Hi 747,
I'd like to add 2 important points to your quandry. I use a gates housing with single chip dv cam (sony pc120) and edit with Adobe premiere pro.
Point 1 - 2 types of housing - electronic connection or manual control. If your flood a electronic connecting housing, you've broken the camera and the housing. If you flood or break a manual housing, you can fix the housing yourself. This is very handy if you dive in far flug areas with no support.
Point 2 - A housing and camera may be compatible now but in my case, sony don't make obsolete pc120s any more but my housing will last a lifetime. I've had to stockpile pc120s that I buy cheap on ebay. Some companies (topdawg spring to mind) now do housings to hold many different models of camera.

Some people may think my set up is basic (not 3ccd or hd) but bad vis, old tvs,bad encoding and non-perfect eyesight of some viewers can all ruin a dive movie too.
My advice is "Keep It Simple" and cheap, then if it floods it doesnt hurt quite so much.
You can view some of my videos in this forum or on my blog listed below.