Hi from San Diego!

Just joined because I'm in the process of buying the following:

1. Sony HDR-CX700V
2. Gates CX700V housing
3. Standard port
4. Flat port for macro work
5. Gates wide angle port
6. Moisture alarm
7. UR Pro filters (blue + green)
8. VL8 dual light set - 2 heads/batteries/charges
9. Close up kit (+1, +2 & +4 diopter lenses)
10. Ultralight arms

Need to be able to produce great HD videos for our website about marine life and stills for species pages (550px wide max)....

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear it... including any ways to get the above without spending so many thousands... we're a nonprofit and the work is to promote marine conservation.... Heading to Bonaire next month to test it all out....

- David
http://marinebio.org

Don't bother with the + 1 and probably even the +2 diopter although I know single element ones are cheap. For macro you will want +3 then all the way up to +5 once your stabilization skills are better and you are ok with reduced depth of field..

You might want to get the wide angle port only as long as it has "full zoom through", and go with the plastic port version, not the glass.

Most of us do not use a flip down color filter of any color, we white balance and color correct in post when shooting wide angle without lights.

For macro, you definitely NEVER want to use color correction filters with lights. Do get a slightly greenish/bluish white balance slate though, it will warm things up for wide angle sequences.

This was shot with a +4 dual element achromatic diopter:

http://vimeo.com/27246890

Wonderful video... and advice, thank you. I will look into the white balancing aspects for sure, I have an idea of why but am learning the how. My last video gear was a while ago and was just a PC1000... with no lights, etc.

I'm also hoping to be able to get stills with this camera, either via photo mode or by exporting frames from the HD video... I hope that works out. I'll be using Premiere 5.5 which I'm pretty comfortable with so we'll see. Other than reading all manuals and tons of practice, is there one must have book (if you could only choose one say) that I should get that will help me produce the best videos? I've got/read Church's Essential Guide....

Also, who's the best dealer to buy Gates equipment from?

Exciting stuff!

Stills from HD video, once you delinterlace it in post unless your shooting in progressive mode, actually look surprisingly good as long as there are no motion artifacts from a fast moving subject. With the later, even though a 10 seconds clips will look great in totality, individual frames can be blurred, so just find the one where it is the most in focus.

For video, the Bible is The Camera Coach by my friend Annie Crawley. It's what we all got started with and still refer back to.

Expect that most of your footage will not be usable, just shoot so much that you accidentally end up with stunning stuff, then only show that, everyone will think you're a pro! That's what we all do!

Oh, and DO turn off image stabilization and shoot without and with, most of us turn it off as it causes artifacts.

With a plastic dome final cover, if you scratch it, you can fix it in the field with a cheap Novus repair kit.

Wonderful, will take your advice to heart. I actually met Annie years ago when she was starting out in Santa Barbara (she knew my to be wife, tiny world)... she has certainly done some great things since then, love seeing that. I will definitely get her book and thanks again. I will also definitely ask for a plastic dome, makes lots of sense because I know how easy it is to scratch glass.... Looking forward to spending every second I can underwater with everything....