Imitation GoPro Cameras from China. Any Good?

[JamesBon92007]

Thanks. There were 6 of us on that dive. I happened to be in the right spot, but everyone got good views of that ray. 4 people had cameras, but everyone was really good about not crowding too much. At the beginning of the video, everyone else was out-of-frame above me or to the right. When the ray swam a bit and started feeding again, the other folks were to my left.

The image stabilization built into the camera.

I find that the 2K videos look better than 4K, perhaps that's related to the stabilization (or crappy up-sampling in software).


I've got a DIY tray with an Orcatorch D810v light (supposedly 1000 lumens, very wide & even beam). Beyond about 1m, the light doesn't seem to make much difference.

No color filters on the camera or light, but I was using the electronic "underwater" mode.

My SJ7000 doesn't have an "underwater" mode but I've played around with "cloudy" and that seems to help.

My video light is a "Shoot" 3 LED generic Chinese product (keeping with the theme) and the reason I asked is because it's only rated at 300 lumen and judging from your videos mine might be a little brighter. It didn't cost much. It is also only good for up to one meter. The battery supposedly lasts for about 1 1/2 hours on High and 6 hours on Low. Low would probably be adequate for a secondary night dive light. It snaps right onto the bottom of the housing and I've used it on about 10 dives, down to about 85 feet. The only problem I've had is the "On" button was a bit stiff when new and I think I accidentally had it on Low instead of High for some shots. I'll start paying more attention

 

[JamesBon92007]

Thanks. There were 6 of us on that dive. I happened to be in the right spot, but everyone got good views of that ray. 4 people had cameras, but everyone was really good about not crowding too much. .

Must have been the right 6 people. It seems like whenever I'm alone (or close to it) I get a lot closer and get much better shots. Usually I see the critters high-tailing it out of there if there is a group.

In any case, that was really very considerate of the eagle ray to swim right up to you and pose for you! Some of the best video I've seen of an eagle ray.

 

[Dave Grandy]

I bought one of the winait ones on dinodirect.com before the sj series took off ... I have had it 20 meters no issue... the housing seems to be a little more rugged than the sj series... my co workers were impressed enough that they are started ordering them... they ordered the sj series ones.. and I know of only one guy out of a dozen who cracked the mounting tabs on the housing when skiing... the video quality is really good on theirs and mine.... and for the price the biggest loss from flooding might be losing the files on it the micro sd card... The biggest reason to buy a go pro imo.. is the plethora of available accessories.... nobody can compete with them on that... I also have a sony HDR as 20... biggest draw back... lack of accessories available... this is what I use.. and until I can afford to make a serious jump in quality...or something fails... I'm happy with it.

 

[Katie L]

Anyone here who has a Xiaomi Yi 4K? There's such a huge market for the 3rd party cases. I'm wondering how reliable they are because they pretty much all seem the same. I get the impression that while the Yi 4K takes great video, it's not as rugged as a GoPro (the lens is exposed??)