The Paralenz Vaquita is a point-and-shoot underwater camera designed exclusively for scuba diving. The Vaquita is a high-end camera designed for more professional photographers and videographers.
It has a cylindrical chassis and can be easily adjusted while submerged without the need for an additional waterproof housing.
Based on your depth, the Depth-Controlled Color Correction (DCC), which is essentially a digital filter, adjusts the white balance of your video and images.
What You Need to Know About the Paralenz Vaquita
Let’s examine some of the key elements and their operation in greater detail.
Display
You can view the footage you’re recording on the Vaquita’s tiny 0.95 inch (2.4 cm) OLED true color display. Although it is smaller than the GoPro Hero 10’s, the Paralenz DiveCamera+ is a welcome improvement.
No longer will you have to aim and hope that you’ve captured that turtle exactly in the center of the shot. You can see exactly what’s in the frame before taking the picture.
Your dive profile, along with the current depth and temperature, are displayed on the viewfinder and uploaded with the video.
Sensors
Like most Dive Computers, the Vaquita features sensors to record temperature and depth throughout the dive. Furthermore, a GPS sensor enables you to follow their dive and always know the precise location of their preferred dive sites. The water’s salinity is tracked by a conductivity sensor.
While this may not seem like the kind of information you should be aware of when logging your dive, it will be crucial for marine researchers (more on this fascinating feature later).
Depth Color Correction (DCC)
Physical characteristics are excellent for enhancing an underwater camera’s capacity to capture colors that would otherwise vanish at depth. DCC is Paralenz’s patented technology that automatically adjusts the camera’s white balance depending on what depth you’re at.
While video might seem a little de-saturated at shallow depths, it can be corrected when editing later. In fact, video taken at a distance of 5 to 10 feet may appear somewhat flat (even though it is still clear), but looking at film taken at a distance of 10 feet or more reveals clarity, depth, and good contrast. It does a good job of “seeing” the reds not otherwise visible.
Video Quality
The Paralenz Vaquita is a small underwater camera that is incredibly powerful and allows every level of diver to capture their underwater adventure. It is a little bit bigger than the original camera.
With the Paralenz Vaquita, you can record in either 1080p or 4K HDR. In essence, this means that your videos will be more detailed and smooth. You can produce slow-motion videos with this extremely high frame rate when using the 1080p 240 frames per second mode.
You can still get high-quality recordings using an upgraded codec (the HEVC (H.265)), but the file size is significantly smaller. Additionally, a new Sony digital image sensor that is located at the back of the chassis is bigger than the one on the DiveCamera+’s predecessor. Greater light capture results in improved contrast, more realistic shadow and depth presentation.
Auto Record
How often do you emerge from a great dive only to discover that you forgot to hit the record button because you were too busy enjoying yourself? The Vaquita starts recording automatically as soon as it touches the water, eliminating the need for manual initiation.
As soon as it leaves the water, it stops, according to this. Some people might consider this less than ideal because they would rather capture the dive’s conclusion. Although we didn’t find a need for it, there may be a setting to effect this change.
Battery
Paralenz has a lithium polymer battery of 2000mAh giving you more than enough power to film 2 normal dives. By shooting at a lower resolution when your battery is low, you can prolong battery life. The Vaquita charges via USB-c, and a full charge takes about an hour.
The addition of interchangeable batteries, like those found on many action cameras, would be nice. You could then bring a backup battery that is fully charged with you on the dive boat.
The Vaquita in Short?
Every level of diver can record their underwater adventure with crystal-clear videos and photos thanks to the Paralenz Vaquita, a compact underwater camera with a lot of power. Additionally, you’re preserving the oceans while having fun on your underwater adventure.
Paralenz has always claimed that its cameras are “made by divers, for divers.” The DiveCamera+ was a fantastic piece of equipment, but the Vaquita is a significant upgrade. To make underwater photography and videography even simpler, the company listened to its customers and made improvements.
Paralenz has been successful in turning every diver into a photographer by eliminating the need to worry about white balance and producing high-quality images with the Vaquita. Whether you’re into tech, cave, ice, or lake diving, a beginner diver or professional this could be the only camera you will ever need.
Paralenz Vaquita Vs GoPro Hero 10
Before we go into more detail about the Vaquita, let’s quickly compare it to the GoPro Hero 10.
The Paralenz Vaquita is twice as expensive as the GoPro Hero 10 with a price of $799,- for the Vaquita versus $399 for the GoPro Hero 10 with an underwater house.
At this price, one might think the Vaquita should be twice as good as the Hero 10. How does that, though, affect the overall experience and video quality? To compare these two cameras, we used them on several dives side by side. The GoPro has better sensors, can record in higher resolution, has larger screens, and has both a front and back (touch) LCD screen on the camera. So when you look at the specs, the DCC on the Vaquita is the only glaring difference between these two “competitors”. Does this represent the cost difference?
There is a warning for the Hero 10 in this situation. While the Vaquita has a digital filter (the DCC) to correct for color loss, GoPros use physical filters to saturate images to show (primarily) red colors at depth.
The Vaquita captures more than just images, beyond saturation levels. Each dive will also include conditions that the camera records; the story of these conditions can be viewed via the Paralenz App after the dive. For a complete story to go along with any picture or video, that also includes the depth profile, geo-location, and ocean conditions.
No other underwater camera collects and presents such a wealth of dive information like the Vaquita does.
We discovered that there’s no reason to use anything other than a GoPro Hero 10 in shallow water. Therefore, snorkeling and free diving—where you don’t go much deeper than 15 feet and where the Hero excels—are great activities to engage in. However, as soon as you go deeper, Paralenz’ color correction really starts to work, and there is a noticeable difference as the Vaquita pulls far ahead of the GoPro.
The Hero 10 will display reds and contrast when using a filter, but after 15-20 feet (depending on the water’s temperature), GoPro video starts to look dark and smudged.
Vaquita’s color correction, on the other hand, really comes into its own at 15 feet. Where pictures normally look totally de-saturated–way too blue and dull–a clarity and good white balance present something nice.
Additionally, Vaquita’s video capture contains more information, allowing for better image and film retouching during post-production.
Conclusion
The purpose of the Paralenz Vaquita underwater camera is to make it easy for you to capture and broadcast stunning underwater videos to a global audience. Get wet, explore the depths beneath, and have an impact. Every dive counts.
