Has anyone purchased one of these? Was it worth it.

My understanding is that a dive shop will assign someone to video your dive group on a shore dive.

Just curious to see if anyone thinks it is worth while...

Dennis

Dennis, I've done this on dives at other locations (Roatan, Nassau) and it's been great for a couple of reasons. 1) Your non-diving friends and family can get a bit of an idea of what it's like 2) you get a memento of your dive, and 3) you can compare your inner vision of your buoyancy control and fin technique with the sometimes amusing reality...
Next time I'm in Bonaire (next spring) I'd like to rent a video and try my hand at my own shots...

We did one in the past, it was nice. Also as opposed to shooting your own with rental gear. It was professionally shot, edited and had a music track added. We also lucked into some neat creatures like a turtle and sea urchin swimming freely which added to it.

Thanks for the quick responses! I think I may just go for it and see. I will be taking a few underwater shots myself, but not video.

Anyone else do one???

48 hours from now, we'll be in Bonaire! That is if the flights go as planned...

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

I have seen the ones shot by some of the pros on Bonaire and they are great. The pro came along on a dive with us, shot the video, edited it and then showed it at the bar that night (Buddy Dive). I did not buy one but they were good. If I have one slight negative to the generic kind is that there are a lot of shots of "other divers" on it. They are great to show friends and family. I have also rented a video camera from Sand Dollar Dive shop and got remarkably good results with it for a first try. A friend of mine added music to it and that made a world of difference in watching it. Almost wish I had not rented it though, it got me to wanting one. If you are thinking about renting one, you need to take along a Hi-8 tape. DennisG...hummmm, are we by chance having supper together Sunday night?

Herman is so right about dubbed music making a world of difference. I like both KennyG and Kitaro as musical background for my underwater video.

I've had underwater video taken of me and I've taken underwater video. I prefer my own. It depends on what you want your friends to see. Are they really going to watch you or the critters? If the critters, take the whole week to compile a great variety instead of one dive's worth. If you, then go for the pros.

Thanks again folks...

and yes Herman, I believe we are having supper this Sunday evening...

Dennis

I opted not to buy the video filmed thru Buddy Dive when we were there, for a couple of reasons, but I did preview it after. There was a whole beginning sequence of great stuff we DIDN'T get to see on that dive or that trip (Turtle, seahorse, frog fish and more) so that was nice. There weren't a lot of shots of me, but I knew I wouldn't purchase the video, so 'discouraged' him from spending a lot of time/film on me. I suspect that if I had been more aware of, and hamming for the camera, he would have used more film on me, and if I'd flat TOLD him I intended to buy, I'd have been one of the featured players.
If my whole travel group had been on the dive, I likely would have purchased the video and enjoyed it. That's my 2cents (or more like $40 US, if I recall ...)

I bought the video that Jan Huckaby did of my snorkel (I do not dive) trip aboard the Woodwind. It was my best purchase on the island!!! My husband and I look at our video often and we are able to drift back to Bonaire. It captured everything we saw and then somethings we missed. We have plenty of pictures, but nothing can compare to our video!

Dennis, For what its worth.. I know oen of the pro on island, Hendrickwho has been doing the underwater videios on island for a while and had been doing an excellant job. I can see the point of where it may not have an individual being the only focus... but the combination of shots of you, the rest of your group, the dive and the added stock footage makes for a real nice video you can show to folks and they will enjoy unlike the infamous "slide show of the vacation". What I have always like about Hendrick's is that he spend a lot of his free time updating the stock footage to even help you see stuff that you missed...
I have ended up with at least one video of each new place I have gone... trouble is I don't go to many new places anymore..