My wife shoots video with a Canon Vixia G50 in a Gates housing and loves it. But......we are planning a Dominica sperm whale trip. She has used the Canon/Gates combo in Tonga with the humpback whales but just feels it's getting too big for free diving, not her strength. She is not a "camera" person just wants to point and shoot. I do have the GoPro Max wide angle lens with a budget housing in hand for the GoPro10. Trying to keep costs down as it might be a one time use situation.

Thoughts on GoPro 10 vs iPhone 15 Pro for natural light shooting of whales?

Preferred housing and I assume some form of WA lens for the housing?

Filters?

Any settings I can use to set up either to improve image quality?

Thanks!

Hi @aquabluedreams

That's amazing that you are going to photograph the sperm whales, you'll have an incredible time.

With regards to shooting with your iPhone 15 Pro Max -v- Go Pro 10, it's a tough one as I love using them both.

For a subject as large as a sperm whale you will need a good quality wide angle lens.

If you were using your iPhone 15 Pro Max, I would steer towards a Weefine housing onto which you could add a Mounting Bracket to attach one of their wide-angle lenses. Yes, it's a more expensive option but the optics of their lenses are superb.

The more economical option would be to add a Backscatter Go Pro Action Cam Sharp Wide Lens Pro onto your existing Go Pro Housing. I used this set-up last summer with my Go Pro 12 and loved the quality of the lens and the sharpness that it delivered throughout the image, even in the corners.

As you'll be shooting at the surface, there wouldn't be any need for filters, but I would shoot in RAW mode and if there is a lot of sunlight at the surface, then preset your Exposure to -0.7 to reduce burnout at the surface.

There are a lot of housings available for your Go Pro to which you can add on a wide-angle lens which will all deliver excellent results. It all depends on your budget.

Hope that this helps and feel free to ask away if you need any more advice.

Maria