My first go with the GOPRO

[VooDooGasMan]

Dump after studying the mako site I like the barrel attachment, cause the light has to go on the bottom in order to get a stone shot at the fish. I have monkeyed with the light and go pro on each side also. to have GP on side I could rotate at down load, just not going to get good shot of fish when barrel in the way.

Also I like the mako flat lense, missed that on first look at site.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

This was what I was toying with, lense is a little on the bottom side.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Spent the day with a dive buddy that has been doing underwater photo for like 50 yrs, apparently here in our waters the color lense has little effect from our water conditions. A different light is what I need and his best diffuser is a white plastic bag stretched on it. He did go into all the tech of it and that is a blur for the most point in how it works to get our color on video. He suggested a helmet for a gopro instead of the speargun, now I am not sure as to not having the ease of mask and strap in diving.

My thought when driving home Was to mount on top of light when not spearfishing, as soon there is no good size fish to spear legally till spring.

So I did shoot video on my sony, and pictures for his scientific project, I used no light at 50+' and green for video, then in shallows had great color in clear water.
So I am brushing up on these skills to get a better feel for my go pro video adventure.

 

[danvolker]

Spent the day with a dive buddy that has been doing underwater photo for like 50 yrs, apparently here in our waters the color lense has little effect from our water conditions. A different light is what I need and his best diffuser is a white plastic bag stretched on it. He did go into all the tech of it and that is a blur for the most point in how it works to get our color on video. He suggested a helmet for a gopro instead of the speargun, now I am not sure as to not having the ease of mask and strap in diving.

My thought when driving home Was to mount on top of light when not spearfishing, as soon there is no good size fish to spear legally till spring.

So I did shoot video on my sony, and pictures for his scientific project, I used no light at 50+' and green for video, then in shallows had great color in clear water.
So I am brushing up on these skills to get a better feel for my go pro video adventure.

The smartest idea I have seen lately for GoPro video was what one of the guys from the ScubaNation.com TV show was using to supplement the video they were shooting with their big monster Gates system..... He had a short polespear, the really short kind, and at the end of it, he had fitted a holder on to the gopro...
The way he shoots is letting the goPro hang from the bottom, as it is steadier, and is weighted to "want" to be at the bottom....which means that the video is all shot upside down....however, with the GoPro software, you can do an almost instant "flip" to make all the video right side up..

The polespear has enough length to add a long polar moment of inertia to a tiny little camera...with just the goprop by itself, you will accidentally move your wrist a tiny bit, and get a big jump in the video-- a shake...with the short polespear, the vertical and horizontal is much slower, more like with a big pro camera.
It really does work.

The downside of the helmet mount is that you will be constantly panning left and right and up and down, looking for the right shots....you can get them this way, but you will waste a lot of footage you will just have to delete out....The polespear approach also lets you get the camer nicely far back into some ledges you might see cool stuff in...

Your friend is absolutely right about the need for the diffuser...and an opaque plastic bag could be a smart way to fix a light with a spot/focused beam--at least make it much better.....this is kind of related to a top side video guy getting some Home Depot flood lights, and covering them with wax paper to diffuse them--and ending up with video lights almost comparable to a $4000 system for less than $75.. "Almost"

You want maximum diffusion, and you only care about trying to light up the area about 1 to 2 , or 3 feet at most, in front of you..This is true even with a $4000 video light system.
Here is how my video lights work in a wreck penetration...ie., pretty dark area : way-too-much-fun - YouTube

p.s.
the other videographer that comes in about half way into this video does a few things I don't think video or photo guys should do....
Like many of even the most famous photographers, this guy decides the only thing that is important, is the shot, and he stands on the bottom to shoot... He happens to be one of the strongest divers you could ever dive with, and a great shooter, but in this moment, he got so excited he did not care about anything but the perfect shot .. In this case, it did no harm, and did not silt too much, but in most instances, it would silt, and "could" damage the bottom....Just a little work on maintaining a flat horizontal body position and maintaining perfect bouancy with breathing, and it is easy to stay in the mid water collum as you can see I did. When I shoot in a wreck, the water stays clear...I can't tell you how many shooters crawl around like billy goats, and destroy viz within minutes !!!
The other thing is you can see his light is way more powerful than needed, and is almost like an explosion of white.... You don't need all that much horsepower in your lights....but you do need good diffusion, as your friend suggested.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

The smartest idea I have seen lately for GoPro video was what one of the guys from the ScubaNation.com TV show was using to supplement the video they were shooting with their big monster Gates system..... He had a short polespear, the really short kind, and at the end of it, he had fitted a holder on to the gopro...
The way he shoots is letting the goPro hang from the bottom, as it is steadier, and is weighted to "want" to be at the bottom....which means that the video is all shot upside down....however, with the GoPro software, you can do an almost instant "flip" to make all the video right side up..

The polespear has enough length to add a long polar moment of inertia to a tiny little camera...with just the goprop by itself, you will accidentally move your wrist a tiny bit, and get a big jump in the video-- a shake...with the short polespear, the vertical and horizontal is much slower, more like with a big pro camera.
It really does work.

The downside of the helmet mount is that you will be constantly panning left and right and up and down, looking for the right shots....you can get them this way, but you will waste a lot of footage you will just have to delete out....The polespear approach also lets you get the camer nicely far back into some ledges you might see cool stuff in...

Your friend is absolutely right about the need for the diffuser...and an opaque plastic bag could be a smart way to fix a light with a spot/focused beam--at least make it much better.....this is kind of related to a top side video guy getting some Home Depot flood lights, and covering them with wax paper to diffuse them--and ending up with video lights almost comparable to a $4000 system for less than $75.. "Almost"

You want maximum diffusion, and you only care about trying to light up the area about 1 to 2 , or 3 feet at most, in front of you..This is true even with a $4000 video light system.
Here is how my video lights work in a wreck penetration...ie., pretty dark area : way-too-much-fun - YouTube

p.s.
the other videographer that comes in about half way into this video does a few things I don't think video or photo guys should do....
Like many of even the most famous photographers, this guy decides the only thing that is important, is the shot, and he stands on the bottom to shoot... He happens to be one of the strongest divers you could ever dive with, and a great shooter, but in this moment, he got so excited he did not care about anything but the perfect shot .. In this case, it did no harm, and did not silt too much, but in most instances, it would silt, and "could" damage the bottom....Just a little work on maintaining a flat horizontal body position and maintaining perfect bouancy with breathing, and it is easy to stay in the mid water collum as you can see I did. When I shoot in a wreck, the water stays clear...I can't tell you how many shooters crawl around like billy goats, and destroy viz within minutes !!!
The other thing is you can see his light is way more powerful than needed, and is almost like an explosion of white.... You don't need all that much horsepower in your lights....but you do need good diffusion, as your friend suggested.

Very nice video Dan. I've spent a lot of time in that room, as for standing on the bottom, it is sand in there. No harm that I can see, no silt because the current blows through there.


maybe just a LITTLE better than my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2NcsMdOWLA

 

[danvolker]

Very nice video Dan. I've spent a lot of time in that room, as for standing on the bottom, it is sand in there. No harm that I can see, no silt because the current blows through there.


maybe just a LITTLE better than my video:
10 yr old Wreck Diver; Palm Beach - YouTube

Hey DD, I watched your video.....there was some cool footage in it, and great WOW factor with the Mola Mola !!!!
Inside the wreck, there are plenty of cool moments you captured--cool things to see, but there are also the examples of the issue a GoPro video guy has to deal with...that if you crack your wrist, the camera jumps off the subject....you had enough good stuff so that could easily be edited out....if it had been helmet cam, it would have been similar, because it would have been up and down and all over as you looked around....
It would be tough, if not impossible, for anyone to shoot video that does not need to get edited to "optimize" the viewing expereince for others....This of course, brings us to what editing program to use, so that getting rid of the bad, and concentrating all the good stuff, is easy
I like Sony Vegas...it is very intuitive and easy to learn...Pretty sure there is a free 30 day trial with it....this is also a direction I can help in, as I have Vegas down pretty well..... I have Adobe Premeire on Sandra's computer, but found it very convoluted---work flow just had all kinds of things in the way of "just doing what you wanted to do".

There is also a software system that will take a GoPro video that you have captured something incredible with...and it will take the very compressed video format of the GoPro, and "uncompress" it, upsample it to an exponentially larger color space, and then leave you with what is known as a "cineform avi" ( which is a movie industry quality editing format --they call this an "intermediate codec") This will be a better image quality video already, and it will edit more smoothly on your PC. Cooler still, the First Light program that comes with it, allows you to make the contrast much better in flat light areas, the saturation richer where there is not enough color, and color correction or white balance is a snap....and when you make these changes, they occur instantly--you don't have to "render" a new video with the changes like Vegas or Premiere or FCP.....But you still need one of those three for the actual cutting out of stuff you don't want, and the concentrating or re-arranging of what you do want ( editing).

This is also where you can instantly drop in a music track, virtually zero work to do this, so your friends don't have to listen to our breathing

Here is another Mispah video with some jewfish, where I tried to show the adventure of doing a penetration....The Mispah is such a cool wreck to bring people to, even divers new to wreck diving, because it has so much diversity in what type of wreck skill you want to play with.... Trip to Palm Beach to dive with Goliath Groupers! - YouTube suggested start at 28 seconds in to the video.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thanks for the tips Dan. So what is the software to breakdown the video called?

As for the music, my kid now adds it for me to videos. I should have edited the video, but at that time I didn't understand how easy it is to do it.

 

[danvolker]

Thanks for the tips Dan. So what is the software to breakdown the video called?

As for the music, my kid now adds it for me to videos. I should have edited the video, but at that time I didn't understand how easy it is to do it.

Cineform Neoscene

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Dan when we talked about the helmet, He was saying that when I find the fish shoot the fish and retrieve the fish, I will have the actual experience of every thing except just the shot and let the gun go and video has useless footage.

When I see vids of spearing in warm water its difficult to see why they do not fight very much when you do not get the stone shot. I have some vid of them holding vid in one hand and spear in another. Not all that great cause all you see is a fish at sudden death and I want to have the whole experience of the fight and it is that that makes me love the sport. So therefore the actual kill after is with a knife, and me pulling line and getting a hold of it to do so. Cabezon are great fighters and will be my only video for now of spearing fish.

Its going to be fun to figure out what works and not, I'm just trying to stay away from having to much on one device also. Trying to avoid the Knifelight ideas and yet have my hands free. With go pro in middle and a light on each side is a thought on helmet. The kelp is dying off and thinner so I will be able to have catching stuff on without to much of an issue.

Liked both vids and dump has actual dive which is what I am after and like you say dan I am trying to not have to edit, well cause I do not want to spend the time doing so right now, Its all I can do to wash boat gear, fill tanks, eat, and live.

 

[danvolker]

Dan when we talked about the helmet, He was saying that when I find the fish shoot the fish and retrieve the fish, I will have the actual experience of every thing except just the shot and let the gun go and video has useless footage.

When I see vids of spearing in warm water its difficult to see why they do not fight very much when you do not get the stone shot. I have some vid of them holding vid in one hand and spear in another. Not all that great cause all you see is a fish at sudden death and I want to have the whole experience of the fight and it is that that makes me love the sport. So therefore the actual kill after is with a knife, and me pulling line and getting a hold of it to do so. Cabezon are great fighters and will be my only video for now of spearing fish.

Its going to be fun to figure out what works and not, I'm just trying to stay away from having to much on one device also. Trying to avoid the Knifelight ideas and yet have my hands free. With go pro in middle and a light on each side is a thought on helmet. The kelp is dying off and thinner so I will be able to have catching stuff on without to much of an issue.

Liked both vids and dump has actual dive which is what I am after and like you say dan I am trying to not have to edit, well cause I do not want to spend the time doing so right now, Its all I can do to wash boat gear, fill tanks, eat, and live.

For what you are explaining that you want to capture, I think the helmet may very well be the best way to go... Unless you could get a dive buddy to become good at shooting the GoPro ( smoothly), and have them shoot you doing the entire stalking, shooting, the fight, and the stringing and bag shoot or whatever