Crazy - 1080p cam + 180' housing for $270?

[Matt S.]

The fishbowl image is a consequence of the super wide angle. I think the shots on the gopro site mostly used a less-wide shooting mode, and kept the subjects a little farther away. You will notice that the distortion abates rapidly the farther away the subject is.

I stuck the camera on my car and went for a drive. At the beginning, in my garage, with junk piled 2 feet from the bumper, it's a distorted, grainy, low-light mess. As soon as you pull out into the light, it looks great.

With any UW camera it is important to care for the housing after a dive. What you don't want is salt water drying on it. Keep the camera wet, even in salt water, until you can give it a good fresh water soaking.

I'm just going to improvise some kind of strap with 1/8" bungee. Haven't looked at how yet though.

 

[SeaYoda]

... Perhaps you could stick one of those HydroOptix contact lenses over the camera's lens in order to make it sufficiently myopic to get sharp focus ...

I was thinking about filling my mask with air and turning it backwards to counteract the virtual image?????

 

[phillybob]

I bring a 5 gallon spackle bucket full of fresh water with me on all boat dives. The camera stays inside when not in use. This is to NOT LET SALT FORM A DEPOSIT ON YOUR SH^T. This would be impractical traveling, so I'd say to try to keep your stuff wet as possible (and cool) till you get to your room. Then give it a good , warm rinse, working your buttons and rods.

 

[PropWash]

I have a friend that recently purchased the GoPro Camera and used it while on their latest scuba trip in the carribean. While the video quality isn't on a par with the BBC Blue Planet Hi-DEF stuff by any means, I was impressed enough that I ordered two of the little cameras myself. It seemed to preform quite well in low light (when the occasional cloud blew over it was no worse that what you would have seen diving the sites in person). I am anxious to get mine delivered and will post a link to some video samples as soon as I can. For now, I think it is an awesome toy. I'm not ready to give up my DC1000 for it just yet, but hands-free at 100' sounds awesome for wrecks with a good dive light. I am a dive instructor and hope that I can use it with my classes as well. Great for advertising, and perhaps a teaching aid for skill demonstration (Have to check with PADI on using it, but the hands free aspect gives me hope, if not for me, at least for my DM's in the pool and at checkouts!) Stay tuned for more info...

 

[RickI]

Been using the GoPro WIDE for many months and despite the lesser resolution, have been blown away by other qualities that exceed far more expensive cameras that I own. I took two HD and two WIDE cameras along for a shark feed last weekend. I was well impressed by what came out of the HD. It could be a bit sharper but the color saturation and some other properties are strong selling points for me. Then there is the price. May buy two more, can get real creative with scooter free diving points of view in video.

A bunch of past WIDE videos appear at: (pretty much everything with a green arrow)
http://fksa.org/forumdisplay.php?f=92

Just uploaded my one and only UW HD video to date from a few days ago (shot at the default setting of 960p) with the GoPro next to this post at:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/un...ort-shark-feed-new-inexpensive-hd-camera.html


Getting these is a no brainer for me, it is a good low end, versatile and useful camera. Not sure about the HD but the WIDE seems to image further than I could see or my G9 for that matter in lower viz., consistently. Like the video a lot better UW than has come out of my Canon G9, Olympus C-5060, Olympus 1030 or 770 sw cameras. Thing is GoPro didn't try to design in unusual UW qualities, they targeted other applications, this came about by accident. Very fortunately for us.

 

[Amphibious]

very interested in this cam, if the fuzziness issue can be cleared up, it would be the perfect guncam for the freedive spearo. low profile and streamlined....

May buy two more, can get real creative with scooter free diving points of view in video.

kind of an oxymoron isn't it?

 

[cjfox]

How is the white balance on this camera working for you? I can live with using a filter and automatic white balance in the tropics, but here in the great white north, manual white balance rules. How have you found the color balance, and are there any controls other than "auto"
I'm still pretty excited by the size and cost versus what I'm used to.

 

[100days-a-year]

Then give it a good , warm rinse, working your buttons and rods.

That is priceless,keep up the info folks.I've got til about May to decide on a video for my summer plans.

 

[RickI]

For now there is only auto white balance on the HD cameras. The auto white balance of the HD unit is pretty good, perhaps better than in the WIDE unit. I used it this week in turbid, lower light brown water conditions to clear blue water and even into some caves on a variety of sites down in the Caribbean. The performance of the WIDE in turbid conditions has been fairly remarkable in terms of distance of view and white balance. The HD seems to maintain similar qualities. The image resolution is still a bit less sharp than might be desired however. Have yet to start processing video from this recent trip but should put some up soon.

Re: scooter free diving, don't knock it until you try it particularly on a sit on top unit. When was the last time you dropped to 70 ft. and cruised around a couple of hundred feet along the bottom without strain on a breathhold dive, repeatedly? It is a trip, with some risks to learn about however but a lot more fun IMO than watching video reruns of fish getting polaxed.

 

[bennyscuba]

So I finally had a chance to use this underwater the other week and I have to say that I'm very impressed. Here is a short video from one of the dives. It's unedited and not the best video (my wife is shooting and where both new to this - i was trying to get her to get closer to the fish) but it gives you a feel for the pluses and minuses of the camera:

Clown Fish - Thailand on Vimeo

The depth is probably about 45' at this point and the visibility was no more than 40' (this was shot in Thailand). It is shot in 960p (i never tried 1080 - probably should have).

Quality: As you can see the reds and purples are gone from the video (which is shame b/c the soft coral was awesome) but the yellows and some of the orange is there. There is actually no real fishbowl in this video which is nice to see - maybe b/c it was shot from a bit farther away or b/c the visibility is a bit better than in monterey. but even some other close in shots are good ( i will try to splice together a montage later)...

Use: the camera itself was very easy to use. i clipped it to my BC via one of the attached straps and let it hang (while on) during the dive. there is one button to start and stop taking video which was easy to use - i never changed the mode to take stills while underwater. Not having a screen didn't seem to pose a problem. It seems to be neutral or slightly negative as it hung during the dive.

Portability: The thing is super tiny which is great for travel - and the case is super tough so there was little fear with it rolling around in my bag.

Connection: I primarily use Linux and it connects easily as an external drive and the files play seemlessly. I tried it on Windows and easily simple. One minor quirk is that once connecting it, you have to power on, however the battery does not charge at this point - so you have to either have it charging (and not able to read the files) or file read mode and not charging - seems kind of inefficient.

Storage/Battery: I have a 32gb card for it and that seems like a good buy as you can store a crap load of video on that and not have to eat up your own hard drive. I left it on idle during both boat dives and took 30+ min of video for each dive (in ~30 sec clips for each dive) and had no problem. I then charged the battery at night. They advertise 4hrs of video and 8hrs worth for a 32gb card and i believe it.

Synopsis: I'm pretty pleased with as a dive toy. I just wanted something to capture some images underwater and it does the trick. The loss of color is sad but expected, but video is really sharp above water. the audio is pretty weak while in its case and not great out of the case but who cares for diving. All of the different straps give you some options for connecting it to your equipment.

If this a dive toy i think its a great buy. While there is nothing cute about it (as oppossed to the flip style cameras) it does the trick. If you are using this above water i may think twice and compare the audio of some of the other cameras, but for $300 i'm pretty happy!

bg