GoPro HD underwater blur fix

[ozzydamo]

You really need a wide angle beam on your light so really, what you want is a proper U/W video light which cost big money
Hopefully they start to make more of these CRI Leds soon so the cost comes down- look at these puppies!
Keldan Luna 8 LA-V High CRI LED Video Light

 

[ozzydamo]

That's impressive titling you've done there, Indiana!

 

[ronscuba]

Using lights with the GoPro is going to be expensive, unless you are willing to live with the whole frame not being fully lit.

UW video lights are usually only useful for night dives or daytime closeup/macro shots. During the day, even the most powerful lights will only penetrate 3-5 feet of water. Wide angle of coverage needs even more power because the power of the light is spread out.

The GoPro with it's wide angle of view is going to make tough demands on the lights to fill the frame and at the same time be powerfull enough to enhance the colors. Plus the fixed focus and wide angle lens of the GoPro are not exactly what you want for macro shots.

I don't think it makes much sense to spend thousands of dollars on lights to use with a $250 GoPro.

 

[Lenaxia]

Point taken Ozzy and Ron. That makes sense. I'll focus my money elsewhere then, like getting a drysuit lol.

 

[ProLobster]

With effective lighting being (apparently) not the best solution for the GoPro, anyone have any experience using the orange/red gel to re-introduce the reds back into the image? Or is post-processing still the best bet?

 

[ronscuba]

With effective lighting being (apparently) not the best solution for the GoPro, anyone have any experience using the orange/red gel to re-introduce the reds back into the image? Or is post-processing still the best bet?

You can use less expensive lights with the GoPro as long as you are ok with the whole frame not being fully lit with colors popping. There are a few GoPro videos out there shot with lights. Might want to take a look and decide if the lighting is good enough for your needs.

For tropical clear water shooting like the Caribbean, I prefer to use an inexpensive gel drop in filter to handle the big color improvements and do fine tuning in editing. The gel drop in filters are cheap enough that it makes financial sense to give it a try. If you don't like the results you are only out a few bucks.

 

[Sortsol]

I bought a sola light for use with my goPro and I agree...so far it seems like it was a waste of $$. Now when I night dive, it may be a different matter. I was hoping to test it this weekend, but plans change... Hopefully soon.

 

[javatar]

backscatter gopro housing flat port leak

Has anyone been using the Backscatter.com flatport solution ( I believe this is in fact the german solution)
Mine leaked from day one at the flat port seal. Water droplet forms slowly, about 20 minutes into it starts to fog the inside of the flat port. Happens at depths below 25 feet. Trying to work through this with Backscatter UW photograpy in Monterrey, CA.

I suspect its capillary leakage thru the seal. None of the water enters the main housing body.

 

[Marty Cerven]

Hey guys Ive made a little test video with a standard gopro, oculus r5 (pretty much the same as the mako and other 1080 fixes) eye of mine and a blurfix with and without the UR pro cy filter. Each mode is tested at the same location on the same say for a pretty fair representation of each housing. You will notice the r4 vignetting is a little different to my previouse comparison video as that was using a different gopro camera, each seems to sit slightly differently in the housing so overall amount of screen effected should stay the same but the amount each corner will vary with each camera and housing combination.

[video=youtube;WlCvDaDrUss]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlCvDaDrUss[/video]

I posted it in its own thread but seeing this ones pretty popular and its on topic I will post it here also. All video is untouched except the red filter shots where given an auto white balance using eye dropper in colorista plugin as it was a little too red for the depth of only 5m 15ft. I think the filter and white balance give great results when combined and using the same technique on non filtered video doesn't give anywhere near as good results as their is just not enough detail in the red channel for the software to work with. I have found its a lot easier to reduce the red tint from filtered footage then it is to try and amplify the red when filmed with a clear lens.

Here's a couple of videos I took the same day with the blurfix and urpro cyan filter with the same auto white balance

[video=youtube;zoSc_kMYnG0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoSc_kMYnG0[/video]

[video=youtube;J6bD_v5F-nE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6bD_v5F-nE[/video]

 

[Gdon]

Fantastic work sir, I will nominate this video for the Academy Award for "best GoPro focus Fix Test Video"
(Although I might have put a test pattern board in the scene)

I think you make a good point that "your mileage will vary" since the tolerances seems to vary a good amount with these cameras and housings.