November 2012

Here’s my top to underwater GoPro tips:

1. Get a flat lens (Hero 1-2) – you’ll need an aftermarket flat lens to use the GoPro standard housing underwater. They all work pretty well, though watch out for vignetting (blacked out) corners. Alternatively get the GoPro Dive Housing. Note that the newer Hero3 standard housing is good to go out of the box.
2. Secure it – tether your GoPro underwater; the standard mounting system is pretty good, though has been known to fail unexpectedly.
3. Turn off the LCD – turn off the LCD BacPac when you don’t need it, it sucks the life out of the battery.
4. Get close – you’ve heard it before, get close to your subject, then get closer.
5. Stabilise Yourself – save the roller coaster rides for the theme park, stabilise yourself and trim your buoyancy before shooting video.
6. Avoid Exposure Shifts – the GoPro doesn’t handle big shifts in exposure; lights and darks don’t get along so well, so try and avoid this.
7. Feed it light – without enough light the Hero dies (just joking, it just struggles with exposure). Feed it rich light, and it’ll return nice saturated colour. Use wide angle video lights or stick to kiddy pool depths.
8. Use filters wisely – filters can make or break you, so use the right type of filter for your colour water and stick to the shallows.
9. Point of View – use them for what they’re designed for; capture the world from a point of view – it needn’t be your own.
10. Hog the glory – edit your video so that is tells a story, and share it with the world, or at least your friends on Vimeo.com.