Testing the Gopro HD hero with 3 retail underwater focus fixes, using all modes r1-r5 and photo in NTSC mode.
Standard housing, Oculus R5, Eye of Mine and a SRP Blurfix with and without a URpro CY filter.
Filmed at Rye pier at 5.1m 16.7ft depth, visibility between 5-10m, water temp 9c on a sunny winters day at Rye pier in Melbourne.
Videos untouched and left at the resolution they where filmed at, the red filter videos have had a simple eye dropper auto white balance adjustment to reduce the red tint due to the shallow depth.
My conclusions from this test the standard GoPro housing is no good under water as its very blurry.
The oculus R5 (very similar to other drop in type fixes like the mako, goforfocus etc) is best used in r5 mode as all other modes have vignetting on the edge of frame. Maybe would have been better if I used a non black background to show this better. It can be seen easier in the 4 window shots how much of the frame is lost compared to the other fixes.
The Eye of mine is good in all modes other then r4 and photo where it has some vignetting. Main disadvantage is the fixed plastic design which can be scratched and not easily repaired also very hard to clean the inside of the housing due to the undercut with only a small opening. There's no easy way of installing filters to this housing either.
The SRP blurfix is also vignette free in all modes other then r4 and photo similar to the EOM housing, with just a fraction less as the EOM has a slight white ring before the black vignette in those modes. Glass screw in filter design makes for easier cleaning and replacement if needed and as can be seen the URpro filter does produce much better colours underwater and its just a simple screw in install with this fix.
Link to Snake River Prototyping website makers of the BlurFix
http://snakeriverprototyping.com/index.html
