GoPro HD2 with Blurfix URPro swCY filter and the Tray by SRP vide

[freston4]

Marty,

Thanks for posting this and for letting the Victoria Wildlife authorities know about the Seal.

I found your mask mount interesting. While I ordered the Backscatter customized underwater housing with the flat glass port and color lenses and it is working great with regards to focus, I am struggling with how to best mount or hold the cam itself. So far, I have been using the head strap. Its angle and view it exactly what I want but I find that it interferes with the mask strap. I saw a diver out at the Carolina Coast with it mounted on a helmet but didn't get much of a chance to examine it closer.

One of the reasons I got the Hero 2 was because I didn't want to hold the cam. Have you seen any other mounts or ideas for hands-free capture?

I am going to Bonaire in a couple of weeks so I hope to experiment with it and get it fine tuned. Any more lessons learned or feedback on your experience with it so far would be appreciate.

Cya,

Randy

 

[Marty Cerven]

@freston4 I have used the traditional headband mount in the past and have had pretty good results with it, here are some pics of my headband with custom chin strap. I wear the strap more like a neck strap though but it can be placed wherever you feel comfortable. I put this on first but lower it all to hang off my neck, then put the mask on and then put it back over the top of the mask so I've never had issues with it interfering with the mask strap. Ive also worn the headband under a dive hood which works just as well as a chin strap but I only use a hood when the water gets below 15c as I feel its very restrictive and only use it when I need it.



This works well but sometimes bubbles do get in the frame so I came up with this with the extension mounts to push it ahead of the mask and get ahead of the bubbles.


I find the headband works well but I only tried the mask mount because I wanted a true POV for a video Im going to make testing out the tray. With the normal headband the camera is a bit too high and so to get my hands it needs to be pointing down too much so it doesn't show exactly as Im seeing. This isnt a problem normally but for what Im planning with my tray testing video I want it to see exactly what I see to make it easier to shoot and ensure I get all in the frame I want.

Normally this isn't all that important but with a normal headband mount to see the hands it needs to point down quite a bit and then to see ahead more like where your looking it needs to be pointed more in line with the mask angle. So the mask mount I have is more for a specific angle then anything else and it is very distracting and after using it I would not recommend people to try it themselves unless they are very comfortable in the water and are used to diving with little visibility.

I have seen a few other people make a mask mount where they attach the gopor to the top of the mask like in this example at the goprouser forum. GoProUser.freeforums.org • Login on page 30 of this thread 2nd post down if the link doesn't go straight there.

Here is an example of the headband without the extension amongst a few sharks using an EOM flat lens no filters so colours aren't great and bubbles get in some shots. The angle was pretty good though and the dive site is still my favourite by far.



Here is a similar depth video using headband in Thailand, my angle was a little bit too low so it was slightly below the eyeline but it shows the difference the URPro filter does compared to the fishrock video at similar depths and visibility levels.

[video=vimeo;29276100]https://vimeo.com/29276100[/video]

This and the tray are my 2 favourite mounts for the GoPro, the tray is great for more traditional underwater video and is much more stable then any other method I've tried. The headband is great too for those dives where you just want to enjoy the dive and record what you see. Ive had good results diving for scallops with the headband just the main thing to practice is getting the angle right with the headband, a good method I found is by lying down on a bed and stretching your arms straight ahead of you.

With the headband mount on you want your hands to be in the middle of the frame so its as close to your actual eyeline as possible, I note this angle with a protractor and make sure the angle is set correct on the boat. I forgot my protractor in Thailand which is why my angle was a bit off. Also using wide angle 1080p wide or 720P60 works best with the headmount for widest angles and 60p helps avoid too much blur when moving your head with faster shutter speeds.

 

[freston4]

Very helpful, thanks Marty, I appreciate it.