Meadow Hot Springs and the GoPro Hero 2 Underwater Test
For many years I've been visiting the Meadow Hot Springs located just outside of Meadow Utah. The warm, beautiful, sulfur free springs have always been an enjoyment of mine. I've always wanted to take an underwater camera and really capture some of the beauty of the spring.
Now I'm not a scuba diver (need to work on that) and was trying to find a relatively cheap and reliant system for filming some footage underwater. I'd heard of GoPro, but didn't really know anything about it. Then I went to the Holi Festival of Colors to do some photography and I think every one there had a GoPro. So I started thinking about it, what makes this camera so special. Why does everyone have one.
Next day I'm in Best Buy and I see the GoPro shelf, fully stocked with the new Hero 2. I read the box, looked at the camera, studied the accessories and thought hey this camera might be worth a look at filming in Meadow. So on a whim I purchased two cameras, and headed down to Meadow on a lovely Sunday Morning.
We spent the day filming the spring, not really knowing what to expect. I didn't know anything about filming underwater, or the GoPro. I spent about 3 hours filming different angles, outside the spring, inside the spring. The coolest idea I had was the lower the camera down on a rope to film the bottom. And we had some willing free divers to help take photos from below the surface.
Everything seemed pretty sweet, till I got home. I uploaded the footage onto my laptop and started gazing. And they were all out of focus. What? Did I have an option turned off on the camera? Did I not see the focus dial? What is going on.
After a little research I found out that GoPro Here 2 has a small glitch. It can't film underwater. Ohhh, it's waterproof. But it can't film underwater. Because in the external protective housing there is a small gap between the lens of the camera and the housing lens, and this causing the focal point to change when underwater. Thus, your image is slightly out of focus.
Well dang (I said a lot more than that). What do I do.
Here is the video I took with housing that comes standard with the Hero 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc0ufhB94R8
So, I started looking around and found a company that makes an after market housing that is Scuba certified to 200' for one hour. So I picked up two of them and headed back down the next weekend.
www.eyeofmine.com
They sells all sorts of accessories and gadgets for the GoPro. Check it out.
So the next trip we actually spent three days at Meadow. I did a lot of filming. And in the process learned a lot about what works and what doesn't. It wasn't until the end of the shoot that I finally figured out something that would help with the footage very much. It was just a last minute idea and it worked great. Can't wait to go back and try it again.
So here is the second video I made, using the after market housing from Eye of Mine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn15Ti010iI
Looking forward to the next trip. I think this time we will bring some scuba divers. Should be fun.
Robert
