-Is it comfortable above the dive mask, and secure over your hood?
Certainly
comfortable, but practical? Not for me. I would give myself about a 90% chance of losing the camera if I had left it over my hood (the headstrap loosens easily). So I put the headstrap on and put my hood
over the headstrap assembly. Now I had about a 0% chance of losing it. Kinda gets tight at the mask-headstrap-hood junction but didn't bother me a bit once in place.
-Since you don't have a viewfinder, it looks like it is hard to shoot steady video, and frame the subject matter very well?
Definitely a consideration. I'd say get your dive buddy to adjust the angle to where the camera is pointing slightly downward to meet your eyeline about 5'-10' out in front of you. When I reviewed my footage I realized that my camera was pointed directly parallel w. my eyeline. I messed up the footage pretty good because of this; lesson learned.
-has gopro issued the fix or do you still have to go with the aftermarket?
As of about 2 weeks ago you still need to go aftermarket.
-there is a post that it gets very hot inside the housing. Anyone have any issues?
Didn't notice this problem. Camera gets slightly warm, but "hot" - for me- is an exaggeration. Furthermore, I dove in 63 degree water and didn't have any fogging issues. GoPro sells some kind of anti-fogging inserts that I was thinking of buying, but maybe I don't need them. Also, there's a pretty good unofficial GoPro forum out there on the Internetz that has some tips. One of those tips is to use RainX on the outside of the lens (not sure this is necessarily helpful for diving) and defog on the inside. I'd google "GoPro Forum" and you can research for yourself.
Overall, it is hands free which is an advantage, but does that mean you have to accept a jiggly abrupt recording of the subject matter with every single head movement?
Probably my biggest lesson learned. I really wonder if I'll use the headband again. You have to ask yourself the question "Am I out here to dive or am I out here to shoot video?" Because having a camera attached to your forehead is not a natural thing and it shows up in the footage. I literally had to stretch out my edited clips in slow motion since there was so little "steady" footage available I had to make it last as long as possible. Mind you, if I had to go out there and do it over it would be very easy to get steady footage, but it impinges on your ability to enjoy the moment while diving- at least for me it would. Since masks cut down on peripheral vision I'm always looking every which way.
EyeOfMine also sells a kind of extendable aluminum rod that I bought but haven't tried. I think that this might be a good solution to allow me to point the camera at a subject and allow me to swivel my head. The wrist harness sounds pretty do-able as well.
