Go Pro & SCUBA - Any advice?

Pacificstar

Hey everyone, any SCUBA divers out there? I'm diving the Great Barrier Reef in December and I want a camera to take with me. I think I've settled on the Go Pro Silver, and I'm hoping to get a good deal Black Friday style.

I'm looking for tips on things like:

1) Red Filters - do I need one?
2) Sounds like the way to go is to use a stick while diving. How hard is this, does it make it awkward getting in/out of the water (boat diving for the most part)?
3) Anything else I should know?

Skeith

A stick would make it awkward to get in or out, yeah, but you can always pass it to someone.

BitTWist

Just got back from Hawaii, and was using my Go Pro while diving reefs there.

1. You will definitely want a filter for color correction. I didn't have one available, and the colors are washed out a bit.
2. I let my Go Pro float free, and only activated it when i needed to shoot something. Next time I will get a head mount and let it run the whole dive, then edit later. Missed a couple shots waiting for activation.

Xaquin

I've never used an underwater camera, but having dove in the past, I'd imagine a head mount would be way easier than a stick.

mts

they have chestmounts and other stuff besides the the stick. if you plan ahead you could easily make something

dispatch.o

I'd hate to spend all my time trying to get the best camera shot and neglect to actually exist in the present and experience the thing.

Get a bodycam or headcam.

Pacificstar

dispatch.o wrote: »

I'd hate to spend all my time trying to get the best camera shot and neglect to actually exist in the present and experience the thing.

Get a bodycam or headcam.

So I'm back now- I went with the stick in the end. With regard to bodycam, I don't think it's a very good idea. If you're spending most of your time floating horizontally the camera will be facing down, even when you might have your head up. Something like this: _______|. I hear the head mounts are good and I might try one in the future. This time I didn't bring enough memory record all 23 (of possible 25) dives that I did over six days.

In the end I took video of things I found super interesting, and then used camera mode with the camera set to take a picture every 2 seconds. I just let it go, and then stopped to line up anything I found really interesting. I have a lot of pictures to go through now but I think I'll see if I can pay someone to tag all of the good pictures.

Thanks for all the responses!