Gopro question

[207diver]

Thinking of getting a gopro hero 4 silver for diving. I like the gopro for its simple to use design I plan to mount it to a tray and install the backscatter flip filter system. My question is will it shoot decent video with just the filters and no lights in 60 ft of water or less? I will eventually add lights (Any suggestions). Also, I know it is primarily a video camera but will it produce decent quality stills? Does anyone have any examples? I'm by no means a photographer but would like to capture the experience in a quality fashion from time to time. The majority of my diving is in Maine with relitivly limited visibility. Thanks for the help!

 

[3D diver]

60 ft & limited viz...yes you need lights. (IMHO)

I use 4 of the DRIS Impact shorties with video heads...two is sufficient, but 4 gave better results on shallow bright days.

 

[Nemrod]

Sixty feet and clear water you could do fine without lights as long as there is a filter. Saying this with my extremely limited experience with mine. But lights are very helpful to bring out color.

N

 

[dumpsterDiver]

This was shot with no filter and no lights in Maine. I think you will want lights below 30 ft depth in Maine. I don't have much video from Maine.

[video=youtube;Cjgck-zakT8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjgck-zakT8[/video]

 

[icechip]

I picked up the Backscatter Side Kick to use with my Hero 3+ in both lakes and ocean here in Maine. I've gotten good stills but rather than switching back and forth, prefer to use the video and then just make a screenshot of the footage.

Backscatter :: Underwater video :: package deals

 

[doctormike]

Remember, any sort of artificial light in underwater photography or video is pretty useless for scenes more than a few feet distant from the camera (maybe a little more with very clear cave water). That's why filters are helpful for wide scenes.

I find that frame grabs from GoPro video are great for stills... The advantage of adding lights would be to fill in detail in portions of the scene that isn't hit directly by ambient light.

Here is a video clip and some frame grabs from video in our local quarry (Dutch Springs) in the 40-60 foot range, shot using the Backscatter "dive" filter.

[VIMEO]125707027[/VIMEO]

 

[dumpsterDiver]

None of the places in Maine that I dove had visibility like that quarry. I get decent Go Pro video below 200 ft without lights or filters, but it is clear water.

 

[doctormike]

None of the places in Maine that I dove had visibility like that quarry. I get decent Go Pro video below 200 ft without lights or filters, but it is clear water.

Actually, you would be surprised how much the filter adds to "visibility". Of course, it doesn't do anything to change the water characteristics, but if you have the right filter (they are different for different depths, or you can use the Magic Filter and set the white balance manually), it brings detail out of the scene that you might not have even seen yourself on the dive.

Remember, filters work by subtracting light, so the less ambient light there is, and the less sensitive your camera sensor is, the worse your results are going to be. At 200 feet, most simple filters like the Backscatter ones will be below their usable range, and unless the water is really clear, there probably won't be much ambient light to work with, so you probably are better without filters at that depth.

---------- Post added April 26th, 2015 at 06:54 PM ----------

Just realized, a few of the clips in that video did have artificial lights - the fish at 1:45, and the divers at 2:20 and 2:30 - I used dual Sola 1200s which help bring out detail that you wouldn't get with just the filter alone. The rest of the video is ambient light, all with the Dive filter.

 

[smorneau]

Viz here in Maine is 20ft on a good day. Often very little natural light at 30'.

 

[Scuba-dan]

You should get the gopro 4 black editon vs the silver. The reason is that the black got a feature call protune. Much better to color correct when that is activate.