kittycat1

Does anyone have one (a gopro) and if so what do you think of them? I've heard mixed reviews? Ta

KC

OriginalSunshine

They are good

but battery life is shite

and husband keeps flooding the underwater casing (and the go pro)

MAV_DXB

I bought the other half one earlier this year; we've used it at Snoopy Island and just recently in St. Lucia (both times diving/snorkling) - no problems with the picture quality and so far no problems with any leakage into the casing.

As above, just remember to charge each night before using the next day, maybe have a spare battery to hand.

norsk

Like the others already said battery life is a massive issue. The original batteries are expensive, and it doesn't come with a wall-charger of any sort which means you can only charge through the camera. Stupid really, but fortunately you can get a bundle with two batteries, car-charger and dual battery wall-charger from Wasabi Power. Check out amazon...

fezzer

Agree with the above about battery life. Saying that the photos and videos you can get out of it are remarkable considering its size. You're stuck with a wide angle lens, but that helps when you don't have a screen on the back to guide it.

OriginalSunshine

you can buy screens for the back... but they eat the battery power further

norsk

If you hook it up to your phone using the free app you have full control of what is being filmed in addition to tweaking settings. I spent a couple of weeks on safari this summer with gopro mounted on the car and without the app it would have been a lot more difficult..

Millhouse

If you are just taking a few snaps underwater then a go-pro is an expensive solution. I have a kodak playsport (450dh) which is fantastic. If only you could still buy it... canon make something similar - it looks like a mobile phone.

Or you can get a plastic bag thing for the iphone.

kungpowdow

It is absolutely brilliant for diving. No competition.

You'll need to buy additional batteries and a colour correction filter to get the most out of it but both are reasonably priced and can be found locally.

Wouldn't bother having one for above the surface though or if I was mainly going to be taking stills.

kungpowdow

May I ask how...?!

The housing is designed very well and almost impossible to open accidentally...!

OriginalSunshine

My husband takes it wreck diving down to 60+m (Prince of Wales, Truk lagoon, that kind of thing). Apparently something to do with the base & clips of the housing being white, same as his connections, or something.... anyway, he's a 'tard, but I love him.

Venezuelan007

I think the review was on the GOPRO, not on your husband

TheShed

i originally looked at GoPro as I wanted a camera for mountain biking and diving but rejected GoPro due to the pathetic battery life. Finally plumped for the Drift Ghost HD. Comparable in most ways to a Go Pro silver (Drift does not have 4k) but the battery is 3hours+ and I purchased a separate battery/wall charger so its always ready to go.

Just my opinion.

andydives

I run a gopro 3+ in its HD video mode when I go diving and it's great. Mind you, I do not run the back screen (which does tend to gobble the battery life) so I am very glad of the wide(r) lens. I must get the underwater filter for mine as the videos tend to be a bit on the green side around Muscat.

The Daminiyat Islands videos were more shades of blue. . .

I've tried both the wrist casing and the chest-mount casing and I have never yet had a problem with either leaking (the gopro cases are certified to 30m from memory).

With freely available software, good stills can be extracted from any of the multiple gigabyte-sized video files on the mini-card later on and they can be easily transferred to a computer.

But battery life does me well enough for two dives (total of maybe 1h to 1h 20m at the moment). I can do a re-charge on the boat if needed. The USB connector can be connected to any suitable (0.5A, 5V) supply. The surface pictures / videos the camera produces are great.

I think the problem with changing batteries in mid-stream is that you tend to lose all your software settings like date / time, picture orientation, etc.

So far, I am very pleased indeed with mine.

Hope that helps.

Andy

scrubbedexpat141

I bought my sister one for diving in Barbados. She's never mentioned the battery life and loves it, uses a red filter or soemthing to make it not all blue or green (again, or something?).

Pics and footage look mega.