Why Dual Heros?

Why, oh why, does one diver needs two GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition cameras? Well, just two things: 1. battery lifetime, 2. firmware.

A battery lifetime of at best one hour when using an activated LCD bacpac and a resolution of 2700×1520 pixels at 25 frames per second couldn't be worse. I really need to LCD in order to properly frame the scenes. So, dear GoPro, while you are boasting that the Hero 3 Black is not only 30% smaller than its Hero 2 predecessor, it also operates 30% less on a battery charge, when compared to the Hero 2. So why aren't you boasting these 30% less after all too, you really did a decent job in decreasing battery life?

Since my typical dives last around one and a half hour, a battery lasting only for one hour is ridiculous. Unfortunately, the battery bacpac is of no help as I need to LCD display for framing since I'm holding the cam in front of me and I'm not wearing it on my head, where framing doesn't matter.

In addition, GoPro's firmware also sometimes does its best to really annoy divers when it crashes while under water. In general, the situation has become better with the Hero 3 now, compared to the Hero 2, but there are still too many problems. Fortunately, at least microSD card problems typically don't crash the Hero 3 any more, most of the time.

By the way: the Duracell bunny didn't get back to our inquiries about bunny cells for the Hero 3. Last time we heard of him, he suffered water damage.

A microSD Hero? Transcend 32GB Class 10 microSD memory card

After my mixed experiences with microSD cards of type SanDisk Ultra microSD cards (to put it mildly as one never knows whether the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition will work or not with them) I am now trying Transcend microSD cards as an alternative. Transcend is claiming whooping 16MBit/s write performance ... yet another unsubstantiated claim?

Anti-Heros: SanDisk Ultra MicroSD cards

Until recently, I never really had to worry about the performance of memory cards when it came to using them for video. But the GoPro HD Hero 3 Black Edition now pushes memory cards rather hard and suddenly microSD card performance becomes of importance. Due to the higher HD resolutions, such as 2700×1520 at 25 frames per second and with Protune switched on, the Hero 3 Black Edition now blasts approximately 45 MBit per second towards these tiny memory cards. Albeit this is less than 6 MByte/s, we are talking about writing performance. GoPro requires microSD cards of «class 10» or (how it now also called) «U1». So, where's the problem, you say? There are so many cards available! Unfortunately, these card classifications are useless.

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??