i realllllyyy want to be able to do this cool underwater shot in a project i'm working on.. but it turns out the underwater housing they make for my camera costs more than the camera itself.. i tried using a fish aquarium with it just sitting in there but it looks blury and horrible and i have no control... anybody have an idea?

Well if you can just angle it from the surface I would suggest finding the clearest bowl you own and just set your camera on it's lens.

The fish tank thing always scared me. When I needed an underwater case for an XL1 we called a local camera rental place and told them we were students. They told us about a manufacturer (Gates) and we got the case and a little minilesson on how to use it for $100 for 3 days. To purchase the housing would have been $2000+. You could contact local photo and videocamera stores to see if they know any locals with underwater equipment.

Have you tried using mirrors? If you give us more info, maybe we can help you out better.

i'm using a panasonic dvx100a.. i tried that rental idea but there really just isn't a place anywhere near (and near is a loose term) here. i'm trying to do a shot in a swimming pool that involves a person jumping off a diving board, i have this kick ass camera crane and i want to start from the opposite end of the pool level with the actor and then plunge the camera down with him as he jumps... ok now that i write that out maybe it is impossible.. any thoughts?

It's not impossible, it's just gonna cost more than you want. I'm sure you could find a bag-style enclosure for around $300-$800. And if you want to go the route of renting, I'm sure a rental house will ship you an enclosure so you won't have to be limited to geographic proximity. If buying or renting is still out of the picture you're back to making your own.

There's several different approaches to building one, but the simplest/cheapest/easiest is probably putting the camera in several ziplock bags where you've cut a hole through all of them for the lens and silicone a large uv filter to the bags. But then you'll need to get creative on how you mount the camera to the crane as the tripod mount on the camera will be covered. And you'll also need to remember depending on how much air is trapped in the bags, the camera will be very buoyant under water (this will affect both the crane couterweighting and the mounting of the camera to the crane).