Yeah only what's inside the sealed new lens.
Posts by Rambo
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If you paint everything inside the new lens housing matte black the reflections will disappear.
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That's probably vignetting from the flat lens not being wide enough, you need at least 45mm diameter 2mm from the camera lens for it not to do so. Plus, I've found the entire area of the case enclosed by the new lens needs painting matte black to stop reflections.
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No banannas won't work.. haha.
The apple tip posted above will eventually wash off same as all other solutions.
Just wipe the pulp on the bubble for a bout 20 secs then rinse off.
For Pro work i use a spinning clear disc attachment in front of the lens like they have on ships at sea, it disperses any water hitting the disc.
The camera shoots thru only a small part of the disc near the edge.
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Try cut an apple in half and apply the pulp to the lens the rinse off, free, works as good as RainX and you get to eat the apple.
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Tinman, it was suggested on another forum to use bonding bead instead of O rings. A silicon type sealer or mastic but don't compress all the surfaces too close together, leave a gap with the bead. This will eliminate the fixings (screws) and still be removable with knife or wire.
Rambo
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Two o rings is a fair bit to compress and hold, although they are small thickness
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Rambo wants to use this camera in poor vis water and relatively deep. I dont think the camera will do well without light. In south Florida, the water is clear so plenty of light can travel deep. Gopro will not have issues with this.
No my use is only down to 10ft and i will be shooting looking up or upwards on an angle and need room in the sealed area to place polarized filter gel.
Apart from the shallow screw depth, the existing black plastic GoPro ring is very brittle. If you over tighten the screws it cracks. What limits development of the existing housing is the distance between the screws, they need to be in a larger diameter circular formation as to allow larger diameter lens.
What GoPro would be better off doing is using a 90 degree internal lens on the camera itself instead of the extreme wide angle, that would fix the edge sharpness issue as well. It is possible to change the existing lens and replace as they are only screw in, but they soft glue the thread to lock focus at the factory. The lens is a common "board" mount used on many cameras including security cams and bullet cams size 12 mm diameter x 0.5 mm pitch.
R
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Tinman,nice job on the mod but i'm almost certain you are going to need to progress to the larger ring version. As it is now you will definitely have vignetting in 720p and probably some in 1080, and that's allowing for the fact the original bubble lens (which you have removed) also has a magnifying function to extend the FOV. It's a pity you did not have a camera to test with as you have put a lot of time into developing it. (just to explain further - by removing the bubble lens the width of FOV is now 170 degrees, with the bubble intact the view is 160 degrees - due to the magnifying effect of the bubble lens.
Also probably best to have the backup of the original bubble in place as security for leakage.
To avoid vignetting i needed to use a 50mm o ring, but this was including the extra depth allowing for clearance of the bubble lens.
The official Gopro prototype includes a completely new redesigned housing (it's in pre production right now) but even the 2nd in charge of Gopro has not seen it yet.
Is this camera really suitable for deeper water with low lighting, the shutter speed drops very low to compensate for exposure when lighting is poor. Some of the new Panasonic and Cannon point and shoots are now excellent in low light (big sensors) and under $350 + housing?
R
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Yes the proof is in the video result. It could be sharper with a diopter but but then you also lose more light. If anyone needs any sharper than this then the Gopro is not the right tool for the job.
A newer video i shot in sunlight gives much more detail and color, obviously at a certain depth artificial lighting will be required. I only need to go to 10ft down so is ok for me.
There is a whole thread on this topic and general Gopro discussion on my forum.
http://goprouser.freeforums.orgR
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I'm putting together a parts list and tutorial. plus there is a few small mods to the original that has to be done to stop reflections from inside out, an anti fogging washer shaped pad, stops to prevent the top lens from over crushing the o ring when tightend and also popping the ring inwards under pressure, and black out to stop diffused light hitting the edges of the Plexiglass and causing a soft glow in the picture.
There is also provision for filters and polarizer. internal and external.
I built this for a specific purpose to mount on a counterbalanced pan and tilt 12ft pole with LCD screen at the operators end. The AV out is sent to the LCD via a small RF transmitter either inside the Gopro housing and another version has RF in a removable sealed bulge directly opposite the AV socket.
All is waterproof.
The bond is IPS weld-on #16 solvent based
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It's a good fix and another example that shows the concept is solid, thanks for posting Rambo. But those two pieces of Plexiglas seem bigger than the whole case itself. Kinda defeats the purpose of having such a small camera. I'm betting Tin Man can come up with something better :gotm:
See, I found your smiley
Actually it looks bigger than what it really is.
There's a very good reason for the thickness and size that anyone making this style of fix will discover, since you didn't ask, i won't tell.
Yes the bonding was done with a solvent weld.
Cheers Rambo
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This might help some of you with the underwater blurry problem with the Gopro. This was constructed 2 weeks ago and has no vignetting in 720 R3 mode (the widest) I don't believe you can replace the bubble lens with a flat and have no vignetting, that's why my version is case modified.
There have been a few extra mos since this version. Details soon.
GoPro have a fix in production so some of you might want to wait for the official version (I've been involved with Gopro since 2006 and know the CEO personally so the info is correct)
I will be posting full construction details soon.
Video from the flat lens in R3 Mode As you can see very sharp.
>No Vignetting in ANY mode including 720p.
>Removable front plate to access bubble lens and change if desired.
>Very lightweight.
>Filter gel can be placed internal between the black seal which also retains it.
>Room for a circular washer shaped antifog pad internally if required.
>Replaceable front flat port if scratched.
>Proven design concept i.e. other deep water camera housings are made like this.
>Gopro housing remains fully sealed.
>Front flat lens can be removed rendering GoPro as original for land based shots. -
Don't dive alot but i do do underwater videos and construct camera gear.
I just posted a Gopro mod here
