From there, it’s all about power. If you decide on the floodlight, you can choose from three strength settings. For the spotlight, you’ve got the full power output of 800 lumens. And, thanks to strong batteries, with all that power you don’t have to worry about running out of juice. No matter what your output, the light is guaranteed to deliver at least 60 minutes of burn time. And when they do run out, the rechargeable batteries are quick to bounce back in only 170 minutes.

The Sea Dragon is also adaptable to other camera systems. Available on its own or with the Flex-Connect single tray and grip, it can click into place to fit a variety of setups, and can mount to any camera using the standard ¼-20 mounting screw. But no matter how creative your camera setup may be, from wide-angle videos to up-close macros, this little light ensures that you’ll capture every detail.

 What’s included: 

• Sea Dragon 2100 Dual Beam underwater photo/video/dive light head
• Flex-Connect single tray with standard ¼-20 mounting screw
• Flex-Connect grip
• 25W lithium-ion rechargeable battery
• AC power adapter, charging tray, and international plug adapters
• Adapter for GoPro cameras with acorn nut
• Spare O-rings, O-ring lubricant, O-ring removal tool
• Instruction manual
• Sea Dragon case

Wrap-up

9ScubaDiverLife score

SeaLife’s Sea Dragon 2100 Dual Beam Light

• Quick charge time
• Easy controls
• Rechargeable batteries
• Universal mounting fits multiple brands of underwater cameras

Limited adjustability for macro

The flexibility of the Sea Dragon 2100 Dual Beam light helps make it one strong little light system, boasting four brightness levels and extra-long burn times.

By guest author Tara Bradley Connell

The post Gear Review: SeaLife Sea Dragon 2100 Dual Beam Light appeared first on Scuba Diver Life.

Not only is SeaLife’s new Micro 2.0 camera system compact, making it great for travel, but it also offers the benefits of a professional housing system in a self-contained camera. With no doors or openings, it’s virtually leak-proof. But don’t let its size fool you. This little camera doesn’t skimp when it comes to executing quality images.

On to the fun stuff: The Micro 2.0 camera system comes with a built-in fisheye lens that offers 130-degree angles. Shooters can capture big-picture scenes of anything from a vast reef to a dramatic wreck or a massive Goliath grouper.

Macro lovers will appreciate the Super Macro lens (sold separately) and the convenience of its rubber press-on feature. Users can change lenses at the surface or at depth by simply fitting it over the camera lens. Switching from wide-angle to macro is easy and the handy little safety lanyard ensures you won’t lose it during the process.

Throw in video capabilities that can capture not only HD but can also pull still images while shooting and it will be almost impossible to miss your shot.

The optional 64GB of internal memory and a high-capacity internal battery means you won’t need extra memory cards, spare batteries and O-rings. What’s even better: Thanks to a waterproof USB port and a quick battery charge of just three hours, you can accomplish last-minute file transfers and battery charges before a big dive in no time. That’s something any underwater photographer can appreciate.

What’s included:

The Micro 2.0 is available at SeaLife dealers or online at SeaLife Factory Superstore.

• Micro 2.0 32 or 64GB Wi-Fi underwater camera
• Wrist strap
• Lens cap
• USB adapter/cable
• Wall charger, plus and international wall-charger adapters
• Camera pouch
• Instruction manual 

Wrap-up

9ScubaDiverLife score

SeaLife Micro 2.0

• Long battery charge
• Large LCD panel
• Built-in fisheye lens
• Easy-to-attach macro lens
• Compact size

• Slight shutter delay
• Occasional delay swapping from camera to video

Overall, the SeaLife Micro 2.0 and the Super Macro Lens provide the perfect set-up for an underwater photographer who wants to dabble between wide-angle and macro techniques.

By guest author Tara Bradley Connell

The post Gear Review: SeaLife Micro 2.0 appeared first on Scuba Diver Life.

Mounting

One of the primary advantages of the Hero 3 camera is the relatively low cost, but the low cost has a price. The base price only covers the camera itself, which is waterproof to about 200 feet. If you’re after a hands-free experience, you’ll need additional equipment. Both GoPro and third-party providers offer a number of mounting options. On this trip, our photographer, Michael, opted for the headband, a three-way elastic strap that allows the user to put the camera on his head above his dive mask. The advantage with this setup should be that wherever the photographer looks, the camera shoots.

Bubble trouble

One of the negative aspects of this setup turned out to be a problem with bubbles. When our photographer exhaled, bubbles tended to get caught under the exterior lens cover of the camera, showing up on the film we shot. The bubbles were particularly visible on the shallow parts of the dive, where the light shining down from the surface reflected in them. It took quite a bit of trial and error to find a placement that minimized the problem, but it never completely disappeared. From time to time, we had to remove the camera from the photographer’s head and give it a vigorous shake to remove the lodged bubbles.

Power Up

With three to four dives per day — most within an hour of the next — battery life quickly became an issue. Luckily, we’d brought along the optional battery pack, which extends the camera’s operating life, and allows for one battery to be charged while the other is in use. This is an optional feature though, so it costs extra.

Steady, steady

Being a human tripod takes some getting used to. The first couple of dives’ material suffered from a good deal of shaking and swerving while our photographer was getting used to having a camera mounted on his forehead. To avoid inducing nausea in your audience, keep your movements slow, steady and as fluid as possible — this takes practice.

The Results

There’s no denying the very good quality of both the Hero 3’s video and still images, which are saved from the video footage. With little option to mount floodlights, the camera was a challenge inside wrecks and on night dives, but you can buy handheld units that allow you to mount lights. Doing so, though, makes the rig so big that there’s little difference between a full-sized underwater camera and a GoPro, which may put off some divers, and definitely defeated our purpose.

The high-quality footage, shot in full HD, does eat up a lot of space, so make sure you have a large memory card. Bring several memory cards or a hard drive for a full week of diving; we ended up with roughly 100 GB of raw material on our week’s worth of diving.

The need for space points to the main advantage of the GoPro Hero 3, especially when mounted in a way where you can forget it’s there. By continuously shooting HD film footage (from which stills can later be sourced) you will never again miss the best shot of the dive while you fumble with your BCD, trying to extract your point-and-shoot.

But the high quantity of raw footage also means that you’ll need a lot of time after your dives to sort and edit the material. In my experience, every hour of finished footage requires five hours of editing work. So divers expecting to strap on a camera and emerge with fantastic, tightly produced underwater films are likely to be disappointed. To get the high-quality material showcased in the advertising material, quite a bit of additional equipment is required, including the items I already mentioned, as well as filters for color compensation at various depths.

Conclusion

Wrap-up

8ScubaDiverLife score

Wrap Up

The idea of spending $200 to $300 on a camera and, right out of the box, shooting underwater film that can rival the best documentaries seems too good to be true, and of course it is. You’ll need additional equipment for the best results, as well as plenty of practice using the camera. Editing after the dive can also be quite time consuming and requires an above-average interest and aptitude in video production; for most dedicated underwater photographers and videographers, this comes as no surprise. That being said, overall the GoPro Hero 3 is a strong player in the field, which can deliver exceptionally high quality footage in a compact, convenient package, at a relatively low cost.

The post Review: GoPro Hero 3 appeared first on Scuba Diver Life.