Name: Paralenz Dive Camera Vaquita
Brand: Paralenz
SKU: PRLVAQ
Price: 599.95 USD
Availability: Discontinued
Rating: 2.2 (5 reviews)

Paralenz Vaquita is a small yet powerful underwater camera with a simple mission: to enable you to seamlessly capture and share brilliant underwater videos with the world. Get wet, discover the depths...

Paralenz Dive Camera Vaquita

Paralenz

Scuba

Photography

Underwater Cameras

Sale: Paralenz Dive Camera Vaquita Buy now & save $199. Action Camera Gear: Cameras, Type: Cameras

Paralenz Vaquita is a small yet powerful underwater camera with a simple mission: to enable you to seamlessly capture and share brilliant underwater videos with the world. Get wet, discover the depths below, and make an impact. Every dive counts. OLED Display: Frame your adventure. Keep a real-time overview of what you're recording on the Paralenz Vaquita's new True Color OLED screen. It also displays your dive profile along with the current depth and temperature information. Up to 4K: Marine life just got really sharp. Capture ocean life in all its details. Paralenz Vaquita's updated technology delivers the smoothest and most vivid underwater videos up to 4K (4k 60fps / 1080p 240fps).  Paralenz uses the HEVC (H.265) video codec which stores more image information while using less storage space and preserving the dynamic range of your recordings. Intelligent Color Correction: Vivid colors, all the way down. Take back all those vivid colors you remember from your dive up to the surface. Paralenz Vaquita's patented depth-controlled color correction (DCC) automatically adjusts the white balance of your recording to the depth you're diving at. Compared to the use of filters, Paralenz built-in color correction allows for all the light to be collected. Thanks to the power of the new Ambarella processor, Paralenz Vaquita is constantly optimizing the color correction together with you.  Auto-Record: More diving, less worrying. There is no more need to manually start your recording. Adjust your preferred depth level at which the Paralenz Vaquita automatically starts and stops recording. Collect Ocean Data: Make every dive count! Paralenz Vaquita has a unique set of sensors that automatically track valuable ocean data. Sharing your underwater videos and the ocean data with  Paralenz App allows marine scientists to learn more about the Ocean and help restore its health. Built for the size of your hand. Vaquita's high-grade aluminum body fits perfectly in the palm of your hand and can be easily operated with neoprene gloves. You can also attach it to your mask or to your gear. Out of the box and into the ocean, don't worry about buying additional camera housings and filters. Paralenz Vaquita comes with everything you need.  Dive Buddies: The camera and the App. Connect your Paralenz Vaquita to their free Paralenz App to transfer your recordings. Check your dives with the intelligent dive log and scroll through your media library. Proud of a shot? Simply edit it and share the video as a story with other divers. The best part: you help save our ocean with every shared story. Put your dive on the map: Turn your dive into a story and put it on the map   Inspire and get inspired! You can view dives from all around the world and get ideas for your next adventure. Your Dives. Your Stories. Your Impact: Any underwater camera can capture a dive. But does it speak for the ocean? Every time you share a dive with the Paralenz App you share valuable Ocean data with researchers worldwide. Sharing Ocean Data to make an impact: Paralenz vision is to enable every diver to help protect our playground: the ocean. With every dive you share through the Paralenz App, you also share valuable Ocean data to researchers and conservationists worldwide. How we work with partners: Your Paralenz camera automatically collects Ocean data about the location, depth, temperature, and conductivity during your dive. When you share your dive through the Paralenz App, Paralenz distribute all relevant ocean data to their partners, supporting their efforts to help save the ocean.  Included with the camera are a click mount, USB-C cable and spare O-rings. The camera provides a 12MP RAW plus jpeg, 4K at 60fps, 4K HDR at 30fps and 1080p at 240fps. FOV (1/1.8") D135 / H110 / V57 lens. Video format: MOV - H264 4K 60fps / H265 4K 30fps. Video bitrate: 100 Mbps. Stabilization: EIS 4K 30fps. Color correction: WB + DCC. The camera display is a 0.95" (2.4cm) true color OLED 180x120p live view (viewfinder, dive profile overlay). Connectivity Wi-Fi 2.4G (5Ghz), Bluetooth and USB. Compatible Apps: Android, iOS and Transfer: Easy Pairing. Chip image sensor Ambarella H2s65 a Sony IMX577. Materials, Sealing, and Mounting: 6061 aluminum alloy housing, quick-release coupling with triple O-ring seal. Mounting: T-rails (not compatible with Dive Camera+), no extra housing needed. Audio: Internal microphone.  Power is supplied by a lithium-ion 200 mAh battery. Camera ports are USB - Type C (fast charging) and micro SD-card. Camera external sensors for pressure, temperature, GPS, conductivity, 9 axis gyroscope, accelerometer, and time. The camera measures 5" x 1.5" x 1.7" (128mm x 40mm x 43mm) and weighs 8.47 oz. (240 g) with an underwater buoyancy of negative 3.53 oz (-100 g). The memory/storage capacity is 128Gb Micro SD-Card (Class: U3 or V30) - not included. The housing is water and dust resistant 1,150' (350m), is shockproof and has a temperature range of 14 Degree F to 104 Degree F (-10 Degree C to 40 Degree C). Camera comes with an owner's manual.

The build is sturdy, and can take good pics and videos under the right cinditions.  Battery life was good (able to do at least two dives on a charge).  But so many issues that I was very disappointed.  Issues include:
- Takes forever to powerup - so if you're low on battery, hard to conserve and still use
- Cannot take close up pics - really, really bad limitation
- By itself, awkward to take pics - the Grip did help - but that's another expense
- No significant audio - but when taking pics while filming, get annoying click from trigger on video
- Tiny display
- Does show preview of pic after shot, but does not allow playback on display so if miss it or taking lots of pics hard to know if got a good one
- App is absolutely terrible - not intuitive, no good instruction or tips, horrible for uploading to phone or editing video. Given that you are unable to remove or delete files from camera card through the camera or phone, no way to make space and no idea what to do if run out of space (buy two cards or bring a computer on the trip?). Ability to "map the ocean" is total hype.
- As noted, battery is ok for at least two dives - but if doing 3 or more dives could be an issue, esp if boat doesn't have charging (cameras where you can swap out batteries are better for this - maybe bring a battery pack to charge off of?)
- Needs a card - pretty standard for buying camera - but an extra expense to keep in mind when getting over the sticker shock
- Hard to tell when filming turned on or off - missed some good videos thinking it was filming
- No obvious way to add lighting or flash capability
Overall, it's well built and seems durable.  But for the price, there's so many thing wrong with it, I wouldn't recommend it at all.  For less, you can get comparable photos/videos and more functionality from a good sport camera.

Very disappointing for the price

Both my wife and I are Divemasters in Key Largo. We run these cameras with the grip. In the photo / video mode, you simply pull and release the trigger and it takes a photo OR, if you pull and hold the trigger it starts recording video and stops recording when you release the trigger. So easy to use and I have gotten fabulous photos and video of our wreck and reef dives here in Key Largo.

The Paralenz Vaquita + Grip Configuration is Awesome!

Buyer beware!! The thought that divers would make a camera for divers is awesome, but this company shows ZERO loyalty to it?s customers. I had the earliest version of Paralenz then, a second, version and the natural progression to the Vaquita, only to find out the company has COMPLETELY dropped all support for previous versions and the Vaquita has a lot of insufficiencies. Who wants a camera that U can not use for closeups?  I am now dropping this company like they have dropped their supporters.

Buyers Beware!

The camera is nice but the soft ware sucks.

Good camera needs work on software

I have used a Paralenz Plus for the last 6 months and have loved it so was looking forward to getting this new camera.  After diving with it for three days I returned it and was extremely disappointed.  They increased the focal length to 1M (just over 3 feet).  So anything closer than 3 feet from the camera is completely out of focus.  I found that a great deal of the subjects I was trying to film were closer than 3 feet so this camera ended up being useless to me.  For subjects greater than 3 feet away the pictures were quite good.  I love the Depth Color Correction (same as earlier versions of the camera) .  I was used to the fairly long battery life (3+ hours on the Plus) but found that the Vaquita only gave less than an hour of battery life.  This was terrible.  I don't know if the battery in my brand new Vaquita was bad or if the life is really this bad.  The other concern I found was with the new end cap design.  It is not a screw on design like with the Plus.  This one has a ring you pull back on end then pull off the end cap to get to where you put in the micro disk and recharge the battery.  The issue is that the small amount of water that is under the ring gets pulled into the end cap and onto the screen/disk/charging area.  I believe this will lead to maintenance issues and reduce camera life due to this design flaw.  How could Paralenz get the Plus model so right and then completely blow it with the Vaquita?  My disappointment was incredible.