Hero3 Black testing underwater

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This isn't so much a post about how the hero 3 performs under water more about my recent experience last week.

I just got back from a live aboard on the Great barrier reef last week. I took my trusty hero 2 and my mate took his brand new hero 3 black edition.

My Hero 2 worked flawlessly, his new Hero 3 however was nothing but a hassle. It worked fine the first day of our trip, but from then on all the camera did was record the first few minutes of footage then corrupt the rest of the footage on the card, to make matters worse his camera would stop working once we went below 20metres. It would lock up and not turn on/off until the battery was removed. There were a few other people on the boat with brand new hero 3's and the same thing happened for them once they started going deeper than 20m. I'm not sure if it was just a weird coincidence but 3/4 Hero 3 cameras on the boat all suffered the same problem.

For my friend it was just from bad to worse, on the second last day of our trip, his case flooded below 20m and killed his camera, we sat it in a bowl of rice for a couple of days but it was too far gone.

http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/196314_10151137021455965_1551334470_n.jpg

It was disappointing for my friend as he didn't really get any footage at all, hopefully GoPro will be helpful in trying to replace the camera.

Sorry to hear that about your friends camera, strange about all the issues but the initial firmware was quite buggy with the latest update its been fine for me at 30m without issues as you can see by some of my videos. I had a couple down to 30m and 5 beyond 20m so far on the black edition. Not sure if all these guys likely had the first firmware version and what type or size of SD cards were being used as there have been a few people with issues on the goprouser forum but most where sorted with the latest firmware. There were 2 updates since the first week of release and there should be another in about 10 days that will also bring the WiFi app support.

There should be no reason why there would be issues at 20m but people should do some land testing first to make sure everything is working as it should before diving with it to ensure there are no issues and sort them out if any before going underwater.

---------- Post added December 3rd, 2012 at 10:25 AM ----------

My filter for bonica is what could be considered a wet filter. Usually what I do is I just in the water, get situated, my group goes down and while dropping I equalize and check my gear, computer etc etc. Once on the bottom I untwist my wet filter, let the air bubbles out...snap the filter back on. Very first time i had to do it I thought it was a huge chore but years ago when hours of my footage were ruined due to bubble being captured in hours of footage. That straightened me out right really quick. Now I feel deprived if I don't check my filter. And at the end of the day it turned from a chore to regular equipment check.

Here is one of cheaper filters I was talking about. Now I know I know... you get what you pay for... but footage does not look that bad... (even though they digitally mastered it to make it look better than SRP stuff).

GoPro Accessories - GoPro Lenses & Filters, GoPro Microphone

[video=youtube;vNoQHMEh00Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoQHMEh00Y [/video]

[video=youtube;nT4BD7h5ePM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT4BD7h5ePM[/video]

They did offer to send me one to try out but I haven't heard back from them, possibly they may not have received my PM. The video there isn't showing much as I had all hero2's with all filter options get bad auto wb issues at some times, this is the reason I haven't finished my comparison video as its a bit hard to compare on auto wb cameras fairly. I have also tried some more tests between the srp and be flip both did better but still the awb freaks out to green at random times.

I could easily make any filter option look good or bad with selective shots but because of this I haven't posted my camera video tests publicly and they were all in fairly poor vis so not ideal for filters on a hero2. It still shows which works better at certain depths and overall colour performance but running 6 hd2's side by side had at least 1 or 2 randomly have a wb freak out at nearly all times beyond 15m in the dark low vis conditions I had. I tried to upload the full dives uncut to show a fair comparison without selective shot editing but this didn't work on my connection uploading 4x 4gb videos was going to take weeks lol.

In better conditions it would be a better test but I don't have 6 go pro hero2's all the time as the extras were leant to me for that trip, its very hard to repeat tests and I have been busy testing the hero since so there is only so much time.
 
Sorry to hear that about your friends camera, strange about all the issues but the initial firmware was quite buggy with the latest update its been fine for me at 30m without issues as you can see by some of my videos. I had a couple down to 30m and 5 beyond 20m so far on the black edition. Not sure if all these guys likely had the first firmware version and what type or size of SD cards were being used as there have been a few people with issues on the goprouser forum but most where sorted with the latest firmware. There were 2 updates since the first week of release and there should be another in about 10 days that will also bring the WiFi app support.

There should be no reason why there would be issues at 20m but people should do some land testing first to make sure everything is working as it should before diving with it to ensure there are no issues and sort them out if any before going underwater.



Yeah it sucked, my mate like the 3 other people with hero 3's got the camera days before if not the day before the trip. My friend got his on the Friday and we left on the Sunday so it would have been whatever firmware was on it when he got it.

The 3 others all bought their cameras in Cairns the day before the trip so I assume the same issues. That's good to know though. If he does get a replacement I'll definitely make sure he updates the firmware.

It worked fine the first day, and the footage was awesome although filter less it was still great.

I was stoked with my hero 2 footage.


 
My LDS just got their shipment in today as well! So mine is charging up right now. The low light performance is hugely improved over my old FlipHD.

One of the things I liked most about the FlipHD over all the other cams of the same market segment was that it had the best low-light performance. How much better is the H3? I've been entertaining the thought of getting an H3 Black but now I might be sold.
 
One of the things I liked most about the FlipHD over all the other cams of the same market segment was that it had the best low-light performance. How much better is the H3? I've been entertaining the thought of getting an H3 Black but now I might be sold.

I don't know about the non-black version, but the h3 black is more than twice as good low light to my eyes in limited above-water testing. Ad of course, the wide angle is much wider than the flip even with w20 or inon uwl-100. I'll post up some side by side test footage tonight.
 
I don't know about the non-black version, but the h3 black is more than twice as good low light to my eyes in limited above-water testing. Ad of course, the wide angle is much wider than the flip even with w20 or inon uwl-100. I'll post up some side by side test footage tonight.

I was speaking of the Black Edition. That's what I used the Flip for, night dives above water to set the mood/stage/whatever. I could never get any 'keeper' shots at night above water with the other point-and-shots (I've never used a GoPro before). In water, I always used a light at night. This is great news to hear!
 
That's what I used the Flip for, night dives above water to set the mood/stage/whatever. I could never get any 'keeper' shots at night above water with the other point-and-shots (I've never used a GoPro before). In water, I always used a light at night. This is great news to hear!

It's uploading, but will be available at: [video=youtube_share;w56WQikY5_A]http://youtu.be/w56WQikY5_A[/video]

Take it all with a grain of salt (auto WB, Flip's wet lens/housing not entirely cleaned off since last dive, etc.), but this has really gotten me pretty excited about testing it out next week. I'm going to try to bring out both cameras and get some side by side underwater.
 
Interesting about the hero 3 (black) not working below 20 metres, a friend of mine who is here in Cozumel has had the same issue with it not working at depth? I'll be checking with him in the next few weeks while he uses it.
 
Interesting about the hero 3 (black) not working below 20 metres, a friend of mine who is here in Cozumel has had the same issue with it not working at depth? I'll be checking with him in the next few weeks while he uses it.

That is odd I had mine to about 27m at the Canberra dive and 32m on a lonsdale wall dive that I haven't put up yet.

Low light is hugely improved in the black the other hero3's will most likely be very close to the hero and hero they have both replaced. You will get much better footage underwater with it with and without filters thanks to low light and also pro tune and can raw web if you use those.
 
Could the "20m barrier" be due the buttons (shutter/wifi/power) being pressed due to pressure? Unlikely, but..
 
We had our H3B out on about 20 dives last week, mostly right at to just below that 20m mark with no issues (water temps ~85ºF, for whatever that's worth) using the LCD bacpac & door. Vids etc. to be posted once post is done.
 

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