Hey everyone. I've got a pretty open question for everyone. I just finished shooting a travel documentary on the United States and plan on doing more heading south through Central America and South America. I sold my XL1 and am now cameraless and will be working towards a new setup. There are certain features that I am looking for and would like your opinions please. Here is a list of a few things that I'd like to have in my new setup.

1) HD. Seems everything is going HD these days so it's something to consider.

2) Portability. I'll be doing a lot of hiking, kayaking etc on these shoots so something that is a little more portable than an XL1 would also be a bonus.

3) Underwater camera housings. I know these can be expensive but does anyone have any experience with anything affordable when it comes to underwater camera housings?

Other things that I'm looking at are mics, smaller tripods that are also transportable, things like that. Any infomation would be very helpful. Thanks! Apologies for being so broad but I wanted a place to start anyway and from there I can start investigating and looking into other resources.

Thanks in advance.

Scott

Try searching the Under Water, Over Land forum (http://dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=111). You'll find lots of good advice there.

My 2 cents:
Take a look at the Miller Solo tripods. Especially the Miller Solo VJ.
Sony V1U for ergonomics and color rendition
Canon XH A1 for low light and image detail
Canon HV20 for an ultra portable cam - when the light is good - also good as a "deck"

Scott, for this kind of adventure my choice would be:
Canon HV20
Rode VideoMic (shotgun, tough and light)
Senn G2 (wireless lav)
Vidled (deluxe Dayled) as on-cam light
A "brackett" like this one:
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?shs=nrg+59111+trimount&ci=0&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=product.jsp&A=search&Q=*&bhs=t
A MacBook 13" with FCE 3.5
G-drive mini 160 gb
no suggestion for the tripod
a kata backpack