Mask mounting is the best solution. The common complaint is your video will be shaky, but this is irrelevant if you edit your videos properly and try to remember to keep your head still when observing interesting scenes.
Will it be perfect? No, but you can have great results. I can assure you if you post your full hour long dive video no one will watch it
Exactly. It's not going to be quite as good as a dedicated hand-held camera, but the subject was hands-free, so a hand-held is out of the question.
The image stabilization in modern GoPros is pretty good. I have an older 3+ and got a 10 last year. While I managed to train myself pretty well with the 3+, the 10 is so much more stable.
And as you said, the key to any good dive video is in post production. You can edit out the shakiness, correct for color (if necessary) and keep the video duration short enough. This isn't a feature length Hollywood production. This should just show the highlights. I usually bookend my dive videos with a couple B-roll shots of the descent and ascent. That's mainly to wrap things up and provide me with a decent spot to add title and credit graphics.
I'm going to disagree here. Gun mounting usually results in crappy video, especially the violent shake from bands letting go. But more importantly, this often results in the shooter using the gun to be a camera, rather than a gun and attempting to get good "shots" of their buddy. A dangerous situation as one should never point their gun at a person.
Totally agree. While the speargun does offer a fairly stable platform, there are a couple of issues I have with it.
1. Part of the speargun will be a constant in just about every shot (unless muzzle mount), which kind of ruins the video if you come across something cool that you don't want to turn into dinner.
2. With lights, ppd, spare shafts, etc. my speargun is already busy enough.
3. The videos I've seen shot this way have the same problem. Great video of the stalking and aiming, but you often miss the actual shot as the video gets a pretty good jolt when the shaft is released.
4. As you said, you have to point the gun at anything you want to shoot video of.
Recently, I was having this discussion with a couple friends who had just bought GoPro 11s. They were asking about gun mounts. I suggested against it and mentioned number 3. I then also said that I have lots of video of them on dives we've done, but I never once pointed a speargun at them.
