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I had a bit of a disaster a few weeks
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Many of you know that I use this, which
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is a Paralenz Vaquita, for recording
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most of my videos. Now, unfortunately,
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what happened is it basically stopped
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when I put it on to charge, all that
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happened is it heated up, but it didn't
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come back to life. That's really sad
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because the vast majority of my videos
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come from these. Now, I do have two, but
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clearly losing one is really bad news.
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The issue, of course, is that Paralenz
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went bust about 4 years ago. So, most
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people think it's impossible to get new
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ones of these. Now, the good news is
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that's not true. And I reached out to
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the guy who used to manufacture them,
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who is obviously a Chinese guy. And I
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said, "Look, I'm trying to get hold of
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replacement Paralenz." He has been in
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touch. And after an exchange of some
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funds, he sent me he sent me some. And
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this box here, this is them just
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arriving. So, what I'm hoping in here
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I'm going to find is two absolutely
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brand new second generation Paralenz
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Vaquitas. And you can see I've just
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opened it up. This arrived this morning
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from China. And you can see in there
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that is exactly what I have is a brand
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out of the box Paralenz Vaquita. I'm
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obviously super chuffed about because it
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means that I can carry on making my
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videos. For those of you who've never
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seen inside one of these before, who
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haven't bought one of these, these are
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fantastic cameras. What I particularly
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like about them Well, there's there's a
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load of things that I like about them,
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but one of the things that I like about
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them is the form factor. There you go.
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You can see there, that's a second
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generation Paralenz Vaquita. The form
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factor is fantastic. These are 200-m
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depth rated, so there's never going to
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be a problem with that. And you'll have
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seen in lots of my videos that I mount
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them on a helmet. And what that means is
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that they're always in my eyeline. So,
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so when I'm underwater and I'm diving, I
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I don't have to have a video tray in my
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hands. I've just got one of these. In
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fact, I have two. I have one either side
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that are recording what I do.
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There's some other nice things about
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them. The first thing is that they turn
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And I've lost count of the number of
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times I've not turned them on.
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There's a depth rating, which I
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mentioned already. The other thing that
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I really like about them is the video
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quality is surprisingly good.
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Considering I think these were actually
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released, the original when they first
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came out, the Vaquita 2 was maybe 6
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years ago. And despite that, they still
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produce some really high quality videos.
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And I'm sure you've seen that in some of
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the ones that I put on YouTube. There
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you go. I've I've had from China two
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second generation. Also looks like he
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sent me a whole load of other stuff. So,
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this is some stuff I don't use. It's a a
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grip, so you can hold it in your hand if
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you want to. What else has he sent me?
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Oh, the mask mount. Now, I've tried one
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of these before. I actually just find
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it's a bit heavy. So, if you mount it on
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your mask, it just it doesn't work. In
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fact, I always found that it pulled up
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pulled the side of my mask off, so it
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always get water in it, which is why I
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didn't like it. What else have I got in
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the box? Oh, yeah. Well, there you go.
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Paralenz. Because, of course, like all
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stuff, these things are going to go
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wrong eventually. I think the problem
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with my last one is it ended up leaking
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a bit, and that was probably down to me.
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The way you get in the back of these,
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you can see there, that's where the
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memory card goes. And I think this bit
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ended up leaking here. Probably down to
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me. I didn't replace the O-rings. I
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grease them. So, I'm going to take the
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hit on that one. What else has he given
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me in here? Oh, yeah. Okay. A lens
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And looking in there, I think I think
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that's it, but that's still plenty. If
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you out there are still looking to get a
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Paralenz Vaquita and you think, "No, I
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can't get hold of them." You absolutely
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can. The guy you need to speak to is a
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bloke called Jack Song. He is on
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Facebook. There's various Paralenz
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Vaquita or Paralenz groups, and you'll
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you'll find him through there. Get in
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touch with him. It's now Tuesday in the
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UK. I spoke to him last week. He put
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them in the post on Thursday.
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That's absolutely incredible because I
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was really concerned that I wasn't going
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to have these in time for Britannic. As
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you can see, I mean, what's that?
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4 days, and and they're here. And I've
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got a couple of these bad lads ready and
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raring to go with me to Britannic. And
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also for the rest of the season. So,
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that is a super, super result. Well
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done, Jack Song. Thank you for keeping
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me back in the game. Oh, you you
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probably want to know how much these
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cost as well. He charged me $300 each
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for these, which I think is a very good
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price. The only downside with that, of
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course, is that there is no warranty or
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anything with these things. So, you just
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got to accept that. You buy them, you
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get them. If it goes wrong tomorrow, if
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for whatever reason I I smash it up or
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it doesn't work or whatever, then
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clearly there's no comeback on that. But
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I've had quite a few of these over the
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years. I know other people with them,
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and they reliability on these things is
