**** Deep BBQ Expert

Four-Star BBQ Expert certification.

Our brand new diving special of the year! Get it while it's still hot. Perfect for those four-star-instructors that already achieved almost anything you need to pay for.

More Hero Juice...

The GoPro HD Hero 3 series cams are performing excellent in many aspects, except battery lifetime. At least for surface use I've come across something that helps in those cases where you drained all your spare Hero batteries and still want to shot more footage: a comparably small USB battery tank with quite some capacity. It is perfect to give your GoPro HD Heros some more juice, as well as to your mobile phone.

Impressions: TheDiveO 50+ FFM Dives

New pictures of me diving the Dräger Panorama Nova Dive full face mask ... I've now dived the Dräger in 50+ dives in open water, without even the slightest problem. I'm glad, I've purchased this full face mask, as it is a professional and rock-solid mask.

A Crabby Motel: Sundhäuser See and Möwensee

The plashy weather left room for improvement, yet our dive trip to the southern foothills of Harz was worth it. The two lakes Sundhäuser See and Möwensee are pleasant to dive, it's easy going in comparably clean waters. This year we had an incredible amount of tiny young crabs floating in the waters, looking like «snow» in the video footage. The perches were rather bored these days, hang around everywhere and sometimes even remotely glad for some fun they had with us divers ... but then it became booooring again fast.

Fly & Dive: Echinger Weiher

A Phantom in the air.
Mysterious bubble circles.
Psychodelic lights.
The Holledau below the water surface.
The Bavarian Cenotes.

And all this in a single small waterhole: Echinger Weiher. As always: enjoy the film!

Transporting a Phantom

Albeit the DJI Phantom quadcopter is light and small in size, you always need to carry additional things you'll need, such as the transmitter, battery packs, et cetera. In order to have all things ready that one may need on a trip I went for a transport case. Luckily, Globe Flight sells a suitable one, albeit it needs some DIY work.

It Only Happens to Me: Computer Communication Problems

Every electronic nowadays seem to come with USB connectivity. So the DJI Phantom quadcopter doesn't want to be the only exception. Using a USB cable you can update the quadcopter's firmware and tune several parameters of it's flight control unit. Easy, just install the driver software as well as the Naza-M assistent software (grrrr, Windows only). According to the manual, I powered up the Phantom, then connected the USB cable that came with the Phantom to my computer. Beep, beep, Windows recognizes the new USB device ... so I'm starting the assistent software ... and then nothing happens...

Above the Waters ... Done Right: Fly & Dive

Roughly two years ago I rather accidentally stumbled into filming and filming under water in particular. I have to admit that I've been hit hard again ... after seeing the Ready-to-Fly Quadcopter Phantom by DJI Innovations. I immediately knew: my GoPro HD Hero 3 has to go into thin air! I want to film diving spots not only from below but also from above! And those reports were just fueling my idea as they painted a realistic, yet highly addictive image of the Phantom system by DJI Innovations.

Sunny Moments in Lake Blindsee

Our day trip to Blindsee (roughly 1100m above sea level, near Lermoos in Tyrol/Austria) was worth the effort: two peaceful dives in a meager, yet very beautiful underwater landscape. Featuring a pikepearch clearly demonstrating against fotographic lenses and tenches chilling in sun light. Enjoy the scenery!

NOx Expert

This card makes every gas blender envious!

Some aspirants of higher diving education may sometimes miss the beauty of nature. Don't be afraid any longer, just book this specialty: it ensures unparalleled pleasure, just show the examiner how to properly take a break. Examinations were never a breeze like this before!


PS: Many thanks again to Axel Eisele who pressed the shutter at the right time and from the right angle while I was taking a small break in lake Blindsee (T/A).

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.