We had a few days in the Maldives early this month, and I tried the Hero 4 for both photo and video underwater.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the quality.

I set it to take video, and a photo every 5 seconds.

I bought two monopods, modified them so that I can use both - end to end - without too much flexing.

I did that by drilling small holes at each point of extension, and put a small screw in it.

Once those screws were tightened, the complete unit was very rigid.

For those who are not familiar with the GoPro Hero 4.

It has setting for taking photos, videos and video+photos at the same time.

The shortest period one can set for the photos in this mode is one photo every 5 seconds.

I installed an additional battery pack on mine, and had a 128GB micro SD card in it.

That allowed me to take continuous videos and photos for at least 5 hours.

I turned the camera on to start recording as I went into the water, and only switched it off when I came out.

This, of course, made me take an extraordinary amount of video, and over 10,000 photos!!

Most of the video is relatively useless, just as most of the photos.

But, I did manage to take some great shots of some fish.

Like the Titan trigger fish, moray eels and some octopus.

In fact, some of the photos of the octopus were simply amazing.

I have been diving for over 40 years, and have never seen one perform like this one.

I will post some of these photos here once I get them sorted out.

Hero 4 Black or Silver?

Hero 4 Black.

But I don't use it in 4k.

HD only.

I was wondering because I like the display back on the Silver and the ability to control the camera functions via the touch screen. Not sure 4K is worth giving up the touch screen.

I am not sure that any of them have a display - it can be added on, but not with the original purchase.

I'm a diver and have been using gopro's for a while.

I really like the hero4 black. I've got a sola light and a basic bracket for holding it, but i find myself shooting mostly available light with the backscatter red filter.

for UW photography, its a very affordable and effective setup.

I tend to shoot snippets - see something, start recording, go in filming, then stop recording. I hate editing and end up with clips I can use right out of the camera.