Deep and low light > what action cam and setup do you use?

[Etmutt]

Hello guys,

I m an occasional go pro (8) user and I had quite a few disappointment on low level ght footage. In my experience, when the conditions get darker, I tend to get a simple blurry blue screen.

Now, my buddy me ved away recently, with his camera, and it seems about time I get one for my self and I need advice

What I m looking for is a simple to use, one-do-it-all, light and small camera,that will be able to catch the devil ray that comes check you out at 60m in very low light (in my experience, not the gopro8).
What I am not looking for is a super high resolution, extreme stabilization and so on
Ideally, after market housing solutions should be available to take it to 100m deep.

Does that camera exists? Did I just mess up gopro set up?

 

[Johnoly]

Ideally, after market housing solutions should be available to take it to 100m deep.

That's not "Consumer" grade like GoPro with button's that don't work that deep. 100M deep is Professional grade like Gates, Red Epic and many more. And there's a difference between 'low' and 'NO' light cameras

 

[Wibble]

Hello guys,

I m an occasional go pro (8) user and I had quite a few disappointment on low level ght footage. In my experience, when the conditions get darker, I tend to get a simple blurry blue screen.

Now, my buddy me ved away recently, with his camera, and it seems about time I get one for my self and I need advice

What I m looking for is a simple to use, one-do-it-all, light and small camera,that will be able to catch the devil ray that comes check you out at 60m in very low light (in my experience, not the gopro8).
What I am not looking for is a super high resolution, extreme stabilization and so on
Ideally, after market housing solutions should be available to take it to 100m deep.

Does that camera exists? Did I just mess up gopro set up?

I've a couple of dual-light umbilical torches on Goodman handles. They've both got a narrow light for signalling and general diving, but also have a wide beam for video/photography.

I use a Paralenz and have that mounted on a 1" ball mount that's screwed to the Goodman handle. It's not the best, but it will be useful to capture that passing mermaid/whatever. Obviously for good pictures, you must separate the light sources and should carry more than one.

The torches aren't cheap but they are bright. One is a Light-for-Me NW7, the other is an Anchor 189. Both will do 100m, but more importantly will work reliably and work well.

The cheap way is to get one of the Chinese video torches which apparently are quite good. Never used one, but believe they're of the $100 price range. Someone else can post their experiences.

 

[Etmutt]

And there's a difference between 'low' and 'NO' light cameras

Around here, the visibility is such that day light is good enough until 70 / 80 m. After that, torche becomes useful.

I had a look at the pro range : interesting but definitely out of budget range

 

[Etmutt]

@Wibble, would say that paralenz works better in low light than a gopro?

 

[Wibble]

Don’t know. But it doesn’t flood and is smaller where the lens can be tucked into the Goodman handle.

The GoPro would need a proper metal housing if gearing up for a 100m/330ft dive and probably would be a fair amount larger due to its shape when compared with the Paralenz.

I value utility over picture quality.

If you’re after reasonable quality pictures then you’ll need to use a tray and two lights, with all the inconvenience that brings. The GoPro would be much better at that then the Paralenz because of the rear screen.

Personally I see the Paralenz as like a Kodak Instamatic as the lack of a screen makes results a bit random. A lot random TBH.

Am contemplating a GoPro for use in the tray for significant dives. Maybe even an iPhone housing.

 

[GF99/99]

That's not "Consumer" grade like GoPro with button's that don't work that deep. 100M deep is Professional grade like Gates, Red Epic and many more. And there's a difference between 'low' and 'NO' light cameras

Actually there are several consumer GoPro housing rated beyond 100m and I am not Gates or Red expert but most of these housing are not even rated to 100m some are only 70m rating.

For GoPro check out iQsub/Golem Gear they have 150m and 300m housings GoPro housings - depth rated to 500 or 1000ft
There is also Action Cam Housings they have 200m housings
Also there is T-HOUSING Aluminium Housing for GoPro Hero 10 and Hero 9 — ACTIONPRO T-HOUSING T-Housing rated to 250m

I went for the paralenz and am not very impressed with it. The video quality and image stabilization on the new 9 and 10 gopro's are amazing! I find all my Paralenz videos to be a little shaky also the Paralenz really struggle to focus on anything close. Also the slide button and rotation switch to change modes seems to fill with sand all the time.

If I had to do it all over again I would get the gopro with 300m housing.

Also I can tell from experience with my Paralenz it only works down to about 110m to 130m depending water vis. with out some sort of external light. I have have several videos at 130m and you can barley see anything and at 150m the paralenz is complete black, you need lights to pick up any video.

 

[happy-diver]

I modified a thing

mounted anywhere the paralenz is 100 percent sheisdreck

That's if it actually decides to work
and you can take that to their bank

 

[Wibble]

Paralenz pros:

• Doesn't flood - well built housing which has been very reliable
• The "torch" format is good in use; more compact than a GoPro-style camera
• Videos and pictures are OK
• Good battery life
• Quite like the depth and temp sub-display.

Paralenz cons:

• Difficult to know what setting's selected on the ring when it's dark without finding a torch to point at it -- there's no index 'lump' on it, so can't tell by feel where it is
• Can't feel the vibration/taptic feedback thing through gloves, i.e. no use in cold water.
• I really struggle to read the tiny screen. Not keen on the user interface as it's confusing underwater
• Occasionally get stupid settings randomly happen such as the DCC turn on, ruining all shots (it's dark where I dive; DCC turns up the red so any lighting becomes magenta.
• Dislike the user interface which isn't clear. Returned from a deeper dive on a historic wreck to discover that the camera was ON when I thought it was off, and OFF when I thought it was on. 1h40 of footage from the camera dangling from my chest D-ring at deco isn't particularly exciting. Not seeing the wreck is rather annoying.
• The Paralenz (cr)app isn't any good. Just about useful for changing settings; doesn't work for downloading and viewing videos (have a 128Gb card)
• Very slow to release software updates.

Hints

• It likes to be rinsed after use. Especially rotate the setting ring to clean any crap and seawater
• You need to charge it within a day or three of diving as the battery is consumed on standby

Was quite annoyed about the Pathfinder wreck (sunk in 1914 as the first ship to be sunk by a submarine-fired torpedo). Was hoping to get some review footage after the dive. Kind of proof that the tiny screen's too small and they've made it too confusing.

Would like them to have a compass display on the overlay and the ability to remove the superfluous temperature setting - depth and angle would be great (even if affected by magnetic anomalies from a wreck)

 

[Etmutt]

I value utility over picture quality as well ; but if the paralenz isn't reliable then my choice is made.
@Wibble @happy-diver Do you use the last version of the paralenz or an earlier one?