Review INON Semi Dome for gopro??

[kevindale222]

Point taken FBK. TBH the only reason I'm going for a gopro is the current/surge can be very strong in Galapagos so a nice small gopro on a tray for steadiness seems best option. I will be taking my Olympus 4/3 rig also wit dual strobes but dint want it to cause issues in surge the drills rig isn't great for video hence gopro. Was my logic.

---------- Post added July 28th, 2015 at 09:19 AM ----------

STALEFISH. Do you think the dome lens will bring any benefits for my shooing in Galapagos. As not too bothered about price of lens/cage. Prob will be my only visit there and want to get best footage I can? I'm thinking whale sharks and this lens would be great. Schooling hammerheads???

 

[stalefish]

It all comes down to whether you NEED the lens to fit everything in... For most marine animals other than 30ft whale sharks that are right on top of you, Gopro FOV is tons wide enough, and in any case being slightly further away from really large subjects so as to not scare them off is generally a good thing provided the vis isn't terrible. For wrecks and 30ft fish I imagine that dome would be awesome.

Stalefish your video was excellent in illustrating the increased FOV the dome offers at the same working distance and I didn't mean to criticize it at all. For me though Kevin, for a trip to Galapagos or similar I would stick with a Gopro in std housing with a good quality filter and be happy with the beautiful sharp wide HD image it offers at minimal expense.

Once you start wanting to do more, adding lenses and domes, special housings etc, you start getting into significant $ outlay on a setup which may not be compatible with future Gopro's, and almost certainly not any other camera. I went down that road already and my advice would be that you would be better putting the money towards a compact camera/housing setup with what are arguably some of the better and more versatile interchangeable lenses that Inon (for example) offer, rather than a proprietary dome for the already wide Gopro.

Here is some manta ray footage I took in Komodo in May. Panasonic LX7, no filter or lights (custom WB) and Inon UWL-H100 lens. This lens gives about the same FOV as a std GoPro (100°) and even then you can see me zooming in... wider isn't always better

Well put FBK. I agree wider isn't always better. I'm rigging up a caddy on my tray so I can take the lens off when the situation doesn't require the lens. I had the same setup before I starting shooting with a GoPro. I used a Flip and an Ikelite WD-20 lens, I had the option of screwing the lens into a custom caddy I had to remove it. Worked great.

 

[kevindale222]

Yeh I noticed the Inon AD holder. Would be perfect for taking on and off. I was looking at the cage/lens plus the inon D holders and AD holder to fit to handle. Like this without the lights. I hadn't noticed the soft corners until FBK had said. But feel the wider FOV would be great for certain circumstances. I can only be a addition to gopro set up. The Zen Dome WA I use for my oly EPL-3 is great for the 9-18mm lens but is soft on the corners aswell but works a treat and with a bit of cropping you wouldn't notice. what gopro video settings so you use. Have you tried cropping 4k footage down??