Sealife Micro HD vs Gopro Hero 4
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archer1960
Contributor
What several people have already said: get some more experience diving first. I did like you, and took a camera on my 2nd post-certification dive. While I got some decent pictures, I immediately realized that I needed to get better with my diving skills before I started adding to the workload. I didn't want to be "that diver": the one who was kneeling in the coral trying to get a shot, or kicking up silt trying to get into position. Now that I have another 10 or so dives under my belt and am getting relatively decent at maintaining my buoyancy and position in the water, I think I could reasonably take and use a camera without trashing everybody else's dive experience.
Ummm, you guys realize this thread is 3 months old, right?
But, since it has bubbled to the top, I will throw my contrary (*gasp* *shock*) opinion into the mix.
Dives 3 and 4 for me (after completing OW) were on the Palancar Reef, off Cozumel. I took my GoPro. I shot ad hoc video clips during the dive, including during a swim through of a hole in the reef where the hole made a right angle turn and also went slightly uphill, so you couldn't see the exit from the entrance. I shot video all the way through and never touched the reef as I did it. 2 days later (dives 5 and 6, for me), I took my GoPro along on 2 cenote dives. I had a video light on a soft Goodman handle on one hand and my GoPro in the other hand. I directed the light and shot more ad hoc video clips during those dives, too. Again, I never touched the celling, floor, or sides of the cavern.
My point? There are a lot of people here who will give you absolute statements about what you should or should not do, without knowing anything about you other than the number of dives you have reported yourself to have under your belt. My personal experience is that sometimes they will tell you that you can't do something (safely and successfully) and be simply wrong.
My personal opinion (after less than 1 year and less than 50 dives, total, so take it FWIW), is that the best thing you can do is use your brain*, pay attention, be honest with yourself, and make your own decisions. Which, I think is true for every single aspect of scuba. If you want to take a camera with you, take it. Just be prepared to recognize if and when you are having trouble with your buoyancy and make the decision to leave your camera alone and don't touch it. For that matter, be honest with yourself ahead of time about whether you think you really can maintain your buoyancy and use your camera at the same time. If you aren't confident that you can do that, then sure, leave the camera topside. If you think you can, then pick a time and place where it's relatively safe and try it. If you find that you can, great. If you find that it is distracting you too much and you are not staying neutral, recognize that - be honest with yourself - and leave the camera alone until your skills improve.
I also think that, rather than making blanket statements about what people cannot do safely and successfully, it would be a lot more helpful to explain in detail what the challenges will be with the thing a person proposes to do, what they could possibly do to self-assess their readiness, what they could possibly do to get "more ready", and then let that person decide for themselves whether they want to attempt it or not.
In this particular example, when I was in the OP's position, people (who knew nothing about me other than my dive count) told me that my buoyancy control was not good enough, so I should not do these things. What would have been much more helpful was to explain that, while I might be able to hold my depth easily when I'm doing nothing but hovering and focusing on holding my depth, the real trick with buoyancy control is how well I could hold my depth steady while also performing a task. Even something as simple as holding depth and unclipping a camera, turning it on, adjusting the mode, taking a picture, turning it back off, and clipping it back to my BC. As it turned out, I was able to do all that and hold a steady depth. But, the blanket statement about it did not help me at all to understand the real challenges involved in doing what I was proposing to do.
*note that "using your brain" includes getting input from more experienced people and making your own judgment about how much weight to give their opinion. I'm not suggesting to eschew input from others. Of course, some people will say that, when you don't know or are not sure about something, you should listen to the more experienced people and do what they tell you. But, if you are doing something you don't understand, because someone else, that you trust, told you to do it, are you being smart? Or are you engaging in a "trust me" dive activity (possibly, not smart)? I think every situation is different. Sometimes, you should do what they say, just because you trust their opinion. Other times, I think it's totally valid to know yourself and your situation and decide to go against the advice of the ScubaNati. Either way, it is ultimately your decision and you are the one that has to live with the results.
But, since it has bubbled to the top, I will throw my contrary (*gasp* *shock*) opinion into the mix.
Dives 3 and 4 for me (after completing OW) were on the Palancar Reef, off Cozumel. I took my GoPro. I shot ad hoc video clips during the dive, including during a swim through of a hole in the reef where the hole made a right angle turn and also went slightly uphill, so you couldn't see the exit from the entrance. I shot video all the way through and never touched the reef as I did it. 2 days later (dives 5 and 6, for me), I took my GoPro along on 2 cenote dives. I had a video light on a soft Goodman handle on one hand and my GoPro in the other hand. I directed the light and shot more ad hoc video clips during those dives, too. Again, I never touched the celling, floor, or sides of the cavern.
My point? There are a lot of people here who will give you absolute statements about what you should or should not do, without knowing anything about you other than the number of dives you have reported yourself to have under your belt. My personal experience is that sometimes they will tell you that you can't do something (safely and successfully) and be simply wrong.
My personal opinion (after less than 1 year and less than 50 dives, total, so take it FWIW), is that the best thing you can do is use your brain*, pay attention, be honest with yourself, and make your own decisions. Which, I think is true for every single aspect of scuba. If you want to take a camera with you, take it. Just be prepared to recognize if and when you are having trouble with your buoyancy and make the decision to leave your camera alone and don't touch it. For that matter, be honest with yourself ahead of time about whether you think you really can maintain your buoyancy and use your camera at the same time. If you aren't confident that you can do that, then sure, leave the camera topside. If you think you can, then pick a time and place where it's relatively safe and try it. If you find that you can, great. If you find that it is distracting you too much and you are not staying neutral, recognize that - be honest with yourself - and leave the camera alone until your skills improve.
I also think that, rather than making blanket statements about what people cannot do safely and successfully, it would be a lot more helpful to explain in detail what the challenges will be with the thing a person proposes to do, what they could possibly do to self-assess their readiness, what they could possibly do to get "more ready", and then let that person decide for themselves whether they want to attempt it or not.
In this particular example, when I was in the OP's position, people (who knew nothing about me other than my dive count) told me that my buoyancy control was not good enough, so I should not do these things. What would have been much more helpful was to explain that, while I might be able to hold my depth easily when I'm doing nothing but hovering and focusing on holding my depth, the real trick with buoyancy control is how well I could hold my depth steady while also performing a task. Even something as simple as holding depth and unclipping a camera, turning it on, adjusting the mode, taking a picture, turning it back off, and clipping it back to my BC. As it turned out, I was able to do all that and hold a steady depth. But, the blanket statement about it did not help me at all to understand the real challenges involved in doing what I was proposing to do.
*note that "using your brain" includes getting input from more experienced people and making your own judgment about how much weight to give their opinion. I'm not suggesting to eschew input from others. Of course, some people will say that, when you don't know or are not sure about something, you should listen to the more experienced people and do what they tell you. But, if you are doing something you don't understand, because someone else, that you trust, told you to do it, are you being smart? Or are you engaging in a "trust me" dive activity (possibly, not smart)? I think every situation is different. Sometimes, you should do what they say, just because you trust their opinion. Other times, I think it's totally valid to know yourself and your situation and decide to go against the advice of the ScubaNati. Either way, it is ultimately your decision and you are the one that has to live with the results.
The problem is, a newly certified diver typically has no frame of reference from which they can "be honest" with themselves and no context from which they can meaningfully "make their own decisions" about things that involve task loading.
To that point, would you care to share the video footage you shot on logged dives 3 and 4?
:cool2:
Three-month old thread or not, anyone who reads it is free to either
- accept the blanket statement that "diving with a camera is fine as long as the new diver thinks it's fine" coming from someone with a handful of dives
- accept the blanket statement coming from multiple, experienced divers and instructors with thousands of dives that "a new diver diving with a camera is not a great idea"
jonhall
Contributor
Think I had this earlier in the thread. The SeaLife Micro HD is "floodproof" as it is permanently sealed.
I didn't respond after seeing this thread pop up again the other day for the same reason, but since it is here again......
Having an older model Sea Life that does video and photos, I really enjoy the photos for the purpose of later identifying those things that I don't have a clue about and printing and posting the photos (framed on the wall, bulletin boards, FB, etc..) I do like the videos I take also but do so much more with the photos. What do people do with the humongous amount of video they must collect if diving all the time with a GoPro?
Sure! Bear in mind that I did not have a video back on my GoPro, so I was just guesstimating on exactly what my camera was pointing at.
This was dive 3 (1st dive off Cozumel). A cool (to me, anyway) swim through.
https://youtu.be/x1isqw9ijVo
This is on dive 4 (2nd dive off Cozumel).
https://youtu.be/PRDzO9Yt7tI
Oh, and here is one that's extra awesome because it shows my dive buddy getting b****-slapped by a sea turtle. This was off Oahu, though. So, without consulting my log book, this was around dive # 10 or 12 for me (after completing OW). Drew was looking at his computer and checking out the difference between reading it through the gauge reader lenses in his mask and looking over the top of them through the uncorrected part of his mask lenses. Thus, not paying attention where he was going. Doh!!
https://youtu.be/hnAW6IS5jdE
I don't have any video uploaded from my cenote dives (#s 5 and 6). The video just wasn't that interesting.
But these are pictures of me that my (insta-buddy) dive buddy (a tech diver on vacation, with a very expensive camera rig) took during dives 5 and 6. Note the GoPro in my left hand and the video light on my right hand. Frog kick form is certainly not perfect, but my dive buddy said afterwards that I never kicked up the bottom at all.
scottwilson1
Contributor
it is possible to flood the battery compartment on the sea-life - the charger for it looks like the rubber piece that covers that area and if your in a rush in the morning you may not notice
sea life replaced mine under warranty - they said i doved without the rubber piece in there as the battery compartment was full of salt - the important thing is they replaced it free of charge
even though it was user error
Oh, and that is why said this:
If someone is here on SB and you're telling them not to do it, you could just as easily explain what makes it hard, so they DO have some context and info on which to base their own decisions. Once someone has been through OW training, they should have an idea if they are bouncing up and down (which I reckon they really shouldn't be, if they had a decent instructor) OR be able to recognize that maybe they weren't bouncing up and down but they never actually did any other tasks while they were holding steady. At which point, thanks to a better explanation, they have the opportunity to understand why they thought they had good buoyancy control but, in reality, they actually haven't tested it and don't really know if their buoyancy is good enough to also take pictures/video or not.
People on here told me mine was not good enough, but they didn't tell me what quantitative analysis would demonstrate their statement to be true. I did not accept the blanket statement with no verification. And, I think it turned out that I was right and they were wrong. However, I also recognize that that statement could be my ignorance showing itself off again. So I am definitely awaiting your analysis of the video I shot. Your request for it seemed pretty clearly intended to allow you to review it and point out the problems I didn't even know I had. I would definitely like to know about what problems I was having that I am too ignorant (via inexperience or just plain being dumb) to recognize.
In fact, taking the time to give a specific critique of the problems I had, as demonstrated by my videos, might help future new divers to also understand why they aren't nearly as "good" as they think they are.
jonhall
Contributor
The newer model I mentioned in previous post has a waterproof usb port for recharging and video download. I'm pretty sure the one that the rep showed me didn't even have a cover over the port. No o-rings at all. Did a quick look online and it shows the usb port exposed also.The battery is sealed inside, and I would guess the bummer part of this camera would be having to take it to a dealer for battery replacement.
Is yours a Micro HD or an earlier model. I have the DC 1200. Unfortunately bought it about 2 months before the DC 1400 (with HD video) came out. Bummer!
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