| GoPro HD Camera |
Spent about $500 and you'll get a suberb camera that takes both stills and video!
I bought this little video camera to be used as a special purpose camera for the Diver Below TV series. Basically, if you want a separate little video camera that shoots HD, wide angle lens, has full sound, fits easily into a bc pocket, and is less than $250 it's a winner.
Take a look at the Gopro websiteatch to see what others have done with it. This camera has been used by Discovery and ESPN productions.
BUT...... theres a catch to using it underwater. Read on.
1. Underwater focus is the issue: The GoPro HD cameras come with a housing. It does not work very well underwater, even though it will go very deep. The problem is that it has a continuous soft focus because it wasn't designed for u/w use. This video will domonstrate the soft focus issue.
2. The easy solution: You can buy another underwater housing that's corrected for sharp focus for about $80. This way you have two housings, one for kayaking, bike riding, and whatever above water activity you want to use the camera for, and a separate one for underwater.
The original housing that comes with the camera is on the left, the undeerwater one is on the right .Notice that the only difference is the flat lens that optically corrects everything. You can even use it above water.
I got mine from this company and they sent it right away.
3. Get the GoPro HD on Ebay?? I did. You can get some very good prices on Ebay. Make sure that you get the HD version, not the SD one. I bought the helmet mount package as it contains a strap head mount, more clips, etc. that you can use to mount it different way.
4. The neatest thing about this camera is that you are getting a full HD 1080 video camera (that can also takes stills) for far below what you'd have to pay for a separate HD video camera and then have to buy a housing. You also don't have to convert the video to lay it on your computer or to download it to Facebook, etc.
5. The not so good thing is that there's no LCD back on it. This is not a huge problem cause' the lens is very wide. You just have to get used to pushing the record button and then tilting it so you can see if it's blinking. And..you get to see what you look like every time you go into record.
APR 2011 UPATE: There is now and I just got mine. It's great and cost me about $80. When you buy the lcd back you also get 4 rear housing covers. Two for above water, and two for underwater use depending upon which camera you buy.
I have to admit that this is a super improvement! This is what it looks like in the uw housing. I haven't taken it out yet bu that back lcd is gonna be great.
Here's a couple of demo videos that I did when I got the camera.
This was taken in very low light conditions. This is the first of 2 videos.
This video will show some of the diversity of the camera, and what a color correction filter will do.