Hand mounts?

[TheBeepBoop]

What are folks thoughts on hand mounts? I know they aren’t the most stable, but I really just want to film my dives, not dive to film. Any suggestions? I have a DJI Osmo Action 1

 

[Guille G]

I’ve found that filming long segments of a dive (let alone a full dive) turns out boring footage that is a pain to go through and edit. You still get a couple of minutes of anything interesting/decent.

So, a constant hand mount is not worth IMO. Much better to clip your camera on you with a boltsnap, and take it out only when you run into something cool that you want to video. Less intrusive during your dive, and you have a better chance of actually ever watching that and making a cool clip from it.

 

[Herculin]

IMO it all depends on your goals.

Even just for having some nice shots to share with family and friends and keep your memories, I would recommend to use a camera rig, there are quite cheap options that do not take a lot of space and wait so little, so not a problem for traveling light, and will improve seriously the quality of your shots.
For instance something like this:
Movo GB-U80

A hand mount like this one:

ParaPace 360​

I think is not a good idea for diving, too unstable.

Or as Guille G says, better a simple clip to your BCD/Rig. It would be more stable.

Regards from Ramstein.

​

 

[Divin'Papaw]

What are folks thoughts on hand mounts? I know they aren’t the most stable, but I really just want to film my dives, not dive to film. Any suggestions? I have a DJI Osmo Action 1

How does a hand mount help you "film your dive" vs "dive to film"?

Maybe just keep your camera clipped off, unclip it when you see something you want to film, then turn it off and re-clip it.

Leaving the camera on the entire dive and filming absolutely everything is pretty darn close to worthless. It will result in a massive amount of video that has to be downloaded and edited down. You will grow tired of doing that very quickly. Plus you won't be properly filming anything. Aiming and stabilizing a hand mounted camera would seem to be almost impossible.

 

[ontdiver]

I you want a bit more stability, an inexpensive camera rig is the best solution. And if you want to try your hand at DIY, you can make one for less than $20 with pvc.

 

[TheBeepBoop]

IMO it all depends on your goals.

Even just for having some nice shots to share with family and friends and keep your memories, I would recommend to use a camera rig, there are quite cheap options that do not take a lot of space and wait so little, so not a problem for traveling light, and will improve seriously the quality of your shots.
For instance something like this:
Movo GB-U80

A hand mount like this one:

ParaPace 360​

I think is not a good idea for diving, too unstable.

Or as Guille G says, better a simple clip to your BCD/Rig. It would be more stable.

Regards from Ramstein.

​

I hadn’t ever seen the movo before! That is definitely interesting! Thanks

 

[TheBeepBoop]

How does a hand mount help you "film your dive" vs "dive to film"?

Maybe just keep your camera clipped off, unclip it when you see something you want to film, then turn it off and re-clip it.

Leaving the camera on the entire dive and filming absolutely everything is pretty darn close to worthless. It will result in a massive amount of video that has to be downloaded and edited down. You will grow tired of doing that very quickly. Plus you won't be properly filming anything. Aiming and stabilizing a hand mounted camera would seem to be almost impossible.

I had thought about the editing process and it isn’t that daunting for me. If the paralenz was still around I’d look into that and mask mounting it. I mainly want to just set it and forget it rather than having to clip and unclip and turn on and off the camera.

But maybe that isn’t as bad as it seems in my head! I’ll look into sticks or that movo thing someone put in here earlier! Thanks!

 

[Outbound]

I have a hand mount that I used to use for my GoPro. It worked well for shallower dives where there's plenty of light. I don't leave my camera on record the entire time, though. Editing when you do that is going to be a pain in the rear regardless of whether you use a hand mount, tray, clip it off, etc. I would flip the camera up, click to record whatever I wanted to capture, turn it off, and then flip the camera back down. Pretty easy. You could just as easily clip it off to a D-ring, but I don't like having things dangle off my BCD.

That said, I now use a tray mount with two lights. Video quality is much better. But the downside is now I have a bigger rig to carry.

So it's up to you. But a hand mount is certainly cheap and easy to use.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

I had thought about the editing process and it isn’t that daunting for me. If the paralenz was still around I’d look into that and mask mounting it. I mainly want to just set it and forget it rather than having to clip and unclip and turn on and off the camera.

But maybe that isn’t as bad as it seems in my head! I’ll look into sticks or that movo thing someone put in here earlier! Thanks!

If you're planning to "set it and forget it" that just means you won't properly capture anything of value except for minor glimpses of stuff captured by chance.

IMO unclipping, filming, and then reclipping is trivial and actually allows a far more relaxed dive. Only when I happen to see something I might want to film do get the camera out. Otherwise, I dive like it isn't even there. You'll be hard pressed to do that with a camera strapped to your hand. Just my 2 cents.

 

[TheBeepBoop]

If you're planning to "set it and forget it" that just means you won't properly capture anything of value except for minor glimpses of stuff captured by chance.

IMO unclipping, filming, and then reclipping is trivial and actually allows a far more relaxed dive. Only when I happen to see something I might want to film do get the camera out. Otherwise, I dive like it isn't even there. You'll be hard pressed to do that with a camera strapped to your hand. Just my 2 cents.

That makes sense! Thanks!