First Impressions: Paralenz Vaquita 2nd Gen Dive Camera (Watch Video)
I recently had the chance to try out the new Paralenz Vaquita 2nd Gen Dive Camera. A trip up to my local quarry, Capernwray, to get a friend who had not been diving in many years, was the perfect dive to give this camera a bit of real-world testing. My focus was on my buddy, but once he was comfortable and happy, I grabbed a few moments to try out this impressive camera. Please excuse the post-dive hair in the video!
The camera and accessories all arrive in sustainable, plastic-free packaging which is always a good start. And once out of the box you can feel the quality of the camera. I was glad to see that there was a macro option for this camera and I was using the trigger for the first time.
My initial thoughts are that this is another step forward for Paralenz. The wide angle footage looks great, with a wider field that the previous Vaquita. The in-built colour correction works really well, even in green water, and meant that I did not have to do any post dive editing of the footage.
The trigger grip is going to be my go-to mount for this camera after using on this dive. It helps keep the camera steady and works well for taking both still images and video clips.
The macro lens and flip lens holder meant hat you can switch easily from wide angle shooting to macro on a single dive. The macro lens came with a handy stick to show the perfect focus distance for the lens. Whilst this will not be practical in most diving situations, whilst testing it gave me a good feel for the distance and I ended up not needing it when I shot the macro footage at the end of this video clip. Capernwray does not offer the best macro opportunities and so I look forward to getting this camera and lens into the ocean for some more macro subjects.
The camera keeps track of your depth, water temperature, location, ascent and descent rates and can upload all this, along with images and video clips, to the app – to act as a visual dive log, as well as an incredible way for divers to add this data to help track sea temperature changes around the world. It is depth rated to an incredible 350m without any additional housing or equipment.
This was just a quick test and I was impressed. I will be using this camera diving both in the UK and overseas in the coming months and will write a more in depth review once I have had more opportunities to use it. But my first impression is that this is a great dive camera for anyone that likes to shoot underwater video, but hates post dive editing (like me)!
For more information visit the Paralenz website by clicking here.
