GoPro’s latest action camera, the Hero6, is waterproof down to 10m, while the new 360 Fusion camera can withstand immersion down to 5m. However, the mere fact that your camera won’t die a sad, watery death when dropped into a pool doesn’t guarantee you’ll be getting the best picture quality.
I asked Abe Kislevitz, Senior Creative Director at GoPro, for tips for filming in water. And while he didn’t tell me to French kiss my camera, he didn’t not tell me to either.
“If you’re filming in water – you’re not underwater but you’re getting the lens splashed a lot – then licking the lens really helps. If you lick the lens and then dunk it underwater it makes a film of water on the front of your lens that’s fully transparent, and so any drips that hit it just add into that film of water.”
This is a quick and easy trick Kizlevitz uses himself. “Like for surfing, for example, I lick my lens every 10 minutes or so and dunk it. It creates a hydrophilic coating on the top where the water sticks to it verses a hydrophobic which is like Rain-X so it beads off and stuff like that.”
As for filming when completely submerged, Abe’s only tip is to ensure you don’t lose your camera.
“Just make sure you have something that’s floaty on it. GoPro makes a bunch of different floaty accessories, so either the Floaty backdoor or the floaty handle, called the Handler, and that’s just so you don’t drop your camera. That’s the same thing for doing any sort of water sport – have the Floaty on, it’ll save your camera.”
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