Paralenz

[happy-diver]

Looks as if there's something stopping it from closing fully for that last 10 degrees.

Yes the thread being machined into the cap10 degrees too soon man

Yes even more naff considering Nikolai said he would replace the cap
then under the watchful eye of Adrianna Dudek the crap cap remains

It is who they are Wibble.

Poorerlens **** ** them

 

[Wibble]

They are excellent in limited use cases. For my need for reliability and deeper diving in a relatively compact package, it works well. Similarly for a helmet monitoring video.

There’s plenty of better compact cameras hat may be more suited for people more interested in photography.

Their concept of a video dive log would be more applicable to holiday divers with masses of storage space. Absence of diving parameters other than depth makes it pointless for serious divers who use Shearwater computers.

 

[Gone for diving]

Anyone have suggestions of a similar camara to a paralenz...
I call them bullet cameras...
Seems like it's hard to find a decent high resolution camera in an cylindrical style

I am like Wibble and just want a decent camera to use just in case I see something interesting and need proof.

 

[Wibble]

Anyone have suggestions of a similar camara to a paralenz...
I call them bullet cameras...
Seems like it's hard to find a decent high resolution camera in an cylindrical style

I am like Wibble and just want a decent camera to use just in case I see something interesting and need proof.

I've not found another Paralenz "equivalent" camera, i.e. a self-contained small camera that reliably works deep. The 'bullet' style means it can be attached to an umbilical dive torch without becoming too cumbersome -- such that you can clip the torch+camera off to the chest D-ring and protect the lens when not in use, particularly when jumping in or climbing out (need a photo here to explain!)

The alternatives always seem to be the GoPro style camera but with a proper underwater housing (their plastic housings aren't reliable for deep diving). GoPro-style cameras are somewhat larger than the Paralenz being a "cube" format so are a bit awkward to attach to an umbilical torch. They seem to be more suited to some form of lighting tray rig which is far from convenient to handle underwater and when entering/exiting the water. The pictures would likely be better though because the lighting is optimised (lighting's far more important than camera quality).

All other cameras are larger, be that the iPhone housings, compact cameras, etc.

Basically the Paralenz works really well as a "with you all the time" camera even when it's not on a lighting rig, even though this produces unexceptional photos which are "far better than nothing". Of course it's a different matter if you mount the Paralenz on a two-handed lighting rig; the photos/videos are far far better, but at the loss of convenience.

BTW, mounting a camera on a helmet just produces hours of terrible raw footage, probably with little or no lighting optimisation. The Paralenz doesn't work well with a narrow-beamed torch (and probably no other camera does either).

 

[CuzzA]

BTW, mounting a camera on a helmet just produces hours of terrible raw footage, probably with little or no lighting

If you're sharing hours of dive footage I can assure you no one is watching. I was recently diving off Cano Island and just didn't feel like carrying anything. Mask mounted the camera and I think the video came out pretty damn good. If you're sharing your dive trip videos they really should be less than 5 minutes as we are not producing NatGeo documentaries. So quick cuts on the interesting things you see is what should be in the final edit. That eliminates head jerking, which happens even if you have a tray. Nevertheless, this dispells the mask or helmet mount myth that you can't produce decent videos. No tray, no lights.

 

[Wibble]

It's after Christmas and the dregs of 2021 left. Thought I'd give the Paralenz a service because the ring was extremely stiff.

Pulled it apart; O-rings off, slight prising of the ring to free it and it came off OK, remove the magnet ring (under the selector ring), remove the top switch... Clean everything (except O-rings) with some WD40, thorough wipe down. All fine.

Liberal application of the grease that comes in the maintenance kit. Re-assemble.

The selector ring's off by one segment

Remove, fiddle, replace. Same again... It's definitely aligned with the outer blue ring. Suspect the damn magnet ring's broken as they look a bit corroded.

Have used the spare one from the maintenance kit already. Would like to just get a spare magnet selector ring as I don't need the rest of the kit. Obviously cannot find it online...

So looks like I've got to pay ~$130 just for the magnet ring, plus a superfluous load of other unneeded spares. Also appears that all the UK dive shops are out of stock... Oh joy.



Am now seriously considering getting a "proper" deep GoPro housing and a GoPro 10. At least there's a usable screen on a GoPro, although they're much larger than a Paralenz which pretty easily clips to a primary torch.

 

[Gone for diving]

Yes I want a nice slimline barrel style camera , that's simple,.
I like gopros but are to clunky to always take with,
Are there any other options that are any good, besides Paralenz,

Seems like motorcycle cams are sometimes like that but, obviously not scuba rated, I don't mind making a PVC tube housing, but camera specs never seem very good

 

[Wibble]

Nice thing to say about Paralenz and their service...

As per my post above, my Paralenz camera was messing around with the rotary selector switch; one of the magnets had failed.

Hunted around for the spare on the internet. Ended up pinging Paralenz a message on 29th December and they responded. Slight niggle was the spare part was only €2/$2.20, but the freight charge brought it to €29/$35. That arrived on the 30th December from Denmark. I bought two spare ring selectors.

Camera works fine now.

So good service from @Paralenz.

Thank you.