Go pro hero 3

I am thinking about getting a go pro hero 3 for my next snorkel trip in the Bahamas but I am not sure yet. Is it worth it does it shoot good under water does it take good pictures and how deep can you go with it

We are using our Hero3 Silver on our upcoming trip to Great Exuma and Long Island. Where are you going? We have used our old GoPro 960 before and gotten some good shots (had to buy underwater housing and filter). You need to get pretty close to the subjects, use the correct settings (which I'm still trying to get help with for Hero3) and film as steady as possible. Most people use trays to mount the camera to. We use a retractable hiking pole and the handlebar mount. When you pan right or left, go as slowly as possible. The LCD backpack is hard to see underwater but it helps a bit to frame and know when you're recording.

On a trip to Bonaire last Nov we used our Hero3 and the old 960. The Hero3 footage came out extremely green. Apparently it's a problem with the Hero3's. I've heard that filming in protune set to cam raw will help but you have to do some editing when you get home to enhance the colors. I've adjusted the settings and gotten a red filter but we'll have to see how it comes out on our trip.

I know nothing about photography but these little cameras have opened up a whole new world to us amateurs and we need to learn how best to use them underwater. People "in the know" aren't exactly forthcoming with advice. I guess it's a waste of their time. I've had a hard time getting any answers. Just read up on it as much as you can.

There is a separate gopro forum on scubaboard. Standard housing is rated to 200ft.

I used the Hero 3 for snorkeling and scuba diving in the Bahamas two weeks ago. the vix was 100+ and the camera worked great. DO NOT use a red filter for snokeling.

The GoPro is an excellent camera, but your results will vary depending on water visibility and conditions. However, the camera does not do miracles just by turning it on. Taking a little time to practice how to keep your shots as steady as possible would do wonders for your videos. You can practice in a pool holding the camera in different ways to see what yields the bests results, or shooting the same subject with the different settings and reviewing the results may help you understand how to use the camera in different situations.

The reason for adding a red filter is to bring back the red spectrum in the sun light being filtered by the water. The deeper you go the more sunlight gets filtered. And not all Red filters are created equally. I have Red filters for shallow, clear blue water and a different red filter for deep, clear blue water.

So if you're snorkeling in really clear water (basically you are on the surface) light is not being filtered, therefor there's no need to add the filter. However, if you dive the very same site and are at lets say 10 feet shooting towards the bottom at 20 feet the red filter will make such a marked difference in the video. Now if you instead begin to shoot at 10 feet and turn your camera with the red filter installed towards the surface you will see odd orange color looking video.

I hope that helps