Hero3 Black with Blurfix3 SO and macro filters

[Marty Cerven]

Here is a little video I shot the other day at Flinders pier in Melbourne, using a set of close up (macro filters) and URPro swCY also in most shots. 2 x Sola 500 photo lights also used for most shots under the pier combined with the Macro's and swCY in most shots.

[video=youtube_share;VooIEEpg2Ao]http://youtu.be/VooIEEpg2Ao[/video]

Most of the video was shot in 1080p60 using all the FOV's, most seadragon shots were in narrow mode and some in medium. The shots of the rays were either medium or wide modes with just the swCY filter, the Macro shots were either using a single +10 filter or stacking the full set of +10+4+2 and +1 along with the swCY also stacked for many of those shots. Using 55mm filters stacking 5 filters is vignette free in narrow and medium modes underwater with my hero3 black camera. Using wide modes can use a single +10 macro and low profile URPro filter to be vignette free. The ray's are shot with no macro filters on.

All wide and medium FOV shots were in protune on and cam raw WB but narrow mode isnt available in protune atm so that was in just regular mode.

Video is still uploading so may take a few more minutes to show up.

 

[3D diver]

Pretty cool.

Have you posted pictures of the macro filter setup somewhere?

 

[vicp]

Can you give us some info on the macro filters - like who makes them and where you can get them.

Thanks -

 

[g550driver]

Wow, that was fantastic! Nice work! What is the name of the "Purple" colored fish? The Seadragon was awesome too!

 

[Marty Cerven]

Thanks guys glad you liked it, I will post some pics of the setup soon but these filters aren't the ideal solution more just a test of the concept. Stacking so many is a little awkward and needs to be assembled underwater to avoid bubbles between lenses, I will try a few others and SRP are going to send a few different macro filter options to me to see what the best most useable option will be. I first just thought this was worth a try after seeing another blurfix customer try this with his hero 2 and I thought the would work much better with the new hero thanks to the lower vignette with the blurfix and also that its a wet filter option.

Not sure what that purple fish is, it almost looks fake and thought some may have thought it was a poor Photoshop overlay lol. The pattern on it looks almost like its hand drawn which is very weird especially when I got so close to it.

There are always plenty of sea dragons at this site, I was more worried about accidently squashing one rather then looking too hard to find one. Shame my battery ran out when the shark came around but still think it turned out pretty cool.

 

[Joti]

What kind of shark..?

 

[Marty Cerven]

What kind of shark..?

Was just a little 7 gill shark maybe 4-5ft much smaller then the rays, and it wasn't very aggressive. I stayed down watching it and the rays have a feed was pretty cool. I was just exiting the water as a fisherman saw me and said I should go back down as he is about to feed the rays and I may get some cool shots as he saw my camera setup. Battery was already low and when I went back down the camera was completely flat and I was running a little low on air having already done just over an hour and half chasing the rays earlier burnt through a bit of air lol.

There are plenty of sharks in that part of westernport bay but rarely seen around the pier, I have friends that fish around there and they think we are nuts to be diving and surfing the area. It pretty close to seal rocks just on the opposite side of the entrance to westernport where there are quite a few great whites around and these have also been seen at the surf beach just a few hundred meters away from the pier.

Westernport does have lots of gummy sharks, bronze whalers, port jackson, swell sharks and the odd great white would venture in but rarely seen. There are a few photo's and videos of a few sharks around the pier but its dived quite a bit and there have only been very few sighting's of any decent sized sharks there.

All Ive seen in the water in the area are some port jackson's, a bronze whaler and that 7 gill the other day so I was pretty shattered I didnt get it on film as I dont think I have a single shark on film in Victoria yet.

There was a time when a whale beached itself at flinders surf beach rotting away a big burley trail directly towards seal rocks and thats when there were lots of great white sittings but none of them were aggressive towards any of the surfers.

EDIT: After saying all that I googled for sharks in the area and its pretty much as I have seen and heard of them in this little article, they are always around but very rarely seen by divers.

PENINSULA DIVE | Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

 

[duncdiver]

I am "over my head" with the filters and terminology. My H3 Black is arriving next week, but have not been able to find good filter purchase starting points. I plan to use 2 x 900 lumen Cree lights, 60-100 ft initial dives, followed by a shallower one, in Taveuni, Fiji. Any website help pages or personal suggestions?

 

[Marty Cerven]

I am "over my head" with the filters and terminology. My H3 Black is arriving next week, but have not been able to find good filter purchase starting points. I plan to use 2 x 900 lumen Cree lights, 60-100 ft initial dives, followed by a shallower one, in Taveuni, Fiji. Any website help pages or personal suggestions?

You can check the URPro website for recommended depths of their filters, these are the ones I use with the Blurfix3 adapter from SRP. URPRO Patented Underwater Correction Filters

URPRO CY CAMERA FILTERS
INTRODUCTION​

This URPRO CY filter is the world's only scientifically designed underwater color-correcting filter created specifically to correct colors in Caribbean or tropical blue-green (cyan) water. With sunlight and the URPRO filter, corals, fish and underwater life are accurately recorded in natural breathtaking beauty. The filter neutralizes the "underwater blues" so that the true colors with already exist are easily recorded on all films and video. (Reds, oranges and yellows usually exist at depths past 50-100 feet!)​

The URPRO filter is PATENTED for its ability to accurately record colors underwater at depth of 60-80 feet (frequently to 100 feet or more) with color negative films and video, and to depth of 30-50 feet using color slide films.​

The URPRO filter used in blue-green (cyan) ocean water and direct sunlight will yield the best results. Conditions at the same location vary, often significantly. The results produced by the URPRO filter will depend upon specific water and light conditions.​

Depends entirely on light and water conditions of how deep you will be able to get effective use from this filter but it should be good to 80ft in most decent conditions with good sunlight and great vis you may be able to get to 100ft with it. The hero3 black is much better at low light and with cam raw wb you can get some pretty good results. Deepest I have had it with the hero3 is 30m which is about 98ft and did quite well in good light and vis. Poorer conditions will lower the effective depth range.

The macro filters used in this thread are a little different all together and are used just to be able to get closer focus then normally possible with a gopro. With all my macro filters +17 total the focus range is from around 5-7cm from the camera and with a +10 macro this is around 9-18cm. Camera on its own focuses from about 25cm to infinity and I think a pair of +10 filters should get the focus range to around 4-6cm

 

[Mantra]

Thanks for being such a font of knowledge with the gopro stuff, Marty. You always have such interesting stuff to say!

I have a hero 2 with a SRP dome filter. Is there any way you can think of to be able to use this for macro? I'd love to be able to get closer to small stuff with it but kind of figure I don't have options.