GoPro HD Underwater Blurry Fix

pm me your address and its in the mail

Nice work team!!

Of course TinMan...once your prototype is a huge success...which it will be...you will offer it to the members of this forum first before selling your idea to GoPro and retiring somewhere in the tropics....well somewhere more tropic than Louisiana, right?

shawno

Just to kick these around for feedback, I have two approaches that I want to play with.

The first approach is straight forward, and one that I am relatively confident that I can do. This would involve replacing the thin black ring with a thicker one. One set of screws would hold the new black ring in place over the existing lense, just as the thinner ring does now. Once installed, this ring would stay in place. A clear polycarbonate lense (flat plate, actually) would attach with a second set of screws. This would provide an easily replaceable lense if it becomes scratched, but the 6 or 8 small screws would be a bit of a PITA if you wanted to take it on and off frequently when using the housing in or out of the water.

The second, and I think more elegant approach, is one that I don't yet know if I can do. It starts off the same, by replacing the existing thin black ring with a thicker one. Only in this case, the outside of the new black ring is threaded. A threaded cap containing the new lense and an o-ring seal would screw on to the OD of the new ring, just like the front of a waterproof flashlight. I like this, because it would be easy to remove the lense, without tools, any time you wanted to use the housing out of the water. And the "dryness" of the design has been proven in countless flashlights. It just remains to be seen if I can do the threads, and whether the whole assembly would stick out far enough to intrude into the picture frame.

Roll 'em around in your head, and look for flaws in either approach before I go forward.

With the first alternative are you confident you can get the screw pattern in just the right place to match the housing screw holes?

Quote from Dan

With the first alternative are you confident you can get the screw pattern in just the right place to match the housing screw holes?

Yes. My milling machine lets me control things in the X and Y directions with very good accuracy.

Jeff, I think the second approach would be very nice, but is more than needed...the first idea is not too big of a deal, they would not need to be swapped very often.

do you need me to send the camera with it for you too see if it works?

The second option does sound really good, but at the same time we don't want to put you out. It may turn out to be too difficult to do. Is polycarbonate brittle to work with? Would you make the new ring out of nylon or some other type of material? If you accidentally cross-threaded option 2 you could end up with problems potentially, like water inside the housing. If you feel confident in option 1, I believe you should explore that first. I'm sure all of us would be happy with either one.

Thanks again for looking into this....

greekdiver/seaweed--
1. After yesterdays GoPro "sea trial", are you happy with the results for your GoPro "fix" ?

2. How do you suggest the rest of us fix the blurry problem WITHOUT buying a second housing to cut up?
thanks

I see another Tin Man gear purchase in my near future :thumbsup2:

I spoke with Greekdiver today and he said that with the fix the video quality is good. Like everyone I'm waiting to see the actual vid, but knowing Harry's experience with making underwater video I trust the quality is at minimum acceptable for our purposes.

If anyone has been considering buying a Gopro HD video camera like the one discussed here you may want to hold off a little. I think I'm going to carry them in the store and offer a better deal.

Tin Man, the pressure is on now

Dan---PM sent.
Am I first in line?

Tin Man--as before with all my other Tin Man purchases, just let me know WHEN your the GoPro fix attachment can be bought and how much to send.:yay:

Yes you are.

So the general consensus seems to be that the extra lense can be a "semi-permanent" installation? By that, I mean it can be attached with a number of small screws like the existing black ring. Just not the kind of thing you want to remove and replace frequently, lest the screws get lost, or the tapped holes stripped, etc.

yes sir..Iin fact, i believe this fix will make the camera MORE useful for the average person..I was discussing the camera with my girl and she was saying I cant sll my old digital 8 camcorder because, in her words" who wants to see a birthday party in fisheye?"

this will reduce the fishy -ness:) and make it a more general population camera

I don't intend to modify any of the existing housing parts, so the owner would always have the option of putting things back to "stock". I was planning to make a new ring.

Quote from greekdiver

from the gopro forum

I've heard on the ""grapevine"" there is a new oversize black ring under development that has a screw on flat lens with O ring seal.

The current black ring is very brittle, so if you are thinking of modifying it be careful, especially when tightening the screws.

I'm a little slow. Did you mean that someone else had the same thought, or that they saw this thread?

they said that before I bought it...I got a generic email saying they were "looking into it"

I was thinking of removing the current housing lens which is actually glass. Using a spacer ring to mount a flat lens just in front of the cameral lens. So it would go like this. Seal-spacer-seal-flat port. All screwed onto the housing using longer screws.

I also have another potential fix which does not require housing mods. We'll see...

I think there are probably several similar approaches that could work. One concern is that the inner diameter of the spacer will, at some point, be visible in the picture. But I don't know at what length, or at what ID, that would happen.

In considering the "screwed on cap" idea, I also go to worrying about the six tiny screws that hold the ring (or would hold the threaded extension) in place. If someone got over zealous, they might just twist the whole thing off the front of the housing.

Very curious to hear your "no housing mod" idea . . .

I ordered a few HD Hero naked cameras. I should have them available for sale in about two weeks.