gopro on Nauticam housing

[mike jj]

I have a OMD-EM5 in Nauticam housing and love it. I have only taken stills with it. I'm going to Galapagos in late Aug. I am considering mounting a gopro where I normally have my Sola 1200, that I use mostly as a focus light (on top and centered on housing) is this a good idea or should I learn to take video with my camera. If I take video with my camera is there a lot of menu switching between stills and video? I have a couple of Coz trips in June and July to practice. Also I'm going to take my 8-mm, 60-mm macro, and 9-18mm, is it worth the upgrade from the 9-18 to the 7-14 panny, the 7-14oly wont be a player for me this year.

Thanks Mike

ps: any info on any of this will be greatly appreciated

 

[gtxl1200]

I have my go pro mounted where my hot shoe is on my housing. They sell a mount for it. That way, I have the best of both worlds. I just turn my go pro on, and hit record on the descent. I just leave it on the whole time. I then take pictures and video at the same time. You edit out all the unwanted stuff in post processing. I just hold my camera out in front of me and I have never not had any problem of videoing what I wanted. I don't use the LCD bac pac either. just have your settings on Wide and you will get everything you want in the video.

 

[Reefwalker]

Hi Mike
While the GoPro will produce good video, your OMD along with the 8mm & 9-18mm will produce fantastic video. I would bring the GoPro as a spare and use the OMD. Shoot in Program, manual white balance and use the exposure compensation to vary the exposure to optimum.
Changing from shooting video to stills is only a matter of a turn of the dial. First you save some "My Sets" and have them selectable from the mode dial (set up in the menu). Now you can
1) Switch to Program shooting, press the red video button and you are shooting video
2) Press the shutter button and you are shooting natural light stills.
3) Turn the mode dial and you can be back in (for example) Manual mode, shooting strobe lit still photos.
I wouldn't get too excited about buying the 7-14mm over the 9-18mm, I see very little difference between the photos taken with either lens, plus you need another port if you already have the 9-18mm.

 

[Nemrod]

Something I quickly discovered. I do not have your camera but I have a S90 in a FIX housing, twin strobes, still love it. I mounted my new GoPro Silver atop the rig by fabricating a small aluminum tab and securing it under the left flash ball (I also tried the cold shoe but prefer my DIY tab).

So, what did I discover, well, controlling two cameras, I missed shots with both. But, I think that is a learning curve.The other is, well, I do a lot of vertical shots so the video is constantly swinging from horizontal to vertical.

I also learned that while my strobes do have LED lamps, they are not adequate for video work. No worries, I do not care. I also found the red filter does very well even at depth. Yes, the video is not colorful at depth but it looks like it actually looked or close enough.

I prefer natural looking shots with my camera, I hate those forced photos I see, over processed, which is most. I use my strobes, such as I do, for close fill for my CFWA shots and I think I prefer au naturel for my videos as well. Some close color fill would be nice. How to do that, when riding shotgun on my still camera, not sure.

Photo taken by a friend, a little pushed I think. But it shows my GoPro atop my camera. I have since this last trip, modified the whole thing. I made a new set of handles for my tray that are about an inch taller. And I mounted the GoPro tripod adapter straight to the aluminum tab/arm making it much more compact. I had been using two balls with the adapter on the second ball. That works but since my camera rig is rather tiny, I think the more compact solution better. I made my tray handles an inch longer to get my GoPro high enough not to see my dome port. And, lol, to give my big hands a bit more room.

My handles are copied from UCLS, but they are DIY with SERFAS MTB grips. I turn them on my lath from aluminum rod. The tray is bar stock and drilled to suit my need. Then I have everything powder coated. I use UCLS balls, arms etc. Good products.

N

 

[watboy]

I only use my go pro when the camera is setup for macro. Its the most useful when I'm in lembeh and run into a mimic octopus or something really interesting. If i'm in wide angle or fisheye, I don't find the go pro to be that useful and don't bring it along. I prefer a clean setup for wide angle where as macro has diopters and gopro and focus light. I find it much easier to take video with the main camera than the go pro due to the larger screen. For the go pro, I find it best to add an accessory battery pack then to add an LCD screen. The add on screen is just too small and drains the battery fast.

 

[dmoore19]

I mount mine on the cold shoe of my Sea and Sea housing. It works quite well. Turn the gopro on when you splash and it gives the ability to catch that shot that might not have had a chance to get ready for, quick and easy. A still pulled from the gopro is better than nothing for some of those instances. Here is my setup.

 

[Storker]

I've recently mounted a Hero4 Silver atop my NA-EM5 housing, via the M10 threaded armball mount. Like gtxl1200, I hit the "record" button on the GoPro just after submerging (and extending my strobe arms from transport position). I'm shooting 2.7k wide, Protune on, native WB and flat color. Post-processing in Premiere Elements.

Pros: Continuous video, no hassle with switching the main camera from stills to video to stills again. Now I get video footage from my dives quite easily while I still can concentrate on my stills.
Cons: Even bigger rig, increased task loading from having to hold the rig steady and pointed the right way all the time instead of it jut hanging from my hand, parallax (GoPro and OM-D don't see the same on closeups), lots of wasted footage to edit.

I'll probably use the GoPro on some dives, but not all of them. OTOH, I bring my stills rig on 90+ % of my dives.

 

[mike jj]

Thank you every one. I have decided to do both. I will mount a gopro on my housing, and learn to take video with my camera. I will try to use the gopro when things are out of range of my 8mm or 9-18mm, or when I have my 60mm macro on. I don't think I will leave the gopro on from start to finish. I know I will miss some things, but not as much editing and longer battery life if I'm doing 4 dives a day. I have already picked up the flip filters from Backscatter, One triple clamp for my Sola 1200 and am probably going to buy another Sola. Can't wait to start playing.

Thanks again
Mike