem the preferred option for compact video however the macro capabilities are weak and will require at least a +5 diopter just to get something decent

I wouldn't get the goPro. I have the goPro Hero HD with the flat port housing. I combined it with magic filter. The fact that there is no custom white balance make it not useful at all, and the fisheye effect it give is too much. It's a very confusing device to use because if you shoot 720p, the fish eye effect is not bad, but if you shoot 1080p, then it's a different issue as depend on what housing you use, you may get vignette. I don't use strobe so maybe the fact that there is no white balance control is not an issue for you.

If you get the goPro, you have to get the LCD backpack. The battery life on the goPro is not that long as well. One battery only last 1.5 dive. The new goPro can do white balance, and has 2.7K video and 4K low fps video as well, but at $400, it's better to get a real camera.

The RX100 is popular because it's so flexible for both video and photo, unless you go with Sony RX1, he he.

Sony has the best image stabilization, which is very important for shooting video. Here is an example of how good and smooth the image stabilization is, it's just no a monopod (not flycam) chasing a cyclist:

Canon is lagging behind these days in term of video capability as they don't have a whole of product that do 1080p at 60 fps.