GoPro 7 Black Or a case for my Canon G9x II?

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Lriemann

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Hi there.

I'm a beginner photographer who would like to shoot some diving videos.

I recently bought a Canon G9x II- a tiny but pretty sweet little camera.

I also wish to dabble in a little video, especially for my trip to Comodo and, hopefully, Sipadan.

The natural choice for video seems to be a GoPro, with the Hero 7 Black offering a very good price to quality ratio.
But would my G9x, in a simple underwater case like Ikelite, be able to shoot videos that are just as/almost as good?

From what I understand, the pros of each device are:

GoPro:
Simplicity- easy to use underwater
Toughness
Fewer things can go wrong
Better video (?)
Slightly smaller underwater


Camera:
Will be able to shoot stills
A case is cheaper than a GoPro plus batteries and accessories
Will save room and weight in my (minimalist) bag, as I plan to take it in any case (no pun intended)

I will be happy for any input on this matter.

Cheers
 
Hello Lriemann,

I recommend to go with the GoPro solution :)

Over the past years I did use my GoPro 3 Black and was very happy with the outcomes. Same as you, I already had a little but powerful Sony RX100 as part of my camera equipment and decided to add the dive housing. In addition, I added a wide angle wet lense and a cheap LED light. Although I went the cheap way, total amount was more on level with a GoPro + dive housing + batteries etc.

According to some reviews, the RX100 is a great entry level camera for diving and I do count myself beyond the level of a beginner photographer. Nevertheless, the outcomes were a disaster - out of 100 photos, 95 were blurred, not sharp or just crap. Moreover, I was always tinkering with the settings (instead of enjoying the dives) and when ready, the show was usually over. Thus, after trying on 2 different liveaboards / probably 50 dives, I just sold the whole package (incl. camera) and went for a GoPro 7 Black which I am super happy with.

+ Enjoy your dives
+ The video quality and stability of GP7 is amazing and if you want a picture, you can just draw a frame our of a 4K vid that is still 12MP
+ The GoPro + equipment needs less room than most of the dive housings I know
+ You can go with a cheap LED light from amazon and get good results

I have to admit that we had a guy on our recent Palau liveaboard who had a Canon (I think G5x) who took amazing Macro shots (better compared to GP) but he also had two lights for which he spent more than a 1000USD

Thus, I recommend to go for GP7 and spend the saved money for diving or a drone :)

See my results of GP7 below:
 
You will ideally need some powerful lights and a filter depending on conditions. A wide angle and macro lens might be needed depending on what you’re potentially shooting. A gopro is easy for video which is nice. Think about your long term goals and not just your immediate goals. If you think you will ever want to shoot photo with your G9, go with the camera option instead of the gopro as it will suit you better in long run since you can add strobes but also still using video lights for video.
 
I'm not sure if you can shoot RAW with a GoPro 7, but you can with the Canon, which is a massive bonus as you can adjust the white balance in your editing software post-dive to recover the colours back to how they should be if you need to (which, as I'm sure you're aware, is a major issue in UW photography).
Also, the Canon allows you to manually adjust the white balance during your dive which is essential for video - imo filters just don't really do a particularly good job of rendering accurate colours.
As @outofofficebrb mentioned, you can add a tray/arms, video lights, strobes, wet lenses etc to the Canon set up if you wish.
As you already have the G9x II i think that's the way to go.
I have a G7X II which is great, and I frequently get good feedback for my vids and photos - I've even been told they look professional :D

Having said all that, my wife has a little Olympus Tough tg-tracker which I do like taking instead of the Canon sometimes as it's so small!! The photos are crap though and the video is not of the same quality as the G7X II.

Just my two pennies.

Cheers,
Rob
 
Just to add that its not necessary to have lights for the Canon, particularly for wide angle. You'll be able to get good results from ambient light.
For macro you'll need lights to get the most out of the camera, although you can use the built-in flash as long as you can accept it's restrictions.

It all depends on what you want to achieve. Nice thing about action cams is that they are small & light and basically point & shoot.
 
Just to add that its not necessary to have lights for the Canon, particularly for wide angle. You'll be able to get good results from ambient light.

It is not necessary but it will be much better with lights. Unless you are using filters, which is often times not perfect or enough depending on the conditions, you can potentially lose a lot of the color in what you are shooting. While this can often be fixed post-process using something like Da Vinci Resolve or Final Cut assuming there is sufficient ambient light, relying on ambient light only may potentially leave someone a bit disappointed when viewing the video than compared to if there were lights involved. Also, depending on how deep you are, it may also affect focusing speed/accuracy. and as you go deeper there is less ambient light to work with.

Similar to a photographer - yes you can get away with just using ambient light and/or a filter...undeniably, the photos will be better with strobes. I believe the same goes for video.
 
It is not necessary but it will be much better with lights. Unless you are using filters, which is often times not perfect or enough depending on the conditions, you can potentially lose a lot of the color in what you are shooting. While this can often be fixed post-process using something like Da Vinci Resolve or Final Cut assuming there is sufficient ambient light, relying on ambient light only may potentially leave someone a bit disappointed when viewing the video than compared to if there were lights involved. Also, depending on how deep you are, it may also affect focusing speed/accuracy. and as you go deeper there is less ambient light to work with.

Similar to a photographer - yes you can get away with just using ambient light and/or a filter...undeniably, the photos will be better with strobes. I believe the same goes for video.

For video, I've had some excellent results using ambient light with my G7x II (with its large 1” sensor, same as the G9x II), but you have got to adjust the white balance on a regular basis - quite simple once you get used to doing it. If you’re not on top of WB it’s very difficult to recover the colours later. I’m not that keen on the results you get with filters so I prefer to reset WB manually to adjust for changes in depth. As a caveat, using ambient light relies on good vis. Most of my diving is warm water, usually with good vis. I do have a 3000lumin video light, but in day time and good vis it’s only really effective for very close up stuff or under overhangs and crevices etc.

For photos, if you you shoot in RAW, adjusting the WB during a dive is less important and you can correct the WB later with software. For macro I do use lights though (video light to focus and internal flash). Ive recently bought an Inon S2000 strobe so hoping for even better results on our next trip :)
 
I guess the question for the OP is how much time you want to spend doing post-processing. I don't mind it and I enjoy it, find it therapeutic and a way to spend my surface intervals - whether they be hours or months long.
 
I guess the question for the OP is how much time you want to spend doing post-processing. I don't mind it and I enjoy it, find it therapeutic and a way to spend my surface intervals - whether they be hours or months long.

Me too :) I enjoy taking photos and doing some post-processing to get the best out of the image. But I mainly love editting videos and putting suitable music to them.
Luckily my to little boys love watching them and they're already great at fish ID!
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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