Paralenz - Worlds first action camera for divers

[JacobDalhoff]

Hey Divers and Divettes

We have just released a new action camera for divers - We thought this might be of interest to some of you.

Finally, after more than 15.000 hours of development we are now ready to release the Paralenz Dive Camera to the public. Through the past months we have been testing and developing the camera in collaboration with 250 divers world-wide. Their feedback and knowledge has been extremely valuable, and we are now confident that we have ended up with a product that lives up to the requirements of both the testers and the team behind Paralenz.

The key features of the camera are its Depth Controlled Colour Correction that eliminates the need for colour filters. It can put depth and temperature in your videos. It has a 200m depth rating and features an App for easy sharing and dive logging. It features a number of other cool tricks which you can read more about at www.paralenz.com

You can also check videos out at: Paralenz

We look forward to see you in our web shop and please do not hesitate to contact us at info@paralenz.com

 

[tuk]

Got my kickstarter paralenz yesterday. I've already hit a bug:

Was playing with shooting 2.7k video @ 60FPS (i think) and couldn't stop recording. Had to hold the power button for a while to get it to power off.

For fun, I connected my laptop to the wireless and scanned the ports. For the nerds: it's a busybox based tiny Linux OS. There are a number of interesting ports open (53, 21, 22 and a couple others). I was hoping for something that resembled an API, so I could script settings changes from my laptop.

Aside from that one hiccup, it seems to be working fine (and the video I took at my desk this morning looked fantastic). The power button and dial ring both have a little bit of slop that I'm sure will be reduced in time. The spring rate on the power button feels a little stiff and I find myself not fully holding it in sometimes but I'm sure I'll get better at it in time. The UI is surprisingly good for such a small screen and a single button interface (after turning the selector ring to the right spot).

I'm a little concerned about the heat generated from the charging process. As an ex-smoker who moved to "vaping" for a while, I'm very aware of what happens when a battery in a sealed metal tube decides it's time to expand (not personally and I'm not making claims here just putting down thoughts).

Overall, the fit an finish are excellent and I'm pretty excited to get it wet. I'll be doing the Lake Travis (Austin, Tx) cleanup dive this Sunday and we'll see how well it does in nasty green water.

 

[kelemvor]

It might be a great product. Running Linux/android with busybox sounds appealing. That would give you a level of flexibility not seen in any other action cam that I know of.

However, If the manufacturer really thinks it's the worlds' first action camera for divers then they have a screw loose. There are many. Every one I've seen is less expensive, too - even the big name brands.

Is the color correction done with some type of automated lens filter system or is it software based?

 

[bmorescuba]

It might be a great product. Running Linux/android with busybox sounds appealing. That would give you a level of flexibility not seen in any other action cam that I know of.

However, If the manufacturer really thinks it's the worlds' first action camera for divers then they have a screw loose. There are many. Every one I've seen is less expensive, too - even the big name brands.

Is the color correction done with some type of automated lens filter system or is it software based?

Color correction is software-based. Selectable for Green or Blue water. The amount of color correction applied is proportional to depth. As of now, you cannot manually change the amount applied, but I've talked with the company and they may implement a "power scale" (apply cc 25%, 50%, 100%, etc.) in a future firmware update.

I've been an alpha tester for awhile now. The color correction is probably not as good as shooting raw video or protune and grading it in post, but it's a hell of a lot easier. The camera is impressive, but the alpha models definitely had stability issues. My production model is in the post, we'll see if it's more stable.

 

[tuk]

@kelemvor

Out of curiosity, who else makes an action camera specifically for diving? There are a number of cameras that'll do 50-60' but I haven't seen any that'll go deeper without a housing. I've blown a GoPro housing at 100' and had them basically tell me to shove it, even though I provided photos of the problems with the housing seal that were obvious manufacturing defects. I bought in to the kickstarter because I liked not having the extra failing point.

(I guess there's the notable exception of the Liquid Vision line of masks that don't fit my face even a little bit.)

 

[bamafan]

Is there a way to turn off the color correcting feature? If you are using video lights in a dark environment such as a cave it would seem to me that color correcting wouldn't be something that you wanted.

 

[tuk]

There is. It's actually off by default in the build I have. You have to turn it on and select blue or green water to use it.

 

[kelemvor]

Aokon, intova, iconntechs, ActionSavvy, odrvm, canon (vixia), kingzer, nikon (keymission), sony (cybershot), liquid image, lorex, I'm sure you could find a hundred if you spent more than a few minutes. Go to amazon.com and type in scuba video camera. Some of these need housings for diving, some need housings to go deeper than open water depths. Is the claim that they're the first to make a camera only for diving that can't also be on land?

Paralenz does have some interesting features from what I've read. Mostly the depth sensor and (I assume) programmable OS. It's $200 more than the leader; gopro, so I'd expect there are some awesome features given that it's the most expensive scuba action camera. If they allow third parties to write software for the camera, it could evolve into the Android of cameras - which I'm sure would be desirable for the guys making it.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Mine arrives today. I'll try it out next Monday on a night dive.

 

[tuk]

All of those have the condition that I mentioned (except Liquid Vision): they need a housing to go more than 50-60'. I'm not sure about the Intova. I've never seen it but it looks like it's still just a camera with a housing (correct me if I'm wrong). So I think their claim holds. It's a camera _specifically_ designed for diving: automatic color correction for blue/green water without filters, depth sensor, temperature sensor, controls designed for use with thick dive gloves, no housing needed a good to 21ATM. So when they say they're the first "for divers," I think that claim stands.

It's $200 more than the top of the line GoPro and if leaks at depth I hope they'll do more than just tell me "That sucks but it's not our fault." I bought mine during the kickstarter campaign though, so I paid less than the price of a GoPro 5.