Intova Sport HD 2 / Edge vs GoPro Hero 3 + Black?

[Dr.Yen]

I know the specs and I read all there is to read about them as well as watching videos shot with all 3, but who has first hand experience using the GoPro and one of the Intovas, specifically for diving? How do they compare?
All have their pros and cons...

Intova Sport HD2
Pros: price (just over 100 quid new), had LCD, longer battery life, supposedly better colours, made for diving, more control buttons, standard attachments.
Cons: narrower lens than the other two (160º)

Intova Edge
Pros: all of the above, plus slightly wider lens (170º), price (£170), WiFi
Cons: still not quite as wide as the GoPro (10º still seem to make a difference)

GoPro Hero 3+ Black
Pros: superwide lens, supposedly good in low light, good audio (FWIW in the water), WiFi
Cons: price (though they can be found for around £200 used), proprietary accessory attachments, loads of scrolling through menus, only 2 buttons, no LCD included, colours not quite as good as the Intova, lame battery life.

Price being an important factor I'm leaning towards one of the Intovas - either the HD2 for a lot of bang for buck or the Edge for all the bells and whistles for a bit more money, but I do really like the width of the lens of the GoPro...

Opinions?

Ta
Yen

[Fatmanthin]

It has to be GoPro all the way. Why settle for second best?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[Beduffshirl]

I've got the HD2 and although just an amateur think it's great. So simple to use. Bought the red filter for mine and did make a good bit of difference a bit deeper.

[Dr.Yen]

It has to be GoPro all the way. Why settle for second best?

Same reason why one would buy a Porsche over a Lambo I guess. I'm not made of money and the GoPro is 3 times the price of the HD2 and over 4 times once fitted with an LCD, and not respectively 3 and 4 times better, if better at all. In fact from what I've heard even from GoPro owners, the Intova's image quality is if anything better than the GoPro. Yes GoPro spend a lot of money on marketing and advertising and it has the best sound of any action cam (even if they say so themselves), but does that make it a better camera for diving?

I think this is a dilemma that only a spreadsheet can solve

Yen

[Rob Dobson]

I'd buy the GoPro because it has evolved over it's four generations into a really stable and capable budget action camera. The GoPro is proven across a huge global install base as it has become the standard action compact budget action camera across all applications that I can think of from scuba diving, skiing, Motorsport, model aircraft POV and even parachuting from orbit.

Intova and Edge...? Who the are they? I've never heard of them. It's the trip of a lifetime or a one off opportunity to get on that must do wreck. Do I trust a GoPro or something I bought because it was cheaper? Good luck with that...

The other key thing about GoPro is that because it has become THE global standard for this sort of thing there are loads of really good third party accessories and mods available for it. Stability trays, macro lenses, filters and video light solutions have all been nailed. Need a housing to go really deep? Not a problem, there are several out there.

The problem with something that hardly anyone has heard of, let alone is using, is that it's not going to attract third party manufacturers to produce stuff for it.

I'd spend the extra money and get the one I can trust, the one that is known to work, the one that I can get really high quality accessories for so that it will do everything that I want it to do.

[londonsean69]

The Intova kit I have seen or owned has been shite.

I had customers with their cameras - shite
I had customers with their torches - shite
I bought their macro lens for SWMBO - shite, piles of chromatic aberration - unusable in fact.

The simple fact that the cameras were shite, and a relatively simple add-on lens was also shite, doesn't fill me with hope for the video camera.

Don't get me wrong, I don't own a single Go Pro, but I do use multiple (up to 4) onboard cams on the motorbike for track days. I don't want a £300+ Go Pro to go flying off next time I lob the bike at the scenery, whereas the loss of a £70 Chinese action cam doesn't bother me in the slightest. I suppose I view them as pretty much disposable on the bike
The crap sound from them doesn't bother me, as I use an external recorder and microphone.

[String]

If the Intova stuff is anywhere near as awful as every other thing they've ever made or released for diving in terms of features, ease of use or build quality i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!

[Dr.Yen]

Seriously??! I've owned an Intova Supernova Plus for close to 3 years and it's hands down the best torch I've ever used (I've been through A LOT), and still my first choice for night dives. It looks built to withstand a small nuclear blast - I've dropped it on a slab of concrete from 4' and it chipped the concrete but didn't break! I've always had a hard on for their torches so I thought that would translate into the same quality in their cameras... weird.

YouTube is full of side-to-side videos and other than the lens angle not much seems different. Maybe more failure points on the Intova as it does have more controls, but if they don't flood that remains a *theoretical* risk.

It's the trip of a lifetime or a one off opportunity to get on that must do wreck. Do I trust a GoPro or something I bought because it was cheaper? Good luck with that...

That's out of context. I only need it for "everyday" use, I never mentioned a special trip nor I feel pressured to buy a more expensive one out of fear of missing out.

the one that is known to work, the one that I can get really high quality accessories for so that it will do everything that I want it to do

there are plenty of reports online about hardware failure within as little as 40 hrs of recording with the GoPro, some of which sadly just out of warranty, just do a Google search. Wouldn't you feel even more gutted if you spent the extra money only to have it go tits up on your special trip anyway? I would.
I only need a cam for diving and don't have any plans to parachute from orbit. Plus any accessory that would fit a standard camera mount would fit an Intova as opposed to GoPro's proprietary mount, so that's also a non-issue if not one in favour of the Intova.

Don't mean to sound like an arse, but do you have any commercial interest in GoPro or compatible accessories?

Yen

[Justin Owen]

What do you want to use it for?* What do you want to do with the footage?

* I know 'for diving' but what specifically? Capture a dive to review later? Make a movie?

You have to bear in mind these are action cameras - there all cr@p in low light (so past 10/15m in UK and you're already struggling), they have very wide lenses - some might argue an LCD is a waste of time, and they dont focus on small things without adaptors!

[6fathoms]

I saw this in Tesco?

http://www.tesco.com/direct/kitvisio...skuId=437-5276

it comes complete with a 100m housing!