Two Smaller Lights or One Big Light for GoPro

[grantmac]

I'd put Sea Life in the same category as Light and Motion.

 

[thesaltyfins]

Weefine/Kraken Sports and SUPE Scubalamp are generally considered good mid-range options.

Any thoughts/exp on Nitescuba?

 

[Barmaglot]

Any thoughts/exp on Nitescuba?

I've bought some small things from them and it was fine, but I don't have any experience with their lights.

I'd put Sea Life in the same category as Light and Motion.

That's harsh; SeaLife is not extinct yet.

 

[tbone1004]

@tbone1004
That's for sure a good and helpful insight regarding the Big Blue lights and their stated lumens.
But now with Light & Motion out of business and UWLD with their high costs( no offence) , where should a mid range/hobbyist diver look at ? Which brands would you like to recommend staying close to their stated lumens?

Thanks

Dive Rite CX3 with a video diffuser is going to do that, Kraken as well. With the cheap ones, just base your buying on the light on "medium" setting and that will be pretty close to accurate. I have a bunch of Orca lights that are pretty good *they sent them to me, but I do use them regularly*

 

[thesaltyfins]

Dive Rite CX3 with a video diffuser is going to do that, Kraken as well. With the cheap ones, just base your buying on the light on "medium" setting and that will be pretty close to accurate. I have a bunch of Orca lights that are pretty good *they sent them to me, but I do use them regularly*

Thanks for responding.
Given my location, any light that i opt for will either have to be imported or purchased during dive trips abroad. shipping back and forth for any warranty covered issues or even otherwise is almost ruled out, hence need to choose wisely.

With the cheap ones, just base your buying on the light on "medium" setting and that will be pretty close to accurate.

Mind elaborating on this?

Thanks

 

[Barryattle]

Also consider the cheap Chinese video lights (e.g., from Aliexpress). I bumped into a long thread on them here a while back, so search. In my experience, they are plenty bright for filming things up close. I've had a couple leak after maybe 100 dives on them (wasn't aware of the possible switch issue and just assumed it was o-rings, so didn't try taking apart to see why). Reading that thread, I found out about the loose board issue and discovered my newest one had that, but some super glue seems to be holding and stopping any rotation. For the price, they're hard to beat.

 

[thesaltyfins]

@Barryattle
Few years ago Aliexpress was an option for many things not just dive lights, but at the moment India has put a ban on that site , so that door is now closed forever.
So now my options are Weefine, Nitescuba, Kraken, Sealife, Backscatter, etc . Sadly no distributor for any of these though for India.

 

[broncobowsher]

I tried a single light before. It sucks. Lots of horrible shadows. Not normal shadows, deep black horrible looking. Multiple lights are a must. Even my totally underpowered super cheap junk lights need two.

Another thing, color temp. While it won't matter so much what temp you are running at the GoPro level of photography, matched color temp will. A light from here, another from there, will make for some strange and not appealing photos. One light will highlight one color more than the other. Now you are dealing with color shadows.

 

[tbone1004]

Thanks for responding.
Given my location, any light that i opt for will either have to be imported or purchased during dive trips abroad. shipping back and forth for any warranty covered issues or even otherwise is almost ruled out, hence need to choose wisely.

Mind elaborating on this?

Thanks

If we look at the Orcatorch D910V, it claims 5000 lumens for 50 minutes. We know that ANSI FL1 is peak output, so let's call that 5000 lumens what it is, BS, and then use it as 2000 lumen which is it's "middle" setting as they call it. Now we have a 2000 lumen light that burns for 2 hours. That then becomes a more fair comparison when looking for rough performance figures and is the only fair way to really compare them to the US brands that use constant output drivers.

 

[grantmac]

Kraken has the worst anodizing of any "quality" light I've used. Literally falling off despite rinsing regularly.