Imitation GoPro Cameras from China. Any Good?

[WetCell]

Measured it. Thickness is just 1mm while the hole is 11.85 mm. I stuck it inside the housing centered on/around the hole for the power button. Any 1 mm thick sheet of material will do as long as it clears the "hole" for the power button prong. I used this because I had it, it had the right hole size and has adhesive on it already.

Great kludge, thanks!

How deep have you been able to operate the camera now?

 

[Pao]

How deep have you been able to operate the camera now?

30 m in the ocean. 40m in my DIY chamber.

 

[Kharon]

Red filter was a DIY job using a piece of reddish gel used for lighting purposes cut round and inserted inside the case in front of the lens.

Quick tip. Cut the circle with 2-4 rectangular tabs out from the circle. It keeps the circle from sliding around and under in the case and makes it SO much easier to remove with twesers.

And +1 on the ActiveOn CX Gold. It's been wonderful for me. Vastly better than the Tachyion Micro HD I was using.

 

[JamesBon92007]

I found a couple of underwater YouTube videos taken with the 5000x in familiar waters and they looked good except they seemed a bit jerky, as though occasionally it would stop and start going again. Could this be a result of shooting with the lower FPS settings and is it possible it would go away by switching to a lower resolution with higher FPS?

I finally made a decision (is this a sign of old age?). I bought one of those SJ7000 cameras largely because it said which sensor and chipset it used and I was able to find examples online and make comparisons. I have another video camera (which didn't even rate a model number) that I have been using in the meantime such as in a Minnesota lake earlier this month. Yesterday I used the SJ7000 freediving in Southern California on a partially cloudy day with 10-20 foot visibility at depths down to around 20-25 feet. I have it set on 720DPI at 60 FPS. The results are very good. One feature that it does not have is manual white balance so I set it on auto and it has a tendency to change color balance depending upon where the sun is (at my back or side etc) so I'm going to try the Daylight setting. The video flows very smoothly and I'm thinking that the speed of the SD card may be a factor. I bought the latest, fastest SD card I could find.

Currently I'm futzing with attaching a red filter in preparation for Costa Rica in two weeks. I could not find a red filter that fit so this is a project. One set of filters fits nicely on my old housing (with a simple adaptor) and the cameras/housings are interchangeable. For all of you who are trying to get your SJ housing to stop failing at depth, the SJ7000 housing is roomier and has four rubber pads on the back so to me it looks like it will not freeze up the controls at depth. There is a little space around the camera, as there should be. If forced to use my older housing I'll try to restrict it to 70 feet or so.

 

[WetCell]

I just got back from eight dives (3 days) hunting Lionfish in Pensacola and my $40 DBPOWER HD1080 performed well. I had it down to 100' and had no issue with leaking or buttons getting stuck. It is quirky though and after each dive day I copied the videos to my computer from the memory card and then wiped it using the camera "Delete All" mode. By the time I got to dive #8 I was a pro using it (all the button combinations) and it slips into one of the pockets in my BC. So simple.

I lost an expensive camera on the Oriskany and it was far more complex to use than this one and was no where near the resolution or battery time.

(I got mine for $40 during "Prime Monday", it's now back to $70--still a super deal)

 

[JamesBon92007]

I just got back from eight dives (3 days) hunting Lionfish in Pensacola and my $40 DBPOWER HD1080 performed well. I had it down to 100' and had no issue with leaking or buttons getting stuck. It is quirky though and after each dive day I copied the videos to my computer from the memory card and then wiped it using the camera "Delete All" mode. By the time I got to dive #8 I was a pro using it (all the button combinations) and it slips into one of the pockets in my BC. So simple.

I lost an expensive camera on the Oriskany and it was far more complex to use than this one and was no where near the resolution or battery time.

(I got mine for $40 during "Prime Monday", it's now back to $70--still a super deal)

Your housing appears to be identical to mine--please let me know if you find a red filter that fits onto it. Right now I'm finding out how well Gorilla Glue holds up in water

As for the "quirky" did you format your SD card before using? Mine has a setting for that built into the functions.

Mine has the 2" LCD screen along with the AR0330 sensor, 1080P, WiFi, and a bunch of features that I'll probably never use. The WiFi app that I put on my phone works well but has a bit of a delay on the image. I got mine from GearBest for about $43 with free shipping. They are currently selling the battery for $1.32 with free shipping (but they are out of stock). Neither of my cameras takes great still shots but they are probably a little better than the screen captures I've been getting from the videos. GearBest has less than sterling revues but at least they listed the specs that I was looking for on their listing and my transaction went smoothly.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Oh, I almost forgot, I tried it out in my pool tonight with my LED flashlight. With the white balance set on Daylight the colors looked fairly true. Without a diffuser the highlighted spots were overexposed. Now I need to improve my diffuser as it's still too tight of a beam.

 

[WetCell]

My camera works great. By 'quirky' I meant that you have to format the disk chip on the camera. I experienced issues between my MacBook Air and the camera. As long as I just transfer the video and stills from the disk chip to the computer and do all the file operations on the camera, all is well. Also, the fact that the camera resets time/date on battery swap is a quirky issue as well. Besides those issues, if performed great and I got all the video I wanted. At 90' on nitrox the dives did not exceed the camera's video and battery time limits--didn't come close.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Sounds great! Both of my cameras have to be reset every time I switch batteries. I have a portable USB charger that uses AA batteries so I think I'll try that between dives just to make sure I don't run out of battery just when a whale shark or something shows up

 

[JamesBon92007]

I finally made a decision (is this a sign of old age?). I bought one of those SJ7000 cameras largely because it said which sensor and chipset it used and I was able to find examples online and make comparisons. I have another video camera (which didn't even rate a model number) that I have been using in the meantime such as in a Minnesota lake earlier this month. Yesterday I used the SJ7000 freediving in Southern California on a partially cloudy day with 10-20 foot visibility at depths down to around 20-25 feet. I have it set on 720DPI at 60 FPS. The results are very good. One feature that it does not have is manual white balance so I set it on auto and it has a tendency to change color balance depending upon where the sun is (at my back or side etc) so I'm going to try the Daylight setting. The video flows very smoothly and I'm thinking that the speed of the SD card may be a factor. I bought the latest, fastest SD card I could find.

Currently I'm futzing with attaching a red filter in preparation for Costa Rica in two weeks. I could not find a red filter that fit so this is a project. One set of filters fits nicely on my old housing (with a simple adaptor) and the cameras/housings are interchangeable. For all of you who are trying to get your SJ housing to stop failing at depth, the SJ7000 housing is roomier and has four rubber pads on the back so to me it looks like it will not freeze up the controls at depth. There is a little space around the camera, as there should be. If forced to use my older housing I'll try to restrict it to 70 feet or so.

I shall now attempt to upload a video I took today in Costa Rica. It's not very long so hopefully I will manage to push the correct buttons

BTW I missed getting some very good footage by using my older housing--the buttons got stuck and I wasn't all that deep yet. I missed the white tip reef sharks, two shipwrecks, several big green morays, six or seven octopi, and at least three spotted eagle rays

On my video I have the white balance set to Daylight and I'm not using a red (or any other) filter. I also have it set to 720 dpi @ 60 fps, hoping to get the smoothest video.


Well, it looks like the video has to be online and I have to link it. This may take a while...