Do I need the dive housing for GoPro Hero 4 Silver?

[divebrasil]

The Dive housing is rated for a deeper depth. The casing is slightly thicker to withstand the greater pressure. The lens on the Dive Housing is a slightly higher quality glass but unnoticeable either way. I can tell you that the Dive housing will come with a small neoprene pad across the inside of the back door to keep things secure in the housing. I have not received a great answer from GoPro as for what to do for the Hero 4 Silver since the screen is built in, there is not a great solution to getting a completely clear backdoor that fits the dive housing.

Thanks. What about removing the neoprene?

Thanks

 

[sea_ledford]

The Dive housing is rated for a deeper depth. The casing is slightly thicker to withstand the greater pressure. The lens on the Dive Housing is a slightly higher quality glass but unnoticeable either way. I can tell you that the Dive housing will come with a small neoprene pad across the inside of the back door to keep things secure in the housing. I have not received a great answer from GoPro as for what to do for the Hero 4 Silver since the screen is built in, there is not a great solution to getting a completely clear backdoor that fits the dive housing.

I just called GoPro yesterday to find out if the standard 4 Silver back would affect the depth rating on the dive housing. Turns out they aren't the same size, so that was a no-go. However, they do have back doors without the pad across the middle, and they are sending them to me for free. I'll find out in a few days what the doors look like, but they are available.

With as many doors ship with the camera, you would think they would include doors for both styles in the dive housing.

-Chris

 

[bbcb]

Actually, if you look online the dive housing shows a back door with the neoprene in two pieces (top and bottom) to ensure the screen is visible vs. the single wide strip that comes in the package. I called GoPro directly and after the 3rd transfer, I reached Emily in support. She found that there is a different door and ordered one for me, gratis. It took ~ 1 month to arrive and came with an additional skeleton door too.

 

[divebrasil]

Same here. I called them yesterday and they are shipping me the appropriate backs.

 

[peterbucknell]

People have been taking the standard housing to 300 feet with no issues.
Make sure that if you have a Hero 4 Silver and you buy a dive housing, that there is not a strip of sponge inside the back door, which will block your view of the screen.

More questions, there's an iBook: The Underwater GoPro Book
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-underwater-gopro-book/id954826182?mt=11
Email me if you are a non-mac person poita@me.com

 

[divebrasil]

Hi, I think I should post an update about this. Although GoPro customer support was helpful and tried to ship me the correct doors (for Hero 4 silver) for the dive housing, the first shipment for some reason never shipped, then they sent another one as fedex overnight, but only shipped yesterday. Guess what? I am flying today and won't have the correct backs.

So I had to improve. I peeled the middle strip out, took 2 strips from old housings and glued them into the door. Doesn't look great, but seems to work nonetheless. I am attaching some pictures.

Anybody see a problem in using it like this? Guy from support said it would probably be fine. It's either this or the standard housing, which with the BackScatter flip filters are kind of clunky to open and close.

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Nemrod]

Probably too late but I went to Walmart and bought a card of foam furniture/cabinet bumpers. Then I took four of them and placed them in each corner of the back cover. Seems to work fine. The foam pads are a little thicker than the removed pad but they are a little softer as well so I think they will form nicely. So far, looks okay. Yes, I called GoPro and requested a new back cover and they said they would send it but I too am on a schedule. Frankly, I am not seeing a downside to what I have here. I think it would work for a thousand years or at least as long as the original foam pad would have.That pad was a bugger to remove cleanly without scratching the cover!

Alternatively, using just two of the bumpers, I could place one in each corner of the original pad track. They would obscure a tiny portion of the screen but hardly enough to worry and they would more nearly replicate the original pad.

N

 

[divebrasil]

Hi all, just came back from Turks and Caicos and did 23 dives with the GoPro setup I posted on my message above and everything worked well. Of course now that I have received the proper LCD doors I will be using it since the view of the screen will be better.