First day out with new video set up in Whytecliff

[Henry]

Yup, my first one ever. Shot on a stock Contour Roam. I have to admit. It was a hard dive because I shot it while on my rebreather and let's just say it was very task loaded experience. What fun though! I am looking forward to getting out again this weekend and learning more about setting up the shots and editing afterwards.

To the experienced eye, you can probably tell that the edit job was done via iMovie. Which I don't have much experience with either. Still a very fun experience!

Whytecliff Dec 13 2011.mov - YouTube

[Wetsuit 4 life]

Great video, makes me want to get back to Whytecliff soon

[nadwidny]

I was expecting a really bad video but I have to say I am very impressed with your shots. Nice white balance, pretty steady, and the lights were a very natural colour. Not as much blue as I expected from an LED. I'll have to look into the Contour. And good job on the editing.

[Henry]

I was expecting a really bad video but I have to say I am very impressed with your shots. Nice white balance, pretty steady, and the lights were a very natural colour. Not as much blue as I expected from an LED. I'll have to look into the Contour. And good job on the editing.

Thanks. It worked out pretty well. I think with the Contour +, you can change the white balance before you start the dive but with the Roam, what you see is what you get. I didn't do any colour editing at all afterwards either. I figure it already looked pretty good for a tiny "point and turn on" camera. The poor man's video toy. :-)

[ElliottM]

Very nice, Henry. I had never considered a device like the Contour, but it looks like a perfect device to bring on almost every dive. In your opinion, is the Contour+ worth the extra cost? Based on the quality of your footage with the Roam it looks good enough to me. Also, how do you carry it or mount it? BTW, I am impressed with the viz there at Whytecliff.

[Henry]

Very nice, Henry. I had never considered a device like the Contour, but it looks like a perfect device to bring on almost every dive. In your opinion, is the Contour+ worth the extra cost? Based on the quality of your footage with the Roam it looks good enough to me. Also, how do you carry it or mount it? BTW, I am impressed with the viz there at Whytecliff.

IMO, if you completely budget restricted, then just the Roam. It will get the job done without any problems. If you don't really care about the budget too much and simply don't want to buyer's remorse because you didn't get the higher model, then get the +.

They both will film exactly the something. The difference then obviously is the "other" features. Here is a short list:

1. + has blue tooth that hooks up to your smart phone which allows you to have a peek at what you are viewing with the camera. I consider this feature to be the least useful because I can't bring my phone with me underwater and as you can seem with my video, I can film fine without it. Besides the blue tooth hook up is finicky and not the slickest design ever.

2. The blue tooth hook up on the + also allows you to set up the camera via your phone versus having to set up while connected to the lap top. However, I didn't feel that to be completely necessary as once I have the camera set up, I have not felt the need to change it at the dive site AND I can't change it underwater anyway (no phone, remember?).

3. One thing the + has that the Roam does not is white balance adjustments. Some may find this valuable. I just did the WB adjustment via video editor software afterwards. I am not skilled enough to utilize the smart phone WB adjustment but like I said, some may find this valuable.

4. The + has an onboard setting one and setting two. So you can set up 1080 30fps on one setting and 720 60fps on the other and switch back and forth as needed without having to hook back up to your laptop. Please note this can only be done with the camera is out of the housing as it is a toggle switch. Which means you can only do it between dives not during.

5. The + has GPS. Meh, I leave it off the whole time because I figure it will suck up more battery juice and I can't get a GPS signal underwater anyway. However, for those who intend to use the camera for cross purposes such as skiing or motorcycling. This might be a fun feature.

6. The + has a microphone jack. This is kind of interesting. In theory, you can use a POV and a solid video mic such as Rode Videomic Pro and film some pretty sick stuff with great sound. The poor man's video camera. :-)

I am sure I am forgetting some other stuff but that should help you quite a bit. Each camera using a unique UW housing as the cameras are slightly different in size (how annoying). However both housings come with a standard sized tripod mount which is great (the GoPro, you need to buy a tripod mount attachment) as I simply mounted it to my iKelite video tray.

Good luck and let me know if you have more questions.

[ElliottM]

Thanks, Henry. I only plan on using this for diving, as I have a Nikon DSLR that supports HD video that I use topside - and that I hope to (may) use at depth some day. Given that, most of the features you mention - which are great - won't be of much value to me underwater, so I am ordering the ContourRoam.

BTW, the viz there at Whytecliff was amazing to me, as I rarely see water that clear in the Puget Sound. Is that typical? Either way, I have got to plan some dives north of our border!