GoPro cameras and Underwater Perspective

I’ve owned and used a lot of cameras over many years. Big-ones, little-ones, medium-sized ones. Cameras have always intrigued, excited and empowered me. And for a long time it was size and scale that drove those emotions. Bigger, more complex, more expensive was equated to greater creative possibilities. But a few weeks ago (rather late to the party) I purchased a GoPro and I can honestly say that I haven’t been this excited about a camera in a long time. It’s small, simple and cheap but what it embodies - that far outweighs its image fidelity shortcomings - is Possibility.

As soon as you hold this tiny camera no bigger than 2 match-boxes and gather the assortment of suction cups, clamps and mounts that accompany it, your mind immediately spills into a landscape of image potential. Strange, wondrous, absurd places you could stick it… Creative, dynamic, kinetic perspectives it might capture. All the the DSLR’s F3’s and RED’s in the world will, of themselves, prompt your creative imagination no further than how sharply you can rack-focus and how pixel-dense your image can be. But pick up a GoPro and you immediately stop thinking about framing and focus, and instead start imagining in terms of Space, Motion and Perspective. Hence I feel compelled to suggest that the most ‘cinematic’ camera released in the past few years is NOT an F3, or a 5D, its not a RED Epic or an Alexa, It’s the GoPro. The word Cinema derives from Kine meaning motion. The GoPro is the one camera I have picked up in many years that immediately makes me want to Move and to think in Kinetic dynamics.

It’s also a great camera to document a scuba dive. Its not the best underwater camera owing to a curved housing lens (flat works better to account for light refraction in water) But, its the perfect, hassle-free way to document a dive. I just strap it to my wrist, press record on the surface and capture the entire dive in one long take. 

This dive was at Shelly Beach, Manly - a location right round the headland from Sydney Harbour. Not many places can boast such great diving right within a major city metropolis . Wobegong sharks, eastern blue Gropers, giant Cutlefish, Stingrays and a back flipping Numbfish. A great dive with Dive Centre Manly divesydney.com. 

Comments

[Hellen | National Labor Relation Act]

That kind of camera really worked it out underwater, and look at it, it also show clear images, I think I gotta start owning one also.