gopro hero low light help

    Took out my gopro hero for the first time in the water. I was wondering what others do in low light conditions? leave it at home:rolleyes1: Would up grading to the Hero3 black make a big improvement? If a light is my only option is their a head mount one that works best? Id like to stay away from strapping any thing else to my head so a light is at the bottom of my list even though I'm sure its what is needed.

    It was over cast this day and Id say more common than not as far as the conditions I have to video/dive in. the Rock fish video was in about 40' all videos this day over 50' were unusable because of low light and murky water that moved in later with the tied.


    rockfishheadshot_zpsb510d82f.mp4 Video by Marvin_Mccloud | Photobucket

    That was a rad video, personally I like it the way it is. You can see if you had gone 20 feet deeper the gopro would of gone dark, though. I don't see how a light would help the video because a light is a pretty narrow beam and you need just everything to be brighter. Hopefully someone with some gopro know-how will chime in, I think I remember hearing about how to effectively use gopros in lower light conditions.
    On another note way to go diving deeper than 40 feet up there, seems like most videos you see of people in the pacific northwest are waddling around in tidepools shooting fish at 6 feet

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

    I'm not %100 sure about this but I remember my vids not looking so good on Photobucket, try Youtube.


    The Hero3 marketing says that it's better in low light conditions than the Hero2, but I can't confirm this. How about brightening it up some with a video editing program. A magenta filter will help with the green tone Snap-on Filters For GoPro Dive Housing


    Sorry I should have said in my original post that I did touch up the brightness a bit with windows live movie maker but I haven't used the program much so I'm not really sure how much better I could get it. Ill work at that.


    I like the filter but I don't know that it will work on the one I have. I believe my gopro is the old model, it has the round lens port.

    If its sunny again tomorrow ill try again and see how it dose on our "nice" days. I also did more reading on the gopro sit and I'm thinking an upgrade might have to be in my future.

    Did you switch out the curved original lens with a flat lens like this one?



    If not, you need a Hero2 dive housing, it will greatly improve your underwater video quality. When used with the original housing (curved lens) the camera can't focus underwater and video comes out blurry. You must have a flat lens.


    :laughing: thanks Dan! No I have not and that explains some issues I had when playing around with it in the shallows. Every thing I was trying to film was out of focus but the background would look nice. Ill give that a try and the red filter.

    Has any one used both the hd hero and the hero3 in the water? I'm wondering after seeing some videos comparing the two in low light on land if I shouldn't just upgrade to the hero3 before putting another $80-90 in to the one I have. I know upgrading won't solve the problem but will it help much?


    I have a large dive light that ill mess around with to see how the video looks before I buy a small head mounted one.
    Thanks every one for the help.

    You might need a lot more light than you would prefer to carry around in order to make the video better with the original Hero. This is a screen grab from a video I took using the original Hero. The video was recorded during the day, but it was pitch black 20ft down and a Princeton-tec LED light only illuminated a sliver of what you would want to see.



    I'm still waiting for similar conditions to develop again so I can dive the same spot and compare footage from my Hero3. So far, I think the 3's performance is much better overall.

    I was thinking the same as what Sam posted. Any light that would make a difference would have too narrow a beam for a spearfishing application. Unless you were doing some "macro" shooting. Besides, carrying a light on top of everything else would take the fun out of the dive I think.


    With the one day old price drop on the hero3 GoPro HERO3 Black Edition - $329.99 it's a great time to upgrade and save some cash. But it may also be a good time to wait as something new from Gopro could be around the corner, for which you'll probably pay the non discounted price but get more value.

    Thanks Sam that's what I wanted to see with my light and it looks like the videos would have come out looking like an old horror movie. It look as if the light would also make the camera adjust to the brightness of the beam and make every thing out side of it even darker.


    I agree Dan to much gear dose take the fun out of it. That's the main reason I haven't scuba dived in 4-5 years. You've also given me a tuff choice! The possibility of a new gopro (hero4?)for some reason hadn't crossed my mind. So do I jump on the good deal now or hold out a the winter to see what better unit might come out. I really hate electronics some times!!!

    Quote from Dan

    I know what you mean about the non stop upgrades. But it's not a bad thing, in the case of the hero3 over a hero2 for example the added value is well worth it.


    hopefully the upgrade will be longer battery life. My Black burns through batteries pretty quickly, but man, it's better quality than my Hero HD.

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