Backscatter Flip 3.1 Red Filter

[ajbird]

Hi guys I purchased the Backscatter Flip 3.1 red filter combo and have been using the set up for six months now. I always rinse my GoPro and the Flip 3.1 after my dives. Before my dives when I put the filter back on the housing I tighten it down with the allen key that was provided. However recently it fell off on one of my dives. I contacted Backscatter and told them about my issue, they said they had never heard of this problem before. I am curious if anyone else has had this happen or knows of anyone this has happen to.

 

[Father]

Being a very cynical person, that's pretty much the response I would expect from any company when you tell them their product failed. They might have never heard of it because nobody told them about it or they don't sell that many. Check to see if there are some GoPro forums out there or a YouTube video and see if anyone else has experienced the same problem to back up your statement to the company.

Other possibilities are you (a) didn't tighten it as much as you thought and the screw fell out (b) the threads were stripped out and the screw fell out (c) you over tightened it when you screwed it down and either stripped out the threads or broke something.

I have no experience with this set-up so I'm just spit-balling here.

 

[ajbird]

Thank you for your response. I have looked on various forums but was unable to find anything so I thought I would start one here for people who have had the same problem.

 

[Emma78]

Same thing happened to me! The whole unit with 2 filters came off on a dive. I'm really careful with my stuff too, so I don't understand how it could happen. When I emailed Backscatter about it they replied that they'd never heard of the problem before and there is nothing they can do! Considering the price of the set, I really don't think something like this should be allowed to happen. They don't seem to want to acknowledge that screws can wear out or that anything else can be wrong with the filter system.

 

[SynCitizen]

I've wasted money on an earlier version of their product. The lens cracked by the third dive and fell of a couple dives later. Another diver picked up one at DEMA and exact same issue within 1 week of diving with it. Of course YMMV.
Granted you get much improved color correction using filters and nothing else, but a little post processing can give you the same or better effect for as little as free using gopro's own software.

 

[DiverDiverRUOK]

I had a similar problem - I was diving with the Flip 3.1 combo in the Keys a few weeks ago. Got down to the bottom, took some video and turned off the camera and everything was ok. A few minutes later, I look at the camera and the filter had fallen off, and unfortunately I wasn't able to recover it. I haven't contacted Backscatter yet, but I will to see about a replacement after hearing that this is a common problem.

 

[Father]

Looks like you should email Backscatter a link to this thread so they can see for themselves that they have a recurring problem.

 

[sooneron]

I'd like to thank you guys for pointing out these issues as the ad caught my eye a while ago. I am a video/film professional, but would love to do more UW work. Taking my 3+ to PR in a couple of weeks. I ordered the polar pro red, but saw some horror stories, so I got a Kodak Wratten filter cc30R in case. I may check out the polar pro with macro, as it may take out the issues of the plain red filter (bubbles, smear etc).

 

[JennPenn]

Hey ajbird and all others on this thread!

It's JennPenn from Backscatter. Thank you all for bringing this to our attention. It is certainly not the norm for our filters to fall off during a dive. As part of the R&D team for the FLIP3.1 color correction system, the products were strenuously tested prior to going into full production, but anything is possible. We certainly want our products to perform as expected and as advertised, so thank you again for bringing this to our attention. Customer service is our highest priority and we value our customers.
Backscatter put together a FLIP3.1 product installation tutorial video which I'm hoping you were made aware of at the time of your purchase. It can be found on our website on the product page, as well as on our vimeo channel.
Product Tutorial: Installing the Flip3.1 underwater color correction filter system for GoPro Hero3 on Vimeo

Cheers!
JennPenn
Backscatter

 

[Scared Silly]

We have their system as well. I personally do not think it is a design flaw by any means. But rather a system that needs to be carefully assembled. If not you run the risk of losing it like several people have reported. Remember this is a third party product that is being put on the GoPro. When I first assembled the filter system I noticed that it was very easy to misalign the mounting ring and the housing. Given that the lens frame on the housing is less than a 1/4 wide there is not much room for error. I also noticed that this misalignment may make the filter system seem secure but it was not. I do not think there is much that can be done short of creating a replacement lens frame for the housing to better interface with the flip frame. But then ya got people mucking with their housing and that is not the best idea either. BTW if you notice on the top flip mount there is a bevel that mates with the frame. That is good design decision. Something that would be great on the main frame but as said that would require a different lens frame.

That said I feel for folks that have lost theirs. Been there done that with other things it sucks.