Learning to Make Videos - Paralenz Camera - Christ of the Abyss

[1000RR]

That's great @IncreaseMyT ! We've only been out on your side a couple times. Both were very close to shore doing Meg dives in about 20-30' w/only 3-5' vis, 10' at best. So sounds like green for that. I'll let you know if we can coordinate something out on your side that gets us out a little further to see some stuff. Maybe a wreck or something - if they're any good ones off your side over there?!

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Well the wrecks are smaller but there is a ton of them. How deep do you like to dive?

 

[1000RR]

Well the wrecks are smaller but there is a ton of them. How deep do you like to dive?

My daughter is 14-1/2 so for now we've been sticking to 60' or less. Due to that, we haven't had much experience in the way of wreck dives. Our typical dive off of WPB is a drift dive at 50-60' which is what we've done the most of. In Grand Cayman I suspect we might creep past 60' a little bit as we do some wall dives there. We just got certified last summer/year and diving as much as we can (20 dives so far). I figure when she turns 15, not only will the dive ops be more willing to take us on the wreck dives, but more importantly we'll have more experience by then as well. She loves going Meg hunting... not a pretty dive, but the finds are always awesome! She wants to do a hammerhead dive so maybe sometime soon we'll try and get over to the Bahamas for that? We're new to all of it (~1yr of diving) so we just enjoy getting out and seeing a new world.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Ok awesome sounds like she is doing really good, my son has only done his checkout dives so this weekend we are going to key largo and then soon after that id like to get him going a little deeper to 70 ish feet.

I think if we go out with Joel we should shoot for doing the Gravy Train. Usually what that entails is we will stop on the way out at a ledge and drop down 40-50 feet just to get comfortable. Then head to the Gravy Train which is about 30 miles offshore, its usually the first wreck, or shallowest wreck where the visibility is always pretty good. Its a small wreck and you can't penetrate it or get lost and its 90 feet but thats at the bow all the way to the sand. Average depth on a dive there is about 75 feet. I think we would be fine there as long as everyone is used to doing a safety stop. Gravy Train has tons of life on it and almost always some bull sharks. Thousands of snapper and at least 4-5 really big goliath. Its actually one of my favorite wrecks.

Then after that we can go to the mine sweeper which is like 65 feet to the bottom there is always a large group of Goliath there and a bunch of snapper.

Then on the way in can stop the artificial reefs and those are always stacked to the brim with Cuda and sometimes decent visibility.

Based on the skill level I think that would be a great day. The other wrecks are all in 110-150 feet of water.

Here is a log of the last time I did the gravy train my max depth was 79 feet:

Dive #1
Elapsed time: 29 minutes
Vis: 25 ft
Max depth: 79 ft
Min temp: 76
Average depth: 63 ft
Start pressure: 3,398
End pressure: 110
F02: 33%

It was crawling with snapper and permit and unfortunately right when we dropped in the gags took off, my buddy was able to tag a 28 incher as they were swimming away. There were about 6 goliaths on the wreck and the mangroves, at least the big ones, were tucked under the bow of the wreck and under the goliath.

I saw a nice size keeper so I took the shot and immediately one of the goliaths jumped on it, so I swam down the line and was able to scare him off with the butt end of my gun. It took me longer than usually to get this mangrove on the stringer because I shot it late and in the gut.

Once I finally did get it on the stringer I dropped back down and eyed up the hole under the bow and there was a flash of almost fluorescent green, I swear I thought I saw a dragon Then I look behind the smaller snapper and there is a huge mangrove behind one of them at least 25 inches probably closer to 30 and I got the shot off and the minute it hit the whole underside of the wreck went crazy, I think I may have went through the snapper and clipped a goliath.

I start reeling in my line as fast as I could and somehow after thrashing around in the hole he wiggles off my spear and it totally sucked cause it would have been the biggest mangrove I have ever gotten.

So I am re-loading and there it is, the biggest eel I had ever seen in my life, longer than me so plus 6 foot and he was a brilliant green color, swear it looked like a dragon, he swam from the hole I was shooting in to the other side of the wreck. That made me pucker up a little.

Meanwhile I am messing with the mangroves my buddy is on the other side of the wreck shooting two really nice size permit. I figured this out cause as I was reloading I saw him get drug to the other side of the wreck by the bigger one lol.

So I finish loading and one of the bigger goliaths decides to come out from under the wreck and swim up behind me, eyeballing the snapper I have on my stringer. We have a staring contest for a couple minutes and he takes off so I find another decent size mangrove under the bow, nothing like the one earlier though. I get reloaded, my watch is beeping I am down to about 800 lbs but I am right on the front of the wreck where we dropped in so I just have to go straight up to the boat. So I find another pretty decent size mangrove and I take the shot and totally miss lol *facepalm* and now my spear is stuck in the sand and some net right under the wreck and I am hesitant to get down there because these goliath's are all stirred up and I literally shot into one of their beds. Plus, as a newer diver I usually come up at 800 lbs.

So I get down to my spear and I am jerking left and right and its not coming up I need to get my knife under the tab on the spear and flip it up to pull it out but I decide not to risk it and undo my swivel and leave my spear in the ground under the wreck and thankfully my buddy came in behind me and was able to get it out. I do my safety stop and head back to the boat.

 

[1000RR]

She is doing great. Very comfortable, good bouyancy... That sounds like an awesome day. What does Joel typically charge for something like that? He can supply tanks, or we bring our own?

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Honestly I have no idea, he happens to be a friend of mine and I've never went out with him like that.

So I just text and he said:

For the 15 mile range reefs and ledges: $400 not including air. 4 people max but 3 dives.

For the 35-50 mile range (thats where gravy train paddle wheel etc) it is $1,000 without air and you can bring your own tanks 3 dives also.

Which isn't bad I don't think, use a lot of gas on those trips. Bill the other guy charges $1500 for a full day but he goes like 70 miles out.

Usually here for every mile you go out its about 2 ft deep.

He said if there is an in-between range that he can work a specific price for that.

 

[1000RR]

May have to consider that! the 35-50 mile would be $500 for us plus air but that sounds like a fun day!!

 

[EireDiver606]

Paralenz have a minor brightness issue on the video sometimes (don’t know if this was fixed or not). The light shows up slightly different even though the light in the area in real life hasn’t changed.

 

[1000RR]

Paralenz have a minor brightness issue on the video sometimes (don’t know if this was fixed or not). The light shows up slightly different even though the light in the area in real life hasn’t changed.

What firmware version were you running when you noticed that? I saw they have v1.3.8 out now. Not sure if this exact thing was addressed or not.

I got my Paralenz over the weekend and so far am liking what I see. The version of camera I received already had the upgraded rear cap (metal now instead of plastic). Took some test videos, moved them over to my phone via the phone App & WiFi. Upgraded to the latest firmware (came with 1.3.0, upgraded to 1.3.8) Menus were very easy to understand and set up. Will be testing it out next week in Grand Cayman. Hopefully it goes smooth.

 

[EireDiver606]

What firmware version were you running when you noticed that? I saw they have v1.3.8 out now. Not sure if this exact thing was addressed or not.

I got my Paralenz over the weekend and so far am liking what I see. The version of camera I received already had the upgraded rear cap (metal now instead of plastic). Took some test videos, moved them over to my phone via the phone App & WiFi. Upgraded to the latest firmware (came with 1.3.0, upgraded to 1.3.8) Menus were very easy to understand and set up. Will be testing it out next week in Grand Cayman. Hopefully it goes smooth.

I’m not sure what version that was but we noticed on our GUE Fundamentals course diving debrief