How many times have you set up a cool dive and wanted to show it to all your friends. So you buy the latest, greatest toy, a GoPro Hero HD, at the dive shop and head out. You giant stride into the water, fire up the camera and shoot some amazing sights. Rushing home, you excitedly upload your videos and photos into your computer and get to re-experience your dive.....all out of focus. What???





Well after experiencing the wonderful "out of focus" issues associated with the standard GoPro cases myself, I decided to give the flat lens from Mako Spears a shot on my GoPro.

There are a number of places you can pick up the "Flat lens" that fixes this. However from my crazy amount of searching, I found Mako to be the most cost effective.....however would the quality be there.

Here is a link to the video I shot testing it in Ginnie Springs. Keep in mind I tossed it together in like 3 minutes, not worried so much about color correction and all that, but more to see the lens in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIR0v5Ywpek

Overall, I would give this replacement a B+. It worked just fine in the R5 setting, which is recommended for underwater anyway. However when taking still photos, there was significant vignetting (seeing the edge of the lens).

The lens was easy to replace, and so far no leaks....taken to 51 feet. I want to try it at depth soon to see if it will hold up.

Here is a link to the lens and how to replace it.

Lens http://www.makospearguns.com/product-p/mgphl.htm

Replacement info http://www.makospearguns.com/Articles.asp?ID=262






Keep in mind, I do NOT work for this company. However I have worked in film/tv as a director of photography for 18 years, which might explain my desire to figure out what might work best and be cost effective (or at least my perceived insanity). 

Now to find a good stable platform for the GoPro to get rid of that shakiness factor. Suggestions?