Shopping for affordable Setup: Research Attached

[gamefe]

There are threads on this forum about bright video lights and night diving etiquette. Hope you will learn something from it.

Ive done a dozen dives at night. Some with people who think the best thing is to shine the light at everyone's faces constantly. I was just curious about how one would prepare to use a Gopro at night.

But alas the local shop I am going to has no night diving. so it is a moot point. Thank you for the encouragement.

 

[scubadada]

I dislike the divers with bright video lights on the whole time on day dives, let alone on night dives.

 

[TooCold]

Just to complicate things, have you considered getting a housing for your phone instead of a gopro? For more casual UW photography and video you might find it suits your needs better. It makes one less piece of electronics to carry, to charge, to get damaged or stolen.
For example, the DiveVolk housing is less expensive than traditional designs - under $200 I think - has less to fiddle with underwater, and some people love it (I haven't tried it).

The decision about lights or no lights remains the same in either case. If all you want is a video log of your dives then you may be happy without lights. If you want photos or video of coral or critters up close (closer than say, 1 metre), especially deeper than say 5 - 10 metres, you probably want a light. Underwater images will ALWAYS have better colour rendering when you supply the missing wavelengths in the blue-green-filtered sunlight. But that's not as important as whether or not you care (or even notice) the difference compared to images taken in natural light (maybe with a filter) and post-processed in software to "correct" the colours.

Of course it's up to you: I'd say go ahead and get the gopro (or phone housing) you want without lights, and see how you feel about the results after your next dive trip. If you're not satisfied with the colour, then think about spending more money to get lights for next time.

 

[gamefe]

View attachment 827436

Like this, but use the cheaper floatier (and adjustable) Backscatter Stix with jumbo floats.

That float arm won't float this camera, but still helps

Just to complicate things, have you considered getting a housing for your phone instead of a gopro? For more casual UW photography and video you might find it suits your needs better. It makes one less piece of electronics to carry, to charge, to get damaged or stolen.
For example, the DiveVolk housing is less expensive than traditional designs - under $200 I think - has less to fiddle with underwater, and some people love it (I haven't tried it).

The decision about lights or no lights remains the same in either case. If all you want is a video log of your dives then you may be happy without lights. If you want photos or video of coral or critters up close (closer than say, 1 metre), especially deeper than say 5 - 10 metres, you probably want a light. Underwater images will ALWAYS have better colour rendering when you supply the missing wavelengths in the blue-green-filtered sunlight. But that's not as important as whether or not you care (or even notice) the difference compared to images taken in natural light (maybe with a filter) and post-processed in software to "correct" the colours.

Of course it's up to you: I'd say go ahead and get the gopro (or phone housing) you want without lights, and see how you feel about the results after your next dive trip. If you're not satisfied with the colour, then think about spending more money to get lights for next time.

I bought the 50$ underwater housing plus the backscatter red filter. I'm going to 3d print a tray and I found some cheap 700 lumen lights on flex arms for 22$ each. If the lights crap out then no real loss. the arms are still usable and can always upgrade to other lights.

my goal is enough light to fill in rock crevices while diving. so the red filter 90% of the time out and about. the 2x 700 lumen lights to fill in shadows on walls/crevices and or using the +10 macro lens. Ignoring the cost of the GoPro it is not much.