GoPro Black Edition vs Sony HDR XR-500V

[didekeer]

Hi,

I currently use a Sony HDR XR-500V in a Patima Housing (no manual white balance or internal filter) with a wet Inon Wide Angle lens and two 24 Watt Darkbuster HID lights. The setup did a good job, but I recently got a scratch on my wide angle lens, lost an expernal filter, and basically got fed up with the bulk and weight of the total solution. I film in green water (British columbia).

I am considering building a new setup, based on the GoPro Black Edition, with the Backscatter Green Filter (when it is released), and some smaller LED lights (Sola's or possibly Archon's).

Before I take this step, I'm looking for some opinion on the video quality of the GoPro Hero 3 Black edition. The sensor used is the same size as the Sony, but a newer generation and higher resolution. The sony sensor was pretty good in low light conditions...

Are there any folks out there who changed from a recent Sony camera, to a GoPro and willing to tell about their experience? Was the video quality equal? Better? Worse?

thanks

 

[drbill]

I film with a Sony CX550V but was pretty impressed with the footage I saw from a GoPro Hero3 Black on my recent trip to the Bahamas. So impressed that I'm planning to get one as a backup camera that is small enough to take along easily. Most of what I film is fairly close-up and I don't think the Hero3 is near as good as the CX550V for those shots, but for wide angle and establishing scenes, it could be very good.

 

[didekeer]

I film with a Sony CX550V but was pretty impressed with the footage I saw from a GoPro Hero3 Black on my recent trip to the Bahamas. So impressed that I'm planning to get one as a backup camera that is small enough to take along easily. Most of what I film is fairly close-up and I don't think the Hero3 is near as good as the CX550V for those shots, but for wide angle and establishing scenes, it could be very good.

Thanks for yoiur opinion. when I look at the majority of my footage (example: https://vimeo.com/32423345), it's mostly wide views, wrecks, underwater vista's, etc... I did have a macro lens for my Patima housing but almost never used it as I did not want to shoot a whole dive with macro, and changing the wet lens back and forth was to much work... I actually hope this will be better with the GoPro with the upcoming Backscatter option to use a flip macro lens with the Gopro.

I have seen some really good footage from the GoPro, but mostly in shallow blue water. all my dives are green water, with sometimes limited visibility, and often deep where the only lighting will be my lights. So I'm most curious to see if the GoPro Black edition matches the sensitivity of a recent Sony like my XR500 (I believe your CX550 is the same generation or one later).