Hawaii Skin Diver The Breath of Freedivers

Has anyone tried it yet? for $50 seems to be the best one out there no viggetting in any mode setting or in pic and video!

That seems like a good deal! I paid $50 just for the flat lens I have on my GP.

Of course.

YO-257 a couple of months or so ago.





$50 is a great price. You also get some extra mounts and a nice lens cover as well.

-Paul

So it's a whole new housing then? Not just an add-on to the original housing right?

Correct. A whole housing.

-Paul

what does the new housing do? is it just a flan lense

should have know paul was the one to test it so do you think its better than the other flat lens on the market paul?

Glass is better than plastic.
It is supposed to do 1080p footage without the black corners. I haven't even looked at any of my footage yet to confirm it but I believe 'em. Pics were from screen captures that GoPro sent me.

The lens is bigger and creates more drag.

So depending on your use, it could be better or worse. For me, it's mostly better. However, I had to stop using the head mount unless I swam slowly otherwise it would wobble from the extra drag. Nevertheless, most of my diving is/will be done with these new housings on poles or weights. If I want to go with a headband, I'll have to move slowly, or use the EOM housing and in 960p mode instead of 1080p mode like I can with the new GoPro housing.

-Paul

How much more drag does the housing have in comparison to that of the EOM housing?

After using an EOM housing and having it leak and breaking my brand new gopro2 pretty unsatisfied with the customer service and will probably never use their product again..First housing I had leaked and broke my camera...Got an one for one exchange on a second housing from the store I bought it....Contacted EOM about the issue to see if I could get any reimbursement for my camera....In turn they wanted me to track down my camera housing that I turned back in to the store and send it to them for testing. I couldn't get the housing so in turn they said there is nothing they can do cause they don't know why it leaked.... I was like WTF??? Why don't you guys tell stores and distributors that $h!T so customers know.... I've used all kinds of gopro cameras with different housings surfing, fishing, diving just playing around at the beach...Never had one leak...I know how to put a damn camera in a housing??? On top of that the EOM housing compresses at depths deeper than 40' creating a blur for gopro2 cameras and the back don't seal completely flush....Which is probably why mine leaked or I may have just got a defective one..Either way sure they don't care but I definitely will never recommend EOM to anyone or use any products from them...I know few other divers that have experienced the same thing using their product......sorry to rant...But $299 dollar camera $80 dollar housing = -$379 bucks and a pissed off paying customer....

$50 for a housing sounds good and that its made by GoPro...

Yeow 672, I'd be damn pissed too. Our own "C" was just telling me about a month ago about hearing of people who had EOM housings leak on them but I never ever could actually verify it and dismissed it as rumors. I told him I would have loved to get my hands on one of those housings to confirm the leak rumor for myself. Thanks for posting your experience. No need to apologize for ranting at all. Knowledge/information is power.

Questions:
Where did you buy it? I didn't even know stores sold them around here. Always thought it was direct-order from the owner's website. That's how I've gotten all of my EOM housings. Crazy question but could yours have been a counterfeit? Strange that the shop that exchanged yours couldn't just give you the leaky one back, or that they didn't try to exchange it or take it up directly with EOM.

Sounds like you know what you were doing so most likely not an user error. I like to think I'm an expert, but admit that I once flooded and killed a HD2, and it was not EOM's fault in any way. Do you know where the leak came from exactly?

Strange about the blurring at 40+. I've used about 6 EOM housings so far and not one of them has caused this (or leaked) with either the HD2s or HD1s. I've used more HD2s than HD1s btw. That's what set off a flag and made me ask my silly question up above about a counterfeit. I did notice that the HD2 sometimes does need a little "jingle" to get it to sit all the way into the housing if it's not inserted straight into the housing. That could cause the back door to not close all the way but never had a problem with that because when I notice the back door resisting, I open it up to sort it out and then close it again. I don't force it closed except for the last few millimeters to minimize the chances of breaking the GoPro clamp (which I have broken twice).

Man, I wish you still had that housing. I'd love to check it out myself. Any chance you have photos/vid that show it leaking or something?

I know, lots of questions for you. To answer your question, the new GoPro housing does have a fair bit more drag. Not enough to affect freediving/hunting performance or speeds but enough to make housing wobble when diving at normal speed when used with the stretchy headband. If you're going to use it for spearfishing, and you're a dusting/laying on the bottom specialist and most of your footage will reflect that, then it's a no-brainer to get this housing. If you're an active hunter, covering a lot of ground and crawling/swimming through cracks/caves/holes like me, and most of the footage captured are "at speed" then the headband won't work out very well. A different head mount of some sort, or mount it to the gun, a weight or a pole would be the solution.

-Paul

Bought it from a local dive shop and they were super cool about exchanging the housing for free.....They said they would send the housing back so I thought nothing of it and just figured mine must of been defective....I didn't know EOM needed the housing directly back from the customer figured if the shop was gonna send it in then same thing right? I have used a EOM housing on my HD1 and had no problems so I thought maybe the HD2 was just slightly bigger..Could it have been a counterfeit? Shoot I dunno but came with the EOM instructions and looked identical to my previous housing.



No I don't know where the leak came from exactly....I took a real shallow drop to just look around maybe 20ft or so and when I came up I adjusted my head strap and looked at my camera...that's when I had noticed it had water in the housing not completely flooded...But definitely water...I couldn't pin point it but it didn't seem to continue coming in either....I was on a boat so I swam back took my camera out the housing and dried it off and put it in a dry box....But after that my camera never turned on again.



As far as the blur....I asked EOM if it was possible for the housing to compress slightly because it didn't seem like it sealed as flush as the HD1 cameras....The second housing did seal enough to prevent leaks but then I was having these blur issues for some reason with the HD2....I couldn't figure it out because I wiped the camera lens clean and the housing lens...There where no scratches no condensation..And the vid would be blurred while on the bottom and clear on surface...So it had to be a pressure issue....I emailed EOM was told they are aware of this problem but only with the HD2 cams...And the solution was using a plastic washer to create enough gap so the camera lens doesn't get pushed agains the housing lens...



I deleted most of the footage I got and pretty much just stopped filming after I had the issues...But in this video if you look towards the center there is a blur...Everything around it is still clear but the center isn't...Then on the surface or swimming up the whole shot is clear...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbxYKDSmvhg&feature=g-upl



Thanks for the feed back I'll probably go with this housing laying on the bottom is more my style...
Hope I answered your questions...

I can see the center blurring in your video. Nice video btw, crazy about how fast that eel popped out to try to claim your fish!

If EOM admits that there's a blurring issue, then I doubt it was a counterfeit housing. Strange because I haven't had this issue with my rigs. I have both the basic and the "professional" housings from EOM and didn't have issues with either.

Do you use anti-fog strips? If so, where do you insert them in the housing?

Yeah, thought it was weird that the dive shop and EOM couldn't seem to communicate/sync up to take better care of you. If they sent it in, then EOM would have it as if you had sent it in. Makes me wonder what the shop did with that housing.

-Paul

@#$%

i've had the same issue of blurring in the center with the eom housing. I think it's because the lens of the camera hits the eom case. my solution: i put small cuts of paper and folded it, put it in front of the camera and then put in in the case. makes a little space between it so it doesn't touch it and still shoots great without the blurring. hope this helps... kinda confusing.

Ryan, that's a clever solution. I just looked at my EOM housings and note that they still have the foam insert stuck on the inside of the back door from GoPro. I believe that just removing that foam would eliminate or minimize the door pushing on the camera itself under pressure and solve the problem. Nice thing about removing that strip of sticky foam is that here would be no need to bring or deal with folded up pieces of paper to act as a spacer. If you try it, let me know if it solves the blurring issue.

Yeah Chad, I know. You told me so. I still want one in my HANDS so I can confirm that it's actually leaking at the lens (which is the only part that is altered by EOM). Until then, I'm left with some uncertainty and wondering what might actually be happening.

-Paul