GoPro HD camera focus fix - finally got the one I want !!

[Iyadiver]

Dear Friends,

I not been posting for like 4-5 years or so and I bet a few of you are having problems with focus fix from the GoPro HD original housing, just like me.

So I must write to share the goods news. Have posted the same on Spearboard.
GoPro Focus Solution - Page 6 - Spearboard Spearfishing Community

****

Don't waste you time and money experimenting. If the housing leaks, that US$200+ ( camera only ) will be a total loss and you need to buy the Naked version that gives you the camera with a housing for like US$259 or something.

I been searching for weeks and weeks for the underwater focus solution and could only find Eye of Mine flat lens port glued to the housing. Been thinking to make the lens for myself using machined arcylic and so on, to make it as low profile as possible. Its just too risky and time consuming and may not work as intended.

So I surfed the internet hard and finally found a modified housing which look like the original housing. It seems this company with background of deep water video camera housing manufacturing have sorted the focus issue. Simply they seems to understand the underwater lens 101.

We tend to believe that the curved lens of the GoPro housing is causing the focus distortion as explain in GoPro FAQ. Yes it is probably true to some extend but when we see thru that housing lens, one will notice that there is also a magnification value to some percentage. I have seen big SLR underwater housing with dome port and there is no focus issue, if focus issue is entirely due to the curve/dome lens of the housing.

I even got a big 400mm dome arcylic window like one used in a research submarine but much thinner, its for showcase of products actually or CCTV surveliance dome port but a clear one. I tried to view thru it underwater with air space between my eyes and the dome port. There is no focus issue but things look smaller thru it than thru a flat lens. Flat lens of a diving mask make things look 25% bigger underwater, as we all know. Nice panaromic view though thru the dome...:inlove

Anyhow this company does not advertise like Eye of Mine. This is why you guys and myself were unable to track it down via internet previously. I stumbled upon this product in Rebreather Forum. Rebreather forum need registration to view postings, a guest can only view a few pages and get locked out after that.

So to save the trouble for you guys, this is the product :
Sartek Industries Products

You can buy housing only for US$100 or buy a camera ( I think Helmet HD ) for US$350 and get the modified housing and I read that you can send your housing to be modified for US$60 ( postage you pay )

I am not an easy believer but the science behind their modification is solid.

First of, they know what we do not know about underwater lens 101.

Secondly, they seems to be able to machine new lens made of borrosilicate ( glass ) for the GoPro housing even in small numbers. This we probably can't do unless high price special order from lens manufacturer. Since they make UW CCTV cameras, probably they have the machine or the connection to do small volume project.

Third, it seems the lens is a bit thicker than GoPro original lens. So the black plastic round frame that secures the lens, they made a new one. I have ripped open my GoPro lens assembly and looking at the complicated shape, if one is to machine something like that for low volume production, it will be too expensive to ask a machine shop to do just that....unless you got your own CNC machine to do it. The seal or o-ring for the lens is also custom made.

Fourth is the easy one, the small screws, it looks they use one a bit longer than original to accomodate the new overall thickness.

Fifth, this one is expensive to buy. Pressure test chamber that can do 220 feet.
I been wanting to buy one of this chamber that can do 330 feet or 10 BAR and it cost something like US$2,500 or so from USA before shipping. It is not too big, so testing will be limited to small camera 40 meter casing for pocket ones from Canon/Sony and the like and surely dive computers but wont fit a normal size Sony type video housing.

Sartek tested each unit to 220 feet wet, for 1 hour after modification. This is why they declined to sell me the kit only, they wanted to test each of their mod and maintain GoPro original 180 depth rating warranty.

The unique part is that they tested GoPro to 240 feet and it can withstand such depth and will leak at 300 feet, so they said. No wonder my friend took an original GoPro housing repeatedly to 56 meters ( 184.8 feet ) and no problem.

Here is a video link Sartek posted on Rebreather Forum :
Sartek's Photos- powered by SmugMug

Here is a other videos they made with their modification :
SartekIndustries' Photos- powered by SmugMug


For those who has slow internet, I am attaching the screen captures I took in one of their video.

Yes, I will have both Eye of Mine and this Sartek housing coming probably by end of July....rofl.......hope the Custom Office wil not whack me hard with import duty.:head

Enjoy....
IYA

 

[cdavis]

Hi Iya, Thanks for the info and very glad to see you posting. We missed you.


Connor

 

[DivingDane]

hmmm great news, it a shame they didnt add a thread to the port to allow for the attachment of a compact wide angle lens like the intova unit.

mind you i guess the lens would almost be the same size as the camera.

DD

 

[Camanche killer]

awesome news got mine on order already!

 

[Iyadiver]

Hello Connor, yep...missed alot of people here. Hope all well with you guys.

Camanche and Diving Dane,
Great to be able to help. I know how it feels having a camera so nice but fuzzy focus underwater.

Dane, GoPro is already 170 degrees field of view at 720p, maybe less 10% with the corrected lens from Sartek, how much wider do you need ?

I personaly prefer 1080p and get 127 degrees, with Sartek maybe 117 degrees. 170 degrees is like fish eye already and fishes look so small.


Later,
IYA

 

[DivingDane]

fair enough, good point!

will have to get myself motivated and order a unit!

is there an off the shelf red filter that will fit over the port?

DD

 

[flysteadicam]

Hi,

there is another solution made in germany to get the focus fixed on the Hero HD. Take a look at Home - www.goprofocus.com "The focus fix for the Hero HD".

This is a very simple and cheap solution in high Germany Quality.

And they will have this lens in a clear and a orange filtered version. There is a video online to show the difference with the colour filter.

cheers

 

[Jouskari]

A bit of self promotion but who cares... 30 € aint bad for a good fix!

 

[Camanche killer]

alot cheaper than what i paid and not to mention import tax!!!

 

[Iyadiver]

I am getting that lens from Germany too....YIPEEEEE !!!

The beauty of "lens only" will be easy export/import.
By post, so small, say its a sample and it will be free.

I think in my country, if you do not import many things and often, under US$50 is tax free when using Post Office. I have bought a few times GoPro accesories by post and ZERO tax, all under US$50.

Thanks Patrick for telling us of that innovation.
Makrolon, high tech stuff used in high-end eye wear and also in solar panel.
Made by Bayer germany. Dang, these plastic is getting so advance these days.

SP

 

[Padaxes]

I got the goprofocus lens and it works very well. I posted a link to my footage shot with it in the other gopro hd thread.

 

[miguel-van]

Had one also! Ordered on thursday, delivered on monday! Great stuff.

 

[ptoot]

Dane, GoPro is already 170 degrees field of view at 720p, maybe less 10% with the corrected lens from Sartek, how much wider do you need ?

I personaly prefer 1080p and get 127 degrees, with Sartek maybe 117 degrees. 170 degrees is like fish eye already and fishes look so small.

When you mention 170° field of view, you mean above water, under water these angles reduce dramatically.

170° above water --> 96° under water
127° above water --> 85° under water

check out this link for a full table

These angles are still impressive and correspond with 20mm an 22mm lenses (35mm system), so pretty wide angle. A good thing is that barrel distortion is almost inexistant at these angles with this lens.

I bought both Sartek (for depth) and Goforfocus (with filter, for colour) and will try and test both this afternoon.

 

[DivingDane]

Ptoot, will be interesting to here what your finding are. i would think that the German lens should have the same rating as the sartek asit uses the factory components to mount the lens so should still be 60m?

DD

 

[ptoot]

Hello all,

I took both camera housings out for a dive yesterday. I modified my existing case to accomodate the 'german lens'. I closely followed the instructions, spent particular care on putting the O-ring back in its position and put the black ring back in its place and screwed it back on -the way you would do it when closing a cylinder head or fitting a car tyre- : screws in opposing directions (screws are at 1 o'clock, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 11, so: 11-5, 3-9, 7-1. Then tightening (rolling screwdriver between two fingers, making sure they are not too tight) 11-3-7 and 5-9-1 (two triangles).

German Lens (goforfocus.com)

I was pretty confident about the fitting so I decided to load my camera in this housing and do my first dive with it. I laid in the red/orange filter, checked the rectangular sealing ring and went for a shallow dive in one of Holland's murky green lakes.

When I emerged, it looked as if a drop of water was stuck between the black ring and the plastic outer lens (so on the outside). Everything seemed ok, took it down a little deeper (to -7m ~ 22ft) and noticed it was a bit of condensation inside it. Not impossible, since I did not insert any of them silicate bags.

On my third dive, I took it down to -14m (~ 45 ft) and noticed that the case actually contained a drop of water on the inside. The O-ring now being wet showed it didn't touch the outer lens at 5 o'clock to its full width. Technically the case flooded, limited to a small drop, but time to come out.


The Sartek housing

I abandoned the dive, brought the camera to shore and changed cases (now the Sartek housing). I know this individual case has been depth-tested so took it down to the bottom of the lake (17m ~ 55ft) without building it up gradually.

I filmed in 4:3 mode (1280x960) fully aware that the picture would have rounded edges, that is inherent to using a flatport lens on this camera. The edges are identical for the two cameras, only differrence is that on the Sartek housing it's black and on the Goforfocus housing it's the ambient color (blue if pointing to the sky, green if pointing down). Shooting full HD (1920x1080) these corners are not visible for both solutions, there's slight vignetting but nothing disturbing.

Side by side

These two picture have only been made to illustrate the rounded corners (pink=goforfocus with the filter), I have violated every rule of photography, but at least it shows that the loss of image in photography or 4:3 (R4) mode is similar:

hmmm, ok, the goforfocus lens has a slightly bigger field of vision.

Conclusion

I am going to re-fit the Goforfocus lens and have it depth tested before using it with a camera. I do believe this thing could work but it expect it to be more limited in use than the Sartek.

The Sartek housing looks very nicely finished, it has an inner ring (against unwanted reflections), a bigger outer ring, different (bigger) screws, and it looks very solid and professional. When the camera is fitted, the camera's lens is slightly out of the center (towards 2 o'clock) but that seems to make no difference in the shots.

So why don't I just use ONE housing? Basically because I spoke to goforfocus.com earlier yet Sartek.com was able to supply earlier. Besides, the red/orange filter in goforfocus would make it ideal for shallow dives.

On this pic (not a photograph, a still from filming in 4:3 mode (R4) in 1280x960) you can see that the red/orange filter moved position, leaving the top left corner uncovered. It is simply dropped in and has a slightly smaller radius that the inside of the outer lens. Not sure it would show up on a full HD recording (R5 mode)

I could perhaps fit the red/orange filter in the Sartek housing but it has a different size outer lens and the filter would have to be pushed through a conic ring, once fitted, never able to remove it anymore.

So, I'll re-assemble the GoPro housing with the Goforfocus lens again, paying even extra attention to the O-ring, depth-test it empty on a 40m scuba dive and hope to get back with excellent results.

Any questions, just leave me a PM.

Frank

 

[ptoot]

Refitted the lens (goforfocus.com) and left it in the pool (1.5m ~ 5 ft) for 24 hours and it filled up a third. No need to take it down on a long deeper Scuba dive
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Kars]

Ai ai, that's bummer, clean the stuff out, maybe fit a new O ring, apply some special O-ring grease and try again. good luck! Or if you're really sure you want that lens permanently, glue it.

 

[monkeyhatfork]

I meant to post this earlier, heres a video shot with my modified lense, I lost the camera when a wave tore it from my head partway through the trip, so no pics of the camera but it looked something like the goforfocus fix, no leaks and no round edges underwater-edges do show up above water-somewhat happy with youtube video but keep in mind the actual video is much clearer and shot in 720, I think the rounded edges did not show up because we beveled the edges of the lense which I dont see on the other fixes took it to 50ft no problem that was more or less max depth for bimini- only problem I've had was my laptop is too weak to process 1080----if your headed to the dolphin grounds in bimini keep an eye out you might find yourself a free go-pro on the bottom
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOKfZEMLgq8]YouTube - dolphins part 1.wmv[/ame]
p.s. these really arent hard to make yourself

 

[monkeyhatfork]

actually more around 35ft max around there

 

[flysteadicam]

Hi Ptoot,

did you ever contacted goforfocus.com with that issue? If the lens is causing the problem they will replace it for free.
The GoForFocus.com solution works very well and there are many happy users around the world.

regards