Can A $14 GoPro Hero 8 Housing Survive A 60m Dive? I Put Both To The Test

[@race890]

Great video, thanks. I was the UW photographer on a tourist dive boat using housed SLRs, Nikonos & other rangefinder waterpfoof cameras. What I found super important is to really check the housing O-ring every time before you close the case; no kinks, straight, fitted right & no grit or filmament/hair across the O-ring or the opposing groove

[@SM-xk5gp]

The glass lense cover is bolted in place on the genuine unit, but glued in place on the other unit. After a few months of use, the glue delaminates on the cheaper units, causing water ingress. I drowned two cameras this way.

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks for the tip, I hadn't considered that. You can visibly see the distortion due to the water pressure, I'm sure this would work any glued components loose eventually.

[@AMalas]

The Sony cameras come with glued lenses for their 60 meter dive housing. Served me well for a long time, so it definitely is a quality problem for the knock offs I personally dive like once a year, so I think a cheap case will work for me. Dove with my hero 9 in a cheap telsin after watching this video like 7 hours ago

[@doloressanchez3891]

I suggest to always try the empty housing on the first dive to check that no water is leaking inside, since always the first dive is the deepest, cause you may get a default from factory one . Thanks for the video, I really enjoyed it.

[@majulenka1000]

Now i feel very confident to use the cheap amazon case for my upcoming vacation diving 🤩 Thank you!

[@azlanism4069]

Thank you for this test! great video

[@drewsquickfix]

wonderful video!! Thank you! I bought generic cheap one on amazon in a kit and couldnt figure the latch out. you showed me ! I was afraid of breaking it because the latch is poorly labeled and tightly sealed -cheers thumbs up!!

[@MichaelKlements]

Thanks Drew, happy to hear the video helped you out

[@giacomobarzon8765]

great test man!!!

[@Labombab]

Nice comparison Michael, thnx!

[@helenapresident7304]

which off brand housing is best built thank you for the test

[@raphaelmejia319]

I'm was a little scared to buy a telesin water case for my GoPro instead of the original one but after seeing this video I feel more confident. (Ill only use it at low depth anyway so im almost 100% secure there'll be no problems) :)

[@MichaelKlements]

It should be fine as long as you’re not going too deep.

[@AMalas]

Just did an 18 meter dive with a gopro hero 9 teslin for 40 minutes without any leak!. Considering that I bought it for cheap (found a killer deal for something like $8, originally only wanted it for shock protection), I am very pleased! Do note that I did carefully clean the oring, but didnt grease it. This waa my first use (and I did check this video prior to doing so) Also, here's a (not so) pro tip: put anti fog inserts into your dive housing! Forget about them removing fog, they saved another camera of mine (Sony As50) which itself isn't waterproof, when it's original case leaked due to some neglect on my part. Considering that I lost another AS50 due to one drop of water, I took this one apart and there wasn't evem a bit og water or rust inside. If its this good for a non waterproof camera, theyd made a gopro indestructible in regards to small leaks

[@billthompson5880]

Aloha from Maui, I just upgraded to an 8 Black from a 4 hero regular. I was upset that they don't supply the housings anymore? Cheap Bastards. Awesome video you, Mahalo P.S. I wonder if the cheap housing would survive a munch from a Tiger shark? Maybe your next video :)

[@MichaelKlements]

Yeah they seem to have decided that since the camera itself is now waterproof to a couple of meters, the case is an accessory. Haha that doesn't sound like something I'd be keen to try out! Keep well in Maui!

[@BehzadRad]

I get that your stance is basically that you don't feel like most of the first-party mounts are worth it because the cheap ones you got seem fine out of the box. That's OK, but let me offer a counter-point from someone that's 10 years deep into weekly Gopro use, has owned hundreds of first and third party mounts alike, and has a broad range of use cases both professionally and personally from skydiving to scuba diving, family vacations, construction site documentation, motorcycles, mountain bikes, kite aerial photography and a ton of other random stuff... You DO get what you pay for, and for many of us veteran users, we avoid the 3rd party knockoffs for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they're (knockoff manufacturers) letting GoPro (or other quality mount providers) front the cost and effort of engineering and testing, then copy that design, and that's a sucky thing to do. You should give your money to people that actually invest in developing product, because otherwise nothing gets made, 3rd party or not. Beyond the "morality" of that point, though, there's "tolerance stack up" in the design. Because it's reverse-engineered, some dimensions are not quiiiite right. So, for a user like you that doesn't know any better, a part functions just fine, but once you experience the real thing, it's like, "Holy shit, this is what it's supposed to be like? That's so much better." Even stuff like the quick release buckle friction in GoPro's mounts vs 3rd party is so different.... once you feel how smooth, secure, and solid a GoPro one feels, you won't want to use 3rd party anymore. It's a quality of life upgrade more than a performance one, but it makes a huge difference in the experience. Again, all it takes is one quick release buckle getting stuck or one pivoting joint that just WONT keep the camera from slipping during vibration, and you'll never buy cheap stuff again. Similarly, GoPro chesty (the new one) vs Old design knock-off is night and day. I could wear the new one all day... I can wear the old one for maybe 10 minutes before it bothers me. Continuing that point... not all Plastics are the same. GoPro uses high-grade polycarbonate and glass-filled nylon composite plastics that cost a good amount of money. 3rd Party knockoffs use literally whatever is cheapest. This means that, out of the box, your knockoff may seem identical, but next month when you take it out in the cold for more than and hour and it shatters like a piece of glass on the ski lift and you lose the camera, you're going to wish you had gone with the manufacturer that spent 12 cents more on better plastics. Finally, design and engineering. Similar to the tolerance stack up issues, GoPros and their mounts are designed, engineered, and warrantied based on testing that GoPro designs. While you may feel like buying an aluminum part you're giving your mounts system an "unbreakable" upgrade, what you're actually doing is telegraphing the force of a shock in an abnormal way and translating the highest point of stress to a place that the adjacent accessories were never designed to handle. Physically, a system of ductile plastic is actually more durable than one with a rigid aluminum part in the middle, simply because of the flexibility being able to absorb some shock. At the end of the day, if you're running all GoPro brand accessories and something happens, you can hit up GoPro and historically, they support loss and damage while on their platform... but the second you're like, "Yeah, the 37 cent part I had it mounted to broke, can you help me?" they'll kindly tell you to stop being ridiculous, and that's reflected in the cost. To me, there's significant trade-offs to getting cheap mounts. There are very few advantages of them, other than cost. So if it's cheap mounts vs never using the GoPro at all, fine, get the cheap mounts, but if you're genuinely interested in doing cool stuff with your GoPro, you should invest in quality gear that was MADE for your camera. Why risk a $400 investment because you cheaped out an put it on a mount that cost less than a dollar? I'd much rather invest in keeping my gear usable. My general recommendation is that, for low impact stuff like timelapses and stationary mounting... sure, go budget, but anytime there's a chance of risk/damage/loss, just pay the money and keep things sound.

[@helenapresident7304]

test 1 i can still buy like fitstill

[@АлёнаАндреева-й4ь]

Cheap GoPro Alternative by Folkoutdoor - very good review.

[@oscaribarra3342]

hi

[@lwl998877]

hey ,men ,u need go to the deep water test, over 30 meters

[@MichaelKlements]

Hey Zac. This pressure test simulates a deep water test down to 60 meters.