Z1 on Cousteau's Ocean Adventures
 

What looked like a Sony Z1 was being used as a second camera on the deck of the Cousteau research boat, in their latest HD program about Grey Whales. It played yesterday on PBS and may be repeated on some stations in the next few days. On Oregon Public Broadcasting's HDTV channel, it repeats at 1:00 pm today, July 20th and tomorrow at 9:00 am. They do many underwater scenes and I wonder if they are using this model for that purpose? Perhaps someone on this forum has some involvement in this production.

Sometimes I see the camera pan over to the other diver I notice that the underwater housing is pretty small to be a full on broadcast camera. I suspect some form of HDV.

Yes I watched that too and I noticed the same thing.

There is a show on the Fine Living TV Network called 'Any Given Latitude'.
A recent article said they use the HDW-700 HDCAM for most of the shows except they use the Z1U for the underwater stuff.

Seems that the Z1U is getting popular for underwater photography. I think this is an area that it will out shine cameras like the HVX200. Can you imagine having to change P2 cards on a underwater shoot?

This is true, you can either shoot 63 minutes of 1080i with the z1u/fx1 or what is it like 18 minutes of 1080p with the HVX.

I think it should be crazy using an HVX with P2 cards for underwater photography. An HDD should be much better for such HVX, as long as you can remote control it.

As water movements are smooth, dangers for the HDD should be minimal. In fact I think HDD should be ideal for any underwater HDV camera.

One thing I find quite strange is anyone thinking of using belt holders for HDDs, as such devices are very sensible for vibration. On camera holders are much more reliable, as you will always be gentle with it. So adding an on-camera holder to an underwater combo may not be that hard.

I wonder if the current underwater rigs would accomodate a HDD. Most of those units are pretty tight in design.

They probably may not. But I do think that state of things may no last long.