Pedroinspain
Contributor
I was intending to use my new Sport Pro only for fish ID when recently on a trip to Marsa Alam in the Red sea. When my wife saw the quality of some of the footage she was as amazed as I was. I have now been instructed to produce an edited video sequence (good thing winter is upon us). The camera worked like a charm from the word 'go'. Why only "some of the footage"? .... here are a few of the things that I had to get used to and (depending) compensate for:
# Getting too close. This is a fixed-focus simple gizmo and getting closer than about 30cm is a waste of time. I wonder if a close-up lens is in the offing. This might go some way to compensate for what I see as the biggest draw-back of the Sport Pro. Macro will never be an option.
# Moving the camera about too much. The ultra-wideangle accentuated all movements, so I needed to learn to be slow and deliberate with all panning. The closer one is to the subject, the worse it gets. Snorkelling over shallow reefs with the camera pointing down was a disaster. For similar reasons, shooting (when snorkelling) in choppy water gave a result which was annoying if not nauseating.
# The buttons become easier to depress with time, but it is worthwhile checking that the red 'record' icon is off, or, as was my case on various occasions, you get lengthy footages of sand and the end of your fins. If in doubt (not wearing optically corrected mask lenses), switch the camera off and on again.
# I found that the red filter was already an improvement even at depths as shallow as 10 metres. One day I inadvertently left the red filter on and then went snorkelling. Yikes!! Armageddon fire world.
# I lost the lens cap on day 2 :-( ......... Buy a €2 Euro cap lanyard and save yourself the pain of vacation depression.
# Unlike me, learn to use the white-balance, and experiment with the environment settings before your final day.
# Getting too close. This is a fixed-focus simple gizmo and getting closer than about 30cm is a waste of time. I wonder if a close-up lens is in the offing. This might go some way to compensate for what I see as the biggest draw-back of the Sport Pro. Macro will never be an option.
# Moving the camera about too much. The ultra-wideangle accentuated all movements, so I needed to learn to be slow and deliberate with all panning. The closer one is to the subject, the worse it gets. Snorkelling over shallow reefs with the camera pointing down was a disaster. For similar reasons, shooting (when snorkelling) in choppy water gave a result which was annoying if not nauseating.
# The buttons become easier to depress with time, but it is worthwhile checking that the red 'record' icon is off, or, as was my case on various occasions, you get lengthy footages of sand and the end of your fins. If in doubt (not wearing optically corrected mask lenses), switch the camera off and on again.
# I found that the red filter was already an improvement even at depths as shallow as 10 metres. One day I inadvertently left the red filter on and then went snorkelling. Yikes!! Armageddon fire world.
# I lost the lens cap on day 2 :-( ......... Buy a €2 Euro cap lanyard and save yourself the pain of vacation depression.
# Unlike me, learn to use the white-balance, and experiment with the environment settings before your final day.