GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition Equipment

After having collected some more experience with my two GoPro HD Hero Black Edition cams also under water, it think that it is time for a first summary. You could already read some early impressions in my blog articles about ice diving and my (self-ironic) disposition towards Herography. But what is now the state of affairs after a few dives?

Self-Reliant Photographer

Now this is safety...

How often you don't have a buddy ... a real one ... well, a buddy that actually can properly film and take pictures under water? If the other di(v)e instruction groups can, so can we at iSS! So here is our brand-new specialty: The Self-reliant Photographer.

Now as the old saying goes: a quiet conscience dives in thunder ... even if your «buddy» has not the slightest clue about filming and photographing. Now this is safe!

And if you get yourself that extra large mounting tray for your cameras, you are also good for that TXR card.

Ice Diving in Urisee, Reutte, Austria

After some beautiful ice diving, the GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition jury's in ... and the verdict is very positive. I'm positively impressed by the sensor performance of the Hero3 Black Edition even in difficult lighting situations. Such as diving under a thick layer of snow that cuts off much light. So read on and enjoy watching ice diving!

Ice Diving with Full Face Mask

Urisee (T/A)

Ice diving in Lake Urisee (near Reutte, Austria): snuggly packed we dived under ice ... that was more of a thick layer of snow than proper ice. One week ago, there was rain and later heavy snowing, so we ended up with this less-than-perfect situation.

But it was still a real pleasure, especially with my Dräger Panorama Nova Dive full face mask on the face, keeping the cold waters at bay. And the redundant reg system was also adding to the good feelin'. Of course, there is much more to safety than just the redundant full face mask regs.

Behind the Mask: Bilingual

The main translation work is done so that there's now yet another English blog with personal rumbling about full face masks, drill, and filming underwater with inappropriate camera equipment. You now have the incredible choice between me producing incomprehensible English or terrible German. After all, it was to be expected that this would happen...

Backup Your UW Video Footage On-The-Go

When I'm away for diving and filming there's a lot of raw video footage produced by m GoPro Hero cameras. So far, I had to carry a laptop with me just to pull the material from the SD cards onto a large capacity harddisk for backup. The laptop more or less acted as an oversized HDD cabinet. Not any more: just a tablet and a slightly more mobile HDD...

Update: I've since then upgraded to a dedicated SD memory card backup solution using a Sanho Hyperdrive Colorspace UDMA2. The other standard Wi-Fi mobile hard disk drive units can't offer any decent backup throughput, so I didn't really use my mobile HDD unit in the field.

Dive Vader's Mask Defogging Force

Imagine Dive Vader with a fogged visor? Not good at all.

Especially in case of the Dräger Panorama Nova Dive defogging plays a role as this mask does not have a special defogging gas flow. So you need some defogging agent. Of course, you can find many commercial products for fighting the fog. The slight problem: large amount of unknown and undeclared additives and lots of annoying scent. Think about all this concentrating in your longs over the time of a dive, such as one and a half hour. No, thanks.

Ironically, there is much fog when it comes to defogging agents. Luckily, it's really easy to avoid this situation if you know where to look for suitable agents...

Herography

Herography in perfection?

While one and the other diver turns away from his/her GoPro HD Hero or HD Hero 2 in total frustration, I probably need to be counted to those die-hards that stick to the style of (underwater) «Herography» ... much in the sense of Lomography.

Why else on earth should someone accept this discoloring feature of the HD Hero2 that has been sailing under the misnomer of «white balancing» after all? Why buying another Hero model after all the adventures in GoPro firmware regression land? Die hard? Unconvinceable? Is there something interessting with the new «HD Hero 3 Black Edition»? My first glimpse...

Impressions: The Triptych

(In Lake Steinberger See, BY/D)

The three shots combined in this triptych were taken by Peter von der Sitt and Marco Sattler from Sporttaucher Schwandorf during our New Year's Eve dive gathering at Steinberger See (BY/D). I then took some time to play around with the famous Gimp image tool in order to learn some new photo editing tricks. For instance, making silhouettes to separate image parts from the backdrop, blurring and adjusting the colors of the background, seamless blending, as well as some more small tricks.

Okay, psychologists (even those working in kitchens) may now analyze as they feel an urgent need. Yet the simple truth is: having extensensively come into contact with the museum landscape in Cologne (and they have a giant amount of middle age sacral art for sure) this is just a natural type of picture composition after all...

Impressions

Now that there are a few nice impressions about diving with full face masks are hidden inside my blog here it is: my highly subjective and not seriously meant «best of». As an additional bonus you get some background stories about how the shots were taken.

Enjoy!

And now for the impressions...

Xmas Specialty

Fishy Xmas.

Now that Christmas got rather wet I was in need of the proper specialty certification card in the true spirit of fishy Xmas. And in contrast to the media ignorants from C*M*A*S*H we here at PAYDI also have a proper, erm, «teaching» video. So enjoy audio-visual learning!

Xmas Specialty (watch on YouTube)

PS: Special thanks go to Adrian Uecker, the son of a very best friend of mine. He contributed this really beautiful and very appropriate work of art. When I saw it I knew immediately that my quest for a suitable motif had come to an end. It was completely clear what I had to put on that specialty card.

Tech Diver Specialty

Only for real Tekkis: the Tech Driver card.

For a long time I mulled over the question what all the tech divers actually do while they are on their long and deep dives. Just starring into a filthy nothing surely doesn't cut the mustard, right?!

Since this weekend I'm wiser: all those girls and boys just step into the waters, packed with their bottle collections, because they don't want to be seen totally immersed into playing with technical toys. So that's the reason for all those difficult to reach playing grounds!

No wonder that this specialty is met with so much broad interest. And all the dive organizations won't like to be late to this game... oh, does someone knows a lake with a bunch of Star Wars figurines and a Death Star, per chance??

Murner See UW Landscape and Life (Video)

Murner See UW Landscape and Life (watch on YouTube)

Full Face Mask Quick Removal

Source: German SCUBA diving magazine unterwasser 9/11, p. 98, story entitled «Vollgesichtsmasken [sic!] ‒ voll normal?» [«full face masks ‒ fully normal?», my translation].

In this blog article, I'm citing a checklist for full face masks from this story («Checkliste Vollgesichtsmaske» [sic!]), page 100, item #5, most important skills («5. Die wichtigsten Fähigkeiten»):

«Ablegen der Vollgesichtsmaske [sic!] im Panikmodus (geht ein einfaches Wegdrücken vom Gesicht oder muss man eine Vorrichtung (Bänder, Griffe etc) benutzen?»

[«removing the full face mask in panic mode (does a simple push-away from the face works or does one must use an apparatus (straps, handles etc)?», my humble translation, same errors as in German original]

Now, what is a «panic mode» in the context of handling a full face mask? Unfortunately, the magazine story from unterwasser never cares to explain this term. Maybe this «panic mode» is simply an awkward phrase coined by the story writer for an emergency situation under water? A situation which requires quick and straightforward reaction, but also advisedly handling? Where the equipment must not get into your way so you can safely mitigate the problem and situation?

In Good Sight the Mask Sight Is Top

What should I (as a SCUBA diver) think of test reports about full face masks in typical SCUBA diving magazines?

Source: test report «Ocean Reef im »Maskentest«» [«Ocean Reef in mask test»], published in SCUBA diving magazine tauchen 9/11, pp. 102:

«Bei guter Sicht, im klaren Wasser ist die Maske auch von der Sicht her top.»

[«In good sight, in clear water, the mask is also top when it comes to the sight.», my humble translation.]

No, I'm not making this up. Believe me.

Otherwise, this magazine test report lacks any rating with respect to the (Ocean Reefs) mask's performance under the usual bad sight conditions as found in our inshore cold and filthy lakes. Interestingly, the report really extensively describes the problem of distracting mask reflections under bad sighting conditions. Yet it avoids any performance remark like fleeing the devil. Thus, there is no concrete evaluation of the Ocean Reef full face mask in such bad sight conditions. I really read the test report many, many times; over and over again. But there's not even a single word about the Ocean Reef's mask performance.

To be fair, we should assume that the author of this test never had the chance to actually test this full face mask in real, open water conditions in a typical coldwater lake, such as Happurger Baggersee or Steinberger See. And thus the author simply cannot pen down and publish any real-world results in this respect.

Personally, I would like to vote for this test report to be awarded by tauchen itself this very year! Don't know the category, but I'm sure, tauchen could create a suitable new one, if necessary. After all, they are coming with all trades of award categories, so why not for the most, um, unordinary test report? So, where can I report this brilliant report for the Pulitzer?