Paralenz - An action camera dedicated diving

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Interesting. My GoPro is a 3 (non-plus) and came with the 60m Dive housing. Maybe I will offer it to the Monitor team to use along with the rest of their gear and see how it fares. The Monitor site is 240' to the very bottom, I believe, so they probably won't actually go much if any past 230. It sure would be cool if it works!
 
The depth rating on the gopro is not that it will leak at deeper depths, its that the buttons are just spring loaded, and and may auto press (or not press) . The other thing is that on the hero2, the latch may come loose as the housing compresses on the o-ring. To work around this, use a hair tie to keep the door closed so it doesn't fly open on ascent, and turn the camera on before you get to depth.

I've taken the hero2 housing to 250 feet with no issues (since i rubber banded the housing shut).
 
I myself use an Canon S110 and my wife is using an older Canon, can't remember the model, and she's always wanted to switch to a Gopro. I'm thinking this might be a better alternative for her and I'm definitely liking some of the features.

Their website says that they are only doing presales for a month and I'm curious if they have a hard cutoff date.
Maybe I'll post the question on their Facebook page.
 
I looked at them and thought they would be great for a speargun/pole due to the shape. But for the side of the head it would seem that the user would just end up with video of exhalation bubbles unless they were using a one side exhaust reg.

Not sure why they bothered with dive logs. A waste IMO and just adds to size, complexity and cost. And at $350. Meh.

Do you get exhalation bubbles in front of your mask? Not usually. The camera sits forward so that the lens is level with your eyes. No bubbles.

They don't put a value on the low-light sensitivity that I saw with a quick review (IDK if GoPro does either though) so you might want to ask about that...most places at 100' or so, it's going to be too dark anyway unless you have lights.

You also can't pay me to watch head-mounted video - every little twitch is dutifully recorded plus whatever the diver is currently looking at, gauges, surface, etc. Also head motions while swimming - something you can often minimize with a tray setup.

It has built in image stabilisation that takes place as it's recorded.

C'mon guys, all this information is on their website.

I've ordered one. I absolutely hate my GoPro 4. Can't wait to give this a go.
 
Do you get exhalation bubbles in front of your mask? Not usually. The camera sits forward so that the lens is level with your eyes. No bubbles.

I dive with a GoPro attached to my GoMask and yes I get bubbles in my videos throughout the course of a dive. It doesn't make the video completely unusable, but they do get in the video from time to time. Those scenes get edited out and hopefully they didn't ruin the best parts of a dive.

Now, most regs have a split exhaust to direct your exhalation bubbles to either side of your face and not in front of your mask. This camera appears to mount exactly where your exhaust bubbles would travel. So, yes, I feel comfortable speculating due to where this camera mounts there will be much more unusable video compared to a GoPro mounted center and above the mask. Completely unusable, all depends on if the diver is swimming or not and how strong the current is.

One benefit I had not thought of regarding the dive log function of this camera is it would make it easier for search and recovery teams to document corresponding depths related to incidents and where gear, bodies, etc are located.
 
I wasn't able to find the FOV ? Does anybody have idea on it ? Even looking at the footage is too hard to figure it. - sorry, I found it eventually - it's 150° approximately, with geometric correction.
Battery recharge time is also an issue, because you cannot swap it, so probably you can only try to recharge it from some sort of power bank between dives (I'm thinking to liveaboard trip)
How many recharge cycles it will withstand ?
Is there any chance to mount a macro len in front ?
 
I wasn't able to find the FOV ? Does anybody have idea on it ? Even looking at the footage is too hard to figure it. - sorry, I found it eventually - it's 150° approximately, with geometric correction.
Battery recharge time is also an issue, because you cannot swap it, so probably you can only try to recharge it from some sort of power bank between dives (I'm thinking to liveaboard trip)
How many recharge cycles it will withstand ?
Is there any chance to mount a macro len in front ?

You won't be in the water again during a liveaboard for at least an hour or two. From memory the full charge time is only 2 hours.

I think due to the larger pixels, macro probably isn't viable. But somebody mentioned in this thread that the lens is removable.
 
You won't be in the water again during a liveaboard for at least an hour or two. From memory the full charge time is only 2 hours.

I think due to the larger pixels, macro probably isn't viable. But somebody mentioned in this thread that the lens is removable.

I think their plan is to develop accessory lenses that can be attached/removed on the fly. So things like a macro lens may be in the future.
 
Does anyone have any real experience with this camera now that its been launched? Its price tag seems quite a bit higher now at $600. Is it worth the price tag for the extra features like auto color correction?
 
Does anyone have any real experience with this camera now that its been launched? Its price tag seems quite a bit higher now at $600. Is it worth the price tag for the extra features like auto color correction?

I've used mine in a freshwater lake and was amazed at the simplicity of its use and the quality of its images/videos. The DCC worked great for me...taking a very green image (without correction) and making it look normal. I was very impressed. It's very convenient too to just throw in a pocket or attach to a d-ring and use it when you want.

Note that I got mine on pre-order, so it was less expensive for me than it is now. However, there have also been numerous updates to it since it's launch (us early adopters were somewhat of a beta-tester group), so while I can't answer your question whether the retail price is justified, I can tell you it's much better and more stable than when I first received it, and it keeps getting better.
 

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