Hero 8 underwater issues??

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sunnyboy

Contributor
Scuba Instructor
Messages
858
Reaction score
329
Location
Vancouver Island, Canada
# of dives
500 - 999
I got a GoPro Hero 8 recently, and have now had it on several dives. I'm having a few issues and wondered if anyone with more gopro experience, especially with the hero8 could comment or offer some suggestions.

First, I have the offical gopro housing for the hero 8, so that's all good. I built a tray to carry the gopro 'as a video camera' but only used it once because mostly the gopro is attached to my scooter (Piranna 1).

One thing to note; the magnets on the bottom of the hero8 that hold the little tabs are strong enough to interfere with my scooter compass (big kayak compass I use) if the gopro is mounted within 6in of the compass. Mounting the gopro on the handle using the gopro clip mount works just fine and does not bother the compass.

Now for the issues:

1. I dive PNW (near Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, Candada) so the water is pretty murky all the time. Visibility ranges from inches in the summer to dozens of feet in the winter, but never that great. Even if you get the amazing day with 50 ft. vis, there's always particles in the water to scatter light.

I've been using 2.7K 60fps but I am really wondering if that's overkill for PNW water. I have a memory card sufficient to last any length of dive I do (all over 1 hour) but the battery dies before I run out of memory.

So would 1080p 60fps be all I really need? The size of the video files on my computer is really why I am asking - those 2.7K files are really big!.

2. Has anyone had battery issues with the hero8? I have two brand new GoPro brand batteries, and the official GoPro charger. Battery always fully charged just prior to the dive. Last week I took 30min video, then stopped the video (all using the TOP button). When I went to turn it on again 10min later, it would not turn on at all. I never did get it to turn back on, even on land. Finally at home it still would not turn on even with USB connected. I noticed then that I could push the battery in and it 'seated'. Immediately I had a working camera with 70% battery life. So it seems the battery wiggled loose during the dive or was not properly seated before my dive. Has this happened to anyone else? Is there some trick to getting the battery properly seated?

3. Yesterday I took it again. This time I turned the video on recording in the water just before I descended, then let it run the entire dive. The battery finally ran out at 1hour 6 minutes and some seconds. I did have the screensaver set on 'never', and saw it was running the entire dive. I could see it clearly any time I looked. If I ran the screensaver ON, would I get more than an hour battery life? Again note, our diving right now is 47F water, so not warm.

4. I do need to be able to see the back screen to set up shots, but not always. If I turn on screen saver, is there a way I can leave the video running, let the saver blank the screen, then get the screen back on without stopping the video? Knowing you can't use the touchscreen underwater, does just pushing something like the left button work? I would really hate to have to stop and start video just to get the back screen on so I could set up a shot.

Thanks in advance. That's all for now. :)
-R
 
Several things...

Quick capture is handy (top button). If the gopro is off, it will return to the off state after stopping record, if the gopro is on, then it will stay on....

If the screen goes blank, the side power button will bring it back, also it will put a marker in the file (gopro app) to find easily later.



For DPV film the whole dive kinda thing, do the above (screen off, or off after a minute or two so you know what your framing is).


For actual filming (tray, lights), I don’t have the screen turn off, and shoot clips opposed to the whole dive.


Screen on will deplete the battery faster, and make sure you have the wifi turned off, as that will really kill the battery real quick.

Resolution? What are you exporting to? That will be the main consideration, then size your storage and editing hardware to that.... I usually do 1080/60 and move up the frame rate on a clip basis.


_R
 
Several things...
Quick capture is handy (top button). If the gopro is off, it will return to the off state after stopping record, if the gopro is on, then it will stay on....
_R

Thanks. I've used that and like it when I'm just taking clips.

If the screen goes blank, the side power button will bring it back, also it will put a marker in the file (gopro app) to find easily later.
_R

THANK YOU. That is exactly the tip I wanted.

For DPV film the whole dive kinda thing, do the above (screen off, or off after a minute or two so you know what your framing is).
_R

Yea, that's what I was thinking as well.
For actual filming (tray, lights), I don’t have the screen turn off, and shoot clips opposed to the whole dive.
_R

Again, what I like to do. My clips are usually pretty short as I'm usually taking a shot of something interesting rather than a general scene.

General scenes are typically done with the scooter. Once the gopro is mounted on the scooter handle (instead of a handheld tray) then even when not actively scootering it's easy to just point the scooter in the general direction of something interesting to take some shots. That's when I need the screen - to see if I'm pointing at the object. Nothing worse than getting home to find the item of interest has been clipped almost out of frame.

Screen on will deplete the battery faster, and make sure you have the wifi turned off, as that will really kill the battery real quick.
_R

That's what I figured. I now have the screen saver set at 1 minute (the minimum), idle power off at 5 min, wifi off. Since I use the gopro on scooter most often, these are good settings for me.

Resolution? What are you exporting to? That will be the main consideration, then size your storage and editing hardware to that.... I usually do 1080/60 and move up the frame rate on a clip basis.
_R

I was using 2.7K, 60fps, L. I now have it set for 1080p, 60fps, L.

I need to read the manual again; I can't figure out how to get more than the default 3 presets that you scroll thru with the side button underwater. I have time lapse, video and photo. I can set any video as default (last used is my setting) and have both 1080p and 2.7k set up but I can't get to them underwater, probably because I'm missing something about setting up more than those 3 defaults.

I use Adobe Premier Elements 15 (the last actually purchasable version) for my video, and it can handle all the resolutions. My only 'complaint' about 2.7k or 4k video is that the files are very huge (or a lot of 4K files for 1 hour of video). That would be fine if the underwater video result actually made use of 4K or 2.7k, but realistically in our murky water, 1080 is even somewhat overkill.

I upload my videos to youtube, so final size is an issue (free account). I usually process the resulting Elements video (huge) with handbrake to squish it down more for youtube uploads. If you go too far, you can see pixelation in the final video, but sometimes that's OK too for general survey videos.

I guess I'm trying to balance file size with finished video resolution with respect to the actual possible video quality in turbid water (like 10ft vis with lots of debris in the water).

Again, thanks very much.
 
New question: has anyone had any issues with newer GoPro models (7 black, 8 black, 9) and battery connection? I find that I have to be really careful seating the battery after removal/charging. In a couple of instances, just putting the gopro in the UW housing was enough to 'unseat' the battery such that the gopro would not turn on at all. I had to remove the gopro from the housing, open the battery door and remove/reinsert/reseat the battery so it would work.

This has now happened twice (once underwater!) and is a bit of a concern.
 
I had some problems with the battery on my Hero7. I solved it by removing the screws on the inside of the battery cover and lubricating the area between the plastic plates. From then on, everything involving that battery door operated smoothly and easily. Probably no coincidence that I never had a problem with the battery again.

Prior to that it was extremely difficult to open/close the battery compartment. I had to use a flathead screwdriver as it was nearly impossible using fingers. I suspect that due to the difficulty, I wasn't getting the compartment closed quite right - although I never did have a leak.

I used teflon grease, because I had it on hand after a computer keyboard repair project. $12 for what is probably a lifetime supply https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002L5UL92/ (not any kind of affiliate or sales link). You could probably use any kind of grease you might have on hand, but I've found this stuff is excellent for many things. I think they market it for bicycles!
 
Thanks very much for that. The Hero 8 has a new waterproof seal so it's going to be a bit tougher. The hero 8 is waterproof to 10ft or so. It's a nice feature (like the Oly TG6) because the UW case now has 'back up' in case of a minor leak.

That said, it makes the door more difficult to shut/seal. I'm going to have to watch and see if it's both batteries (I bought 2 to swap) or just one that does this.
 
Thanks very much for that. The Hero 8 has a new waterproof seal so it's going to be a bit tougher. The hero 8 is waterproof to 10ft or so. It's a nice feature (like the Oly TG6) because the UW case now has 'back up' in case of a minor leak.

That said, it makes the door more difficult to shut/seal. I'm going to have to watch and see if it's both batteries (I bought 2 to swap) or just one that does this.

Same here. I’ve had this happen twice with mine and both times it was the same battery. I’ve marked my batteries now and I’m keeping track of whether it’s a battery issue or me just not getting the battery seated and the door closed properly.
 
Thanks Jim. In my case the very first time I installed the battery (after installing the memory card), all seemed fine. However, when removing the battery to put it in the charger, I was afraid I'd rip off that tab it was so hard to remove. I was very careful and it took a few minutes to gentle it out. The second battery I bought (came with the charger) was easier to install and remove.

At this point both are about the same to install / remove, so I'll have to keep an eye on which one is giving problems. Since it's the one currently in the camera, I'll just mark it when I swap them over for the next dive and then keep track of whether it happens again and which battery does it.

If it comes down to removing the battery causes the problem, I'll just switch over to charging 'in camera' via USB. Still, it's annoying in such an expensive camera (relative to say the clones).
 
<sigh> New issue. I'm wondering if someone can enlighten me as to what I did.

I've been running the gopro hero 8 in 'clip' mode. That is, turn on via the top button, record what I want to record, then turn off via the top button.

Yesterday I recorded 7 clips of various length, all the same way (or so I though). However, once home and having moved the clips to my PC, I found that two of them were "time warp" clips, not regular clips. The clips are not contiguous - that is I have 4 regular clips, then 1 time warp, then 1 regular, then the last clip is time warp.

I did not intentionally want time warp clips, nor do I recall doing anything to GET time warp clips. I only recall using the top button to start/stop the clip (and stop of course turns the camera off as well).

Today I played with the hero 8, and if I turn it on via the side button, you can press the side button again and switch from time warp to video to photo. But I am quite sure I did not do that yesterday underwater.

QUESTION: Is it possible to use only the top button and 'accidentally' start a clip in time warp instead of normal video? I'm just trying to figure out what I might have done.

Thanks,
-R
 
QUESTION: Is it possible to use only the top button and 'accidentally' start a clip in time warp instead of normal video? I'm just trying to figure out what I might have done.

Not that I know of. I've accidentally switched it to time warp mode but only using the side button. Never the top button.
 
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