Go Pro Flat Port Underwater Housing
Crystal clear underwater images with housing for the Go Pro HD Hero 2
Please Note: Review Article Dated 2012 but left here for Archives!
This review and article was written in 2012 but it stays on the site for historical reference. You should know by now that there are many amazing action cameras available that blow this set up out of the water (pun intended).
Picture courtesy of CarolinaDoug over at Flickr
Ok, I admit it, I am a huge fan of the Go Pro cameras and this new Go Pro flat port housing makes all the difference!
Maybe this comes from my crazy days of extreme sports (motocross, skydiving, skiing etc). A time when there was nothing to record your adventures with. Well, nothing other than strapping an SLR or video camera (or both) to your head and jumping out of a plane.
Yes, that’s what you used to do back in the day. In fact they still do. That is a fairly recent Canon DSLR and see the shutter release in his mouth?)!
Canon: What a Rebel!
Note: Whilst we are on the subject, check out this article. It is where a Canon EOS Rebel XT survived a 3000 foot fall after a skydivers' helmet comes off. Now, with the tiny Go Pro cameras, they can be attached just about anywhere. This makes for some amazing POV (point of view) footage and stills. All without breaking your neck!
It's great for all sports "above" water such as the afore-mentioned sports from my heyday as well as just about anything else you can think of. However, take it underwater? No chance!
The housing just can't cope with the diffraction and distortion with its supplied housing so you get really poor, blurry images. What a shame! This camera would be perfect for snorkelers, scuba divers, surfers, "shark watchers" etc. (Yes, I have seen Go Pros attached to the dorsal fin of a Tiger Shark).
However...
I recently (2012) came across a company selling modified housings. Ones that included a flat port front cover for the lens. After carefully reviewing the product and watching various videos, I bought one from a company in the States (details below).
When it arrived, the first thing I did was to fill it with tissue paper, close it up and submerge it for a while to check its sealing…all was well. Next, I put my Go Pro HD Hero 2 in there and made some basic tests and compared it to previous footage I had taken a few months ago.
Wow, what a difference!
You can see the difference in a video below but please be aware. The camera in the original housing is the Go Pro HD Hero 1 and the camera in the flat port housing is the Go Pro HD Hero 2. Now both cameras are very sharp and film well at 1080p above water. However, take my work for it when I say that even the Go Pro HD Hero 2 looked very poor underwater with the supplied housing.
For this video, I simply held both cameras in my hand and shoved them in our (rather unkempt) pond. After that, into the kid's bath using their toys as models (and a conditioner bottle for the lettering detail).
Best watched at 720p on a large player and I hope you see the difference. The footage when seen at full resolution on my screen at home is amazing and I would heartily recommend getting one of these housings for your Go Pro HD Hero 1 or 2 as it makes a world of difference.
Click to play