Video taken with my new water corrected DeepPro GoPro housing

[MikeMeagher]

Hi diving friends, Sorry I haven’t posted many new local underwater videos, but I do have some new video that might interest some of you.

After several months of development and testing, I'm finally able to announce a new product that my firm has decided to make which some of you might like.

It's a high end underwater housing for the GoPro camera with water corrected optics.

This housing corrects the optical distortion that you get when you put a GoPro behind a flat port housing. It shoots much wider and sharper. Now you can shoot video that looks much more like an expensive housed system but at less than half the budget. And its easier to work the controls while wearing gloves.

Here's video of this new housing in use. I filmed this this past weekend in the San Juan Islands in WA state.
[youtubehq]LWbtGP5ELOk[/youtubehq]
Check out my new website at DeepPro Systems | Underwater Cinematography Equipment to read more about this new housing and check it out at the Seattle SCUBA and H20 Show , April 5th -6th at booth 826.

 

[avigulf]

Nice, quite a difference than the flat port. But its expensive..

sent fra mobil

 

[mikeycanuk]

Looks interesting, really want to know more about the external battery pack


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Pearlman]

Yeah its three times the price of the camera it is intended for. Otherwise very tempting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~G0bble
Sent from mobile, please excuse brevity and typos.

 

[lordhelmet]

The video quality is outstanding, However isn't the price difference like putting a V8 in a Honda Civic.

 

[mikeycanuk]

I like the small, compact, ease of use of the GoPro. Even a cursory looking at a camcorder setup the lcd viewscreen is a $1500 option?!?!?! plus plus plus. Camera's are tech that are dropping in price. Housing and lenses are not going to same way. Should we even mention lights?

 

[Linedog]

I didn't know there was an issue with the GoPro 3 lens. That's a spendy housing for a GoPro, I'll stick with my GoPro 2 as long as I can.

 

[TheTrickster]

I didn't know there was an issue with the GoPro 3 lens. That's a spendy housing for a GoPro, I'll stick with my GoPro 2 as long as I can.

There isn't any 'issue' with the GoPro housings - the problem is that you lose a lot of the Wide Angle behind the Flat port (from memory I think its 127' behind the flat port, underwater) - where as the lens is actually 180'.

What Mike, has seemed to of done is provide a optically corrected dome, which not only gives you a crisp image (which the old GoPro2 dome never did) - and lets you retain the 180' AoV

Once you get into Lights and semi pro rigs - 1300$ is nothing, yet the GoPro3 do actually provide pretty good video and for some obtaining the original 180' is worth that money.

Nice Mike, good luck with it!

 

[Interceptor121]

The gopro is around 100 degree diagonal behind a flat port. It is the same of an 18mm lens so this dome changes things completely going back to the land 170 semifisheye.
I am sure there will be takers, if price could go below $1,000 it would make it more attractive as a Nauticam housing with a minidome comes under $2,000 but that is a completely different beast in terms of controls and complexity.
What would be interesting is to understand how you deal with filters that are pretty much required with a gopro if you shoot ambient light

Personally I prefer much more the rectilinear image of an 18mm lens to the fisheye view for video but am sure there will be many people interested in the larger field of view
Good luck

 

[MikeMeagher]

Thanks for your interest and feedback regaring this new product.

Most high end underwater camera housings generally cost 2.5 to 3 times the price of the camera and lens that is put inside it. . Gates, Nauticam, amphibico/ aquatica.. thats the rough trend out there.

This housing was designed for the GoPro film maker that wants to "up their game" in their image quality, plus have the abilty to access all camera controls if wearing thick gloves, add power to do time lapse, go deeper on tech dives, and get improved image quality but not invest in a larger sized higher priced system.

For example, ona recent deep dive in cold water, wearing drysuit gloves, I was able to easily cycle thru the camera's menu, switch to SuperView mode, take vide, switch the exposure to spot meter, take more video, switch to RAW, etc.. With my stock plastic housing, I' cant even turn on the housing most of the time,let alone cycle the buttons.

A housed system that will take higher quality wide angle images, such as a GH3 camera housing setup will cost you appx. $2200 for the housing, a good wide port $900, the camera body $900, a 7-14 lens $900 = appx $5000. The form factor for this type of housing is twice the size of the deeppro housing.

This DeepPro system total cost is the camera (Hero 3+ Black) $400, LCD Back $90, and the Housing and dome system $1300 = $1800 appx total budget.

This system is not for everyone, like most consumer products. For the casual fun go pro underater video, this is not the housing.

But if someone is looking for an entry level wide angle video rig for under $2000 that will allow higher quality wide angle images that approach the quality of a $4000-$5000 system.. its an option.

Cost of lights in this budget equation is a mute point.. one should use the best lights possible., wether you shoot with a GoPro, Canon, GH3,or Red Epic, get the best lights you can. I have more $$ invested in my lights than any underwater housing I own. Lights makes all the difference.

Filter can be added but must be installed inside the dome port. Just like one of those big dome ported housings. You have to add em inside. Same wiht this one. If you shoot all the time with a particular filter then you can add it.

I'm working on the external battery power supply design now.. I expect that to be out in a few months. But were machining the housing with the port in place so a person can add the power option later.