Just picked up a Hero 3 Black!

[scubafied]

Everyone seems to forget that with the addition of the wi-fi it is very easy to set-up your shot without having to spend another $80 on the LCD Bacpac. The LCD is a slick little number but I much rather prefer looking at a larger screen on my phone or iPad to see where it is aimed when using a tray and spend that $80 on 2 more dives. Granted you have to do the set-up before you splash but I haven't found any disadvantages to it yet. In my experience even when diving with the LCD, if you are in clear waters and don't have some sort of hood, you won't see anything on it anyway with all of the glare.

 

[flareside]

Everyone seems to forget that....

... not everyone has a smartphone or an iPad.

 

[scubafied]

... not everyone has a smartphone or an iPad.

What??? This just can not be true.

Just wanted to point that little bit out because in all of the threads I've read through, not once has the wi-fi option been mentioned as a way of setting up your shots.

 

[RedStang]

What??? This just can not be true.

Just wanted to point that little bit out because in all of the threads I've read through, not once has the wi-fi option been mentioned as a way of setting up your shots.

I played with it the first night. This thing has such a wide field of view it can be difficult to miss what you're aiming at. On the surface anyway lol!

I might get the LCD some day but doubt it. For diving I'd rather use that money on 2-3 more 32GB Sandisk's, or the SRP filter, or a tray.

As to the Hero3 I've had mine lock up on me twice. Each time was when I held the power button down for more than a second or so when powering it up. The video mode icon displayed on the LCD and just stayed there. I haven't tested again yet to see if I can make it happen on demand. Guess I can try that tonight or tomorrow. If that's the only issue I have I can live with it.

 

[yarik83]

I have 2 wifi remote controls for both of my hero 3's and I used them combined for around 3 seconds total time. Having iphone and ipad apps is such a treat not even funny. When I go mountain biking or heck even just now kayaking, takes a couple of seconds and boom.

I guess there is some advantage to having an lcd screen while scuba diving. I know I haven't used mine for my main camera in practically forever. Battery backpack seems to be a little better of investment if you ask me.

 

[haha49]

I have a Hero 2 with wifi pack and a Hero 3 black.

They both contect to the same remote if I want it setup that way. I can also conect 1 of them at a time to my iphone, ipod touch or ipad and use it as a screen and a start stop button. The main key is keep it straight and know it shoots a really wide angle so it's hard to miss things you can always zoom in the video if you want. You can do timelaspe if you want but the first 2 settings are locked exposures (for sky divers) so if the first one doesn't get it right the rest will be bad.

THe Hero 3 black can do 60fps in 1080p and 120fps in 720 were the hero 2 can do 30 in 1080p and 60 in 720. The higher the resalution the more pc power you require to edit and the more image you capture. It's hard to see a diffrence between 1080p and 720p because it's just a few lines on a moniter. Now you can shoot 4K which is way better then 1080p but at a lower frame rate so at low light it won't do so well but it looks really good.

I find try a mount out see how it works out then try it a diffren't way next time just turn it on when your about to go in and just run it till it dies. I don't like how the video files get broken up sometimes putting them back in the right order can be a pain in the rear.

 

[RedStang]

Well, my SRP Tray and Filter are on their way! This will probably be it for a while other than 1 or 2 more sd cards.

Also, my Hero 3 Black locked up a bunch on me this past weekend. Class 10 Sandisk cards were used. Wasabi and GP batteries. Never connected to a computer since after it was manually updated. I swapped it out a day before my 30-day return period at BB expired but still got one that needed to be updated. Need to find the time/reason to use it a bunch in the next few weeks before heading out on a cruise. Excited to test this thing under water.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I just finished doing 9 dives in Xcalak with my Hero3 and it all worked really well. I am using a red filter and two UK lights. The first two dives I just shot continuously, but then I became more selective, just capturing shots of this fish or that coral. I used the 1080 x 24 setting and it looks great. I downloaded all the movies onto my laptop each day, and it took about 32 megs total.

I am now going to have to get serious about a faster laptop (mine is 6 years old and - I guess - slow) and a software package that can turn the clips into movies. I tried MS Moviemaker (also 6 yrs old) and that was very limited but kind of fun, but I first had to convert the clips from MP4 to AVI. Maybe the newer version can handle MP4 clips directly?

Now I have to learn about how to take the raw footage and make movies suitable for facebook, for U-Tube, for emailing or posting on Scubaboard, and for a DVD so I can watch them on TV. With all the different camera formats and film editing software it seems like a monumental challenge....

 

[fbk]

If you want software that is powerful yet simple to use and works with MP4 clips directly have a look at Cyberlink Powerdirector, theres a free 30 day trial. Its not a monumental challenge to edit your clips into something worthwhile and produce all those formats in fact you'll be surprised how easy it is with good software, even for a complete noob like I was. I guarantee you are going to want to do it on something a bit better than a 6yo laptop though.

Also just curious why you used 24fps and not 60 or even 30? If you shoot in 60 you can export to 30 plus have the extra frames for slo-mo if you want them.

 

[caribean-ted]

Dove with mine on continuous also, till I realized the battery wasnt lasting, had a back up and each was good for one dive. Also same prob with the sola lights.
Needed to get close to the coral to bring out the colors with the lighting.
Hows the red filter working out?
So far, I bought movie studio platinum suite on ebay, cost with shipping was 80.00
Not simple, The video looks good so far on the computer, far as I got. I tried to add a couple of songs, first one goes great, second one im having trouble inserting properly. I want one song to fade and the next to fade in and play whole. Plays a bit, then the song cuts out and the prerecorded breathing kicks back in.

Will figure it out eventually. Spent the entire day on it yesterday. Never realized till it was 830pm LOL