HERO2 bit the dust. Time to go shopping!

[SanDiegoSidemount]

Ok, so my HERO2's case flooded with salt water, and after drying it out, I've determined it's toast. Time to go shopping. I'm looking for help in sorting out the latest crop of GoPro offerings.

I use my GoPro in two main ways. The first is on pleasure dives, where I capture lots of short clips and extract the best frames to use as still images. I almost never bother to edit or publish full motion video, though on rare occasions I do. So in this case, the best quality stills-from-video are what matter most to me. (Least per-frame blurring, etc.)

My second use is for teaching, where I film students (often in low light in a pool) and we play back the videos in the classroom to evaluate how they did. Resolution doesn't matter in this case, I just want the best low-light performance.

I also use the LCD display a lot to "frame" what I'm capturing.

I keep the rig small and compact, so I don't use a tray or lights. I do use a red filter in the ocean. (Last one was Backscatter Flip.)

I have very little use for the GoPro outside of scuba diving, so features that don't relate to diving and/or don't work under water (i.e. touch screen, preview via a mobile phone link, etc.) don't matter to me.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.

PS: My other preference would be to buy a used replacement HERO2 with LCD BackPac really cheap, since I already have the other bits. However, the price of these used on EBay is not far from the new HERO, which seems better than my old HERO2 anyway. If anyone wants to sell me one for 100 bucks or less, that's a no-brainer for me.

 

[LowVizWiz]

I have the original HD HERO with the LCD BackPac, SRP Blurfix, SRP Deep, Shallow and Green water filters that I would be willing to let go for $100.
I just received a HERO 4 as a birthday gift so the HD HERO is up for grabs.

A new HERO with the LCD BackPac would be $210

Also, silly question here... why are you grabbing stills from video instead of shooting stills?

 

[tursiops]

I've had two HERO 2's bite the dust (drink the salt water?); I'm on my third.

Before I go to another GoPro, I'm going to take a long hard look at the Sony. It wins all the comparisons I've seen, especially in low light. the only thing that holds me back is the ****pot of accessories I've got for the GoPro, but many of them do not fit the HERO 4, or even 3.

 

[VicScubaVentures]

Before I go to another GoPro, I'm going to take a long hard look at the Sony. It wins all the comparisons I've seen, especially in low light.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but which Sony product are you referring to?
Thanks,
C.

 

[tursiops]

Not trying to hijack the thread, but which Sony product are you referring to?
Thanks,
C.

I take it back. The old Sony got good reports; the new one does not.

 

[avigulf]

For stills with the GoPro I mostly use timelapse function, 1 pics. /sec/ 2.sec. ( easy to get blurry pics. when pulling down the shutter on the lightweight camera).
Gopro is mainly a videocam so only for stills I would recommend a compactcam with zoom.
Buying a new GoPro I would recommend the Hero4 silver (built in LCD screen) or 3+ silver.

 

[mjrob]

Do yourself a favor and look at the new Sealife Micro HD. Excellent video and stills, sealed housing, rechargeable, internal red filter, less money than a comparably equipped Go Pro. Should be pretty much perfect for your needs.

 

[SanDiegoSidemount]

Also, silly question here... why are you grabbing stills from video instead of shooting stills?

I started out shooting in photo mode, and wasn't happy with the GoPro's responsiveness. It always seemed like it missed grabbing the right moment. And then I had to switch modes if I actually wanted to capture video. I spent more time fumbling around with the camera than actually taking photos or videos.

Once I figured out I could just shoot video the whole time and grab the best frames, it was a revelation. I don't have to worry about hitting the button at the perfect moment, I can just point in the general direction of cool stuff, and sort out the best frames later. Especially with sea life in motion, this works really well.

And if I manage to film some actual video that's worth editing, well, bonus!

BTW I'm not set on the GoPro brand, so recommendations from Sony or Sealife are welcome.

 

[crab4life]

San Diego Sidemount, I figured out how to fix flooded Gopros, I will dig up the post, it has helped several people

---------- Post added November 12th, 2014 at 02:42 PM ----------

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/go...ve-saltwater-flooded-gopro-3.html#post7215777

 

[haha49]

Well here is how it works... For video the Black is the best in low light ect. It has 4k setting on the gopro hero 4 black at 30fps so for large video files it works the best you can take a snapshot of that video and edit it like a photo I do this on flights with a hexacopter for online type of stuff it works great. If you get a silver you lose the 4k setting and get 1080p at 60fps were the black is 120 fps. So the extra frames allow you to slow the video down and it will look allot smoother. For dark the black is the way to go though but you pay more for it. Upgrade the housing to an actual dive housing lube the seal up every now and again and it should be good to go.


If you go with a hero 3+ black the 4k setting is only 15 fps (to slow) so it all depends on what you film at the low light is good on the 3+ black you just lose speed at 1080p because it can only do 60fps. So it all depends on what type of footage you want and what you want to get out of it after editing it. The faster frame rate smooths out some of the bumpyness as well.

To sum it all up black has 4k, 2.7k. and everything lower the Silver has 1080p at the same speed as the black and the white (lowest) has it 1 level lower. If your going to spend the money black is what you want. 3+ or 4 however if you want 4k then take a snapshot of the video to get a nice picture it looks way better that way the hero 4 is the way to go. If you just do 1080p then 3 is fine. You can always downconvert 4k footage to 1080p and it looks better so it depends on what you want. 4k adds so much detail when you have a moniter or tv that can see it. Even a 1080p moniter you can see more detail.