Buying a GoPro Hero3, question about filter

[redmonte85]

Hi, I am going on vacation in the Caribbean and I will be doing some snorkeling. I currently have an underwater digital camera but I am thinking about buying a Hero 3 from gopro. What I wanted to know is if I do buy the Hero 3 silver or black or whatever edition, what would be the the most ideal setup for me in regards to the filter. I will not be scuba diving but rather snorkeling so I will be coming up to the surface frequently for air and I wont be diving much below 50-60FT (only for short periods obviously), spending most of my time in shallow waters. Would one of the polarpro clip on filters be ideal for this as I will also be taking on land footage with the camera as well. I am planning on buying the dive housing for the gopro as well. I am not a perfectionist or anything and am not trying to spend a ton of money on something that I will only be using when I go on vacations. Any ideas? Thanks for the help.

 

[toozler]

Lucky you, there is no need to buy a dive housing for the HERO3, the housing that comes standard is good for underwater use, it has a flat port that will focus underwater. Also, for snorkeling you won't need filters as there is still plenty of light (and color) available at shallow depths. If you are not only staying on the surface but freediving a little, maybe consider something very lightly tinted - if the filter is too "dark" it will make everything look red at shallow depths.

 

[Heatheroe]

We also only use our GoPro's on vacation in the Caribbean. And we mostly snorkel. We took our Hero1 with SRP BlurFix to the Abacos in the Bahamas and used the filter when we didn't need it and didn't use it when we needed it. In other words, shallow low tide snorkeling looked really red with the filter and high tide snorkel tour from a boat in about 30 feet of water was too dark with no filter.

Question is: we now have the Hero 3 Silver and I'm thinking I still need to get a filter. I'm leaning towards the BlurFix3 SO Naked since I already have the URPro CY filter. I am extremely green (and so is my video!) when it comes to photography so in your opinion, should I just learn how to use the settings better or should I get a filter for the deeper snorkels? We took the Hero3 Silver to Bonaire in November and everything came out extremely green. Guess I need to work on the white balance settings? I want to get it right this time with some good video footage for our next trip in July. Thanks, and I know this is so repetitious but really need some help!