Buying first GoPro - Will head mount work? Battery length?

[qwimjim]

I just picked up a GoPro Hero 3 for $250 and now I need to buy accessories for my upcoming Cozumel trip. I really like the idea of a head mount because then I can just turn on the video and dive, and not even thing about the camera and then edit it down to the best parts at home. But it seems people don't like the head mounts on here, saying they move around, etc.. but I don't understand.. if I angle the strap down, and put my mask strap over top which is quite tight, wouldn't that keep the whole thing solid as rock in place on my head? It shouldn't move if my mask doesn't move right?

Here's an attractive example: http://www.goprocustommounts.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/gopro_dive2.jpg

Also how long will the standard battery last shooting continuous video in real world conditions? I just want to be able to shoot two dives a day.

I will be getting a Polar Pro red filter

Thanks!

 

[Glenn08]

I added a leash to my GoPro because I almost lost it twice in one dive. It slipped off my head but I didn't notice. There are masks with built-in mounts, but I haven't been able to try one. The other thing to remember - you want to aim the camera to record what you are seeing. On one dive the camera was angled too high and missed most of what I was seeing. Since it is wide-angle, some of the stuff you can see will be too small to see in the recording. I have a back-of-the-hand mount that I cobbled together from the standard accessories but I haven't tested it yet. I thought it would give me more control of what I was recording.

 

[dfx]

In my experience, mounting a camera on your head (and this isn't specific to Gopro) is nice if you truly want a POV video, but it becomes a problem as soon as you want to shoot video of any particular subject. Let's say you spot a sea turtle and want to shoot video of it. In order to get a nice looking video, the camera needs to be held steady and pointed directly at the turtle for an extended period of time. Aiming isn't the issue, you can learn to do that with your head. But the problem is that you can't look anywhere else for the entire duration that you're recording. You can't look at your buddy, you can't look at your surroundings. This is not easy to do, especially for a beginner, and more often than not you'll end up looking somewhere else momentarily (remember that your field of vision is very narrow underwater, making it necessary to turn your head all the time), or maybe just bump against something, ruining the video. It will give you several short interrupted sequences of usable video instead of a single longer and continuous sequence, which would be much nicer to watch. Unless you don't care about your surroundings nor about your buddy and have no problem with staring at something for a little while, no matter what goes on around you, but I hope that's not the case.

That being said, for a beginner it's better to have the camera on your head and not worry about it during the dive, than having to deal with having it in your hand all the time. But you don't necessarily have to put it on your head for that, you could put it on your BCD strap for example, which would probably make for a nicer recording than on your head. Plus, you don't have the problem of bubbles getting in your video if the camera isn't on your head.

 

[qwimjim]

Yeah I just do not want to be bothered fiddling with a camera underwater, I love photography but when I dive, I just want to dive.. with a headmount it'll capture the whole dive so if something interesting happens I'll have it, it'll get lots of footage of my wife, etc..

The problem to me with a BCD mount is the camera won't always be pointed in the right direction.. if i'm vertical looking forward the camera will be fine but if i switch to horizontal looking forward the camera will be pointing down.. if its on my head i know it's always recording exactly what I see.

But how come no one seems to just put the headmount strap -under- their mask strap, is there something I'm missing? I don't have a head mount strap to test it with so I'm just curious why this wouldn't work?

 

[Glenn08]

The only reason that I have is personal preference. I put the camera on after my mask, and don't want the straps interfering.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If you are a new diver and you want to capture decent video, I would recommend hand holding it and using some kind of hand mount. It takes a ton of discipline to capture even marginally long and steady clips with a head camera.. It sounds easy to have on your head, but it will be unusable for most new divers.

If you do wear a head strap, wear it under a hood or rig a chin strap. I am liking the chin strap right now..

 

[00wabbit]

I wore it under my hood. Put on the hood first, then pull back the top part. Then put on the gopro and put the top of the hood back over the strap. No way to lose it now.

Next thing you have to do is go watch a bunch of head mount gopro videos and decide if that is a look you want for your video. Personally I am not a fan of the head mount video and don't watch them.

It can be good though if you just want to keep a camera rolling in case something amazing happens.

When you edit your video try to limit the length of the video to one song. This will help you make critical decisions about the footage and keep it like a miniskirt. Long enough to cover everything but short enough to be interesting. A 15 minute long head mounted video will never get watched all the way through.

 

[drrich2]

The 2 mask with built-in mount options I'm aware of are the Octomask, and the recently released (I think) XsScuba GoMask.

Richard.

 

[pinshootr]

I use the octomask and love it. battery should last your entire dive on 1080, also if you drop down to 760 you can set it up to snap stills as it video's

 

[RhodeDiver]

put a tether on it. I have heard of a lot of head mount gopros being lost in the deep blue sea.