GoPro 9?

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hroark2112

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Looking into yet another GoPro. I’ve had a few get water in the cases and ruined them, so I’m hoping that the 9 will be less prone to that.

Do I still need to use a red filter for diving? Or can the video be adjusted (fairly easily I hope!!) post dive? How easy is the video “production“ process?

Any pros & cons to look out for? TIA!!
 
Can’t speak for the 9, but now that GoPros are waterproof without a case to 30’ they seem relatively durable. I’ve gotten a little water in the cases of my GoPro 7 and 8 with no I’ll effect.

The 9 definitely looks interesting with its 20 MP sensor.

Sam
 
GoPro has a Black Friday special on GoPro 9 so I decided to order one to upgrade from my 4 Silver. I'm also curious on the best underwater settings and if I need to use a red filter. I'm going to try using it without the filter and then decide if I should order a Flip filter.
 
Didn't know the 9 was even coming.
Started with a 2, added a 3. Killed the 3 (bad seal on an aftermarket case for a big battery)
Got a 4 and a good Golem gear case for it.
It would be interesting to see what the change would be from a 4 to a 9. That might actually be noticeable. Image stabilization? low light performance? better still image quality?

In general, if you dive and film with natural light, expect to need a filter. Bring your own light, no filter.
 
I noticed big increase in stability from Hero 3 Black to Hero 7. Also on big screens you appreciate the increased quality. Hero 9, which allegedly has even better stability, would really be smooth.
 
GoPro has a Black Friday special on GoPro 9 so I decided to order one to upgrade from my 4 Silver. I'm also curious on the best underwater settings and if I need to use a red filter. I'm going to try using it without the filter and then decide if I should order a Flip filter.

There's three ways to correct the color shift.
1. Bring you own light
2. Filter(s)
3. Correct in post processing

#1 will only work for close up photos within range of your lights, not wreck photos, divers in the distance, etc.
#2 is easy, provided you're not greatly changing depth or switching between using lights and not using lights. Different filters are needed for mid-water, deep-water and lake (green water).
#3 I know it can be done but I'm too lazy or something.

I have a Flip7. Where that really works is where you're changing depths and/or lighting. For example, drop down, take some distance photos of wreck using red filter with lights off (because they can't reach that far anyway), flip out red filter, turn lights on, take some close-ups of fish, oh shark in the distance, lights off, red filter flipped back in, ascend to safety stop to an extremely friendly remora, flip red filter back out since its so shallow and ambient lighting is almost natural, and take some more pics.

Its kind of like a dive computer, if you're doing a square profile then you can use one of the cheap filters that pops on the front, but soon as you start changing things the Flip system is really handy. It's also much easier to use in cold water with gloves than the pop on pop off filters.

I saw big improvements just from upgrading from 5 to 7 in handling movement so I'm sure the 9 will be even better.

I've attached two photos, one with the red filter on, one with red filter off. Same wreck, FW Abrams, Outer Banks, NC.

Sam
 

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Didn't know the 9 was even coming.
Started with a 2, added a 3. Killed the 3 (bad seal on an aftermarket case for a big battery)
Got a 4 and a good Golem gear case for it.
It would be interesting to see what the change would be from a 4 to a 9. That might actually be noticeable. Image stabilization? low light performance? better still image quality?

In general, if you dive and film with natural light, expect to need a filter. Bring your own light, no filter.
While theoretically you're right that if you bring your own light and shine it on a subject you should not need a filter, with my Hero 4 I got best results with both a video light (on a pole) and a filter. This is because the light can only illuminate a small portion of the image in most cases. Also I think the Backscatter Dive filter only partially corrects the colors. So the two: imperfect video lighting and imperfect filter work well together. Sometimes my scene would appear too red when I got close to the reef with the video light but most of the time it's fine or blue if at distance.

With the Hero 9 I'll first try a dive with just the video light and see what happens.
 
While theoretically you're right that if you bring your own light and shine it on a subject you should not need a filter, with my Hero 4 I got best results with both a video light (on a pole) and a filter. This is because the light can only illuminate a small portion of the image in most cases. Also I think the Backscatter Dive filter only partially corrects the colors. So the two: imperfect video lighting and imperfect filter work well together. Sometimes my scene would appear too red when I got close to the reef with the video light but most of the time it's fine or blue if at distance.

With the Hero 9 I'll first try a dive with just the video light and see what happens.

I have a Hero4 as well (Silver). I carry the camera on a selfie stick; how do you carry the camera and the light?
 
On filters, lights, and post processing, and only in my limited experience:

1. Filters have made things TOO red for me at times. Unnaturally so. That can be corrected in post-processing.
2. Lights are great for near subjects in the center of the light beam. You can post-process to correct pure distance shots.
3. Post-processing is your friend, but it gets complicated if you have a near subject well-lit and a background that's distant. I'm too lazy to add correction to all but the subject in the foreground.

I'm not sure there's any easy and good solution here, but doing any of these will likely make you happier with some shots.
 
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