Rich has great advice. I use a Nikon Point and Shoot with a housing use to take my stills. I think I have less than $400 in the whole setup. Like Rich, I also carry a GoPro (Hero2) with me. I wear mine on my head and have it set for movies. But, if you just want to know of the GoPro is worth having, heck yes. Great camera and very versatile. I used mine on dives, mounted on my motorcycle, making time lapse loops, etc. Great little camera. I took some movies on my shark dive in the Bahamas they turned out awesome. If you would like to see afew, just go my youtube: (youtube.com/trollwolf) Note, not all vids are dive related, but most of the later ones are all filmed with the GoPro. (The title will have "GoPro" in it if I used it)