Gopro Hero 8 black protective housing

[FilipSOS]

Just got a Hero 8 black a a Bday present (great upgrade so far from my 3+ and 4 cameras), but need to get a protective housing for diving for this weekend!

Did anyone test housing frim company called Ozone (case selling on Amazon) or should I stick with original one (4x the price)?!

 

[runsongas]

you have to be careful with the knockoff chinese housings. some have a much flimsier latch that can come loose underwater. others have a thinner housing (hence why a lot are only rated to 30m) and weaker buttons that start flexing when you get deep and cause the camera to start turning on and off when you don't want it too. and the worst are the ones that have sealing issues so they leak (either at the door or buttons) (always test them empty without the camera at least once on a dive or with a pressure pot/pressure sprayer). and then you might have corrosion issues if they have non-stainless springs and backseal the buttons instead of front seal.

 

[pauldw]

Just got a Hero 8 black a a Bday present (great upgrade so far from my 3+ and 4 cameras), but need to get a protective housing for diving for this weekend!

Did anyone test housing frim company called Ozone (case selling on Amazon) or should I stick with original one (4x the price)?!

If I'd just spent hundreds of dollars on a camera that I was going to take underwater in a container subject to considerable pressure, I'd go to Amazon and get the very cheapest case I could find from the very sketchiest of overseas knock off makers.

 

[FilipSOS]

Hahaha, thanks for sarcasm...

New gopro was a present, but just wanted to hear experiences, not like was determined to buy the cheaper one definetely.

Since nobody had experience with this brand, I'll just spend 60$ on original gopro case..

Thanks for your time and answer guys

 

[O-ring]

If they are still offering it, you can join GoPro Plus (free for 30 days) and get a discount on the OEM housing. If you don't want the other benefits or the camera insurance, etc. just cancel before they start charging you for the membership fees.

 

[divinh]

GoPole is pretty reputable and they just started making Hero 8 housings, with some filters included:

Dive/Impact Housing GoPro® HERO8 Edition $25
Dive/Impact Housing + Filter Kit for GoPro® HERO8 $55

Dome style:

GoPole Dome Pro - Over/Under Dome for GoPro® HERO7/6/5 $70

On the flip side, one of the reasons to go with original GoPro housings is because of Backscatter FLIP filter system works with them. I don't know if GoPole's will. Backscatter's system includes a magnifying lens, if you're into macro. It's pricey though.

Whatever case you end up with, you'll want some quality filters (correct shade, definitely not pure red!) if you're going below 5m.

 

[JamesBon92007]

If I'd just spent hundreds of dollars on a camera that I was going to take underwater in a container subject to considerable pressure, I'd go to Amazon and get the very cheapest case I could find from the very sketchiest of overseas knock off makers.

That's what I did! Only it was eBay. Actually, I've gotten some very descent housings for my SJ7000 for very little money. The one I ordered is for my new Hero 8 Black that is supposed to be here in two days. I figure if the housing leaks it probably won't hurt the camera because it's good to 30 feet without a housing. Time will tell. I may end up buying a different housing. I do have a super-cheap SJ4000 clone (imitation of an imitation) and the housing flexes at depth making it impossible to operate. I didn't pay anything for it and it's worth every penny!

BTW, everybody probably already knows this but GoPro is selling the Hero 8 Black for $299 and it includes a 32GB SD card. I'm looking forward to smooth video.

 

[JamesBon92007]

So, I got the Hero 8 Black and it doesn't work with any of my computers and there doesn't seem to be any GoPro Customer Service. Anyone managed to contact them recently? I've tried everything I can find so now I'm trying to send it back. It works well on my girlfriend's iMAC in the lowest resolution, but gets all jumpy and twitchy if I try the medium resolution.

 

[JaminBrown]

So, I got the Hero 8 Black and it doesn't work with any of my computers and there doesn't seem to be any GoPro Customer Service. Anyone managed to contact them recently? I've tried everything I can find so now I'm trying to send it back. It works well on my girlfriend's iMAC in the lowest resolution, but gets all jumpy and twitchy if I try the medium resolution.

Do you mean that if you film at high res, and try to play it back on the iMac, it stutters? I had that problem as well on an older MacBook - the computer just wasn't fast enough to handle the amount of data in the high res videos.

My iPhone xS didn't have a problem playing the videos.

 

[JamesBon92007]

Do you mean that if you film at high res, and try to play it back on the iMac, it stutters? I had that problem as well on an older MacBook - the computer just wasn't fast enough to handle the amount of data in the high res videos.

My iPhone xS didn't have a problem playing the videos.

No matter what I try to play back the Hero 8 files on it pauses, stutters, and fragments. It works better on the iMac than on my Windows computers but it's definitely not what I would consider acceptable. And this is recording at 1080p. My Windows computer won't even play back the higher resolution files at all. I made sure the camera was set to H.264 and my screen resolution is set for optimum performance. The good news is that I discovered iMovie and it has stabilization and auto-correction for colors and contrast so now there is new hope for my SJ7000 files. So far I've only tried the stabilize and shutter roll features and my old, shaky videos have become brighter, more colorful with better contrast, but have black edges showing in the really bumpy parts. I looked it up and it seems like I might be able to pan and zoom in those bad spots but I haven't had much time to play with it lately. I have some files from the GoPro that I'm going to see if I can make a iMovie from with fades and wipes and titles and zooms and all that. Maybe it will play back once it's processed. The Windows Movie Maker movie I made from the Hero 8 files suddenly decided to play back smoothly on my Windows computer after a fresh re-boot and nothing else running. There is some hope. Using the Hero 8 for comparison I've made a few adjustments on my SJ7000 camera and it's looking better, but it only has about half the bit rate. The Hero 8 does have great color saturation, contrast, and the image stabilazation works really great--if only I can get it to play back on something besides the camera itself. Yesterday I jumped in the pool with my SJ7000 attached to a three foot wide board to test if a wider tray would help smooth things out and it seems to help.

BTW, I don't remember if I already commented on it, but my eBay Hero 8 housing performed just fine in the swimming pool and it seems to be of equal quality to my other action camera housings, some of which I've had down to around 120' with no problems.