Required lumens for poor vis

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vixtor

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Location
Bucharest, Romania
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Hello,

I have posted this thread but I think it was not the right place, in that area I see mostly nice videos and less technical comments:

Video lights power in low-vis

So, my question is - what is the really needed/required light output for poor visibility water (Black Sea). Think about North Atlantic/Baltic Sea/English Channel-like water. As you'll be able to see in that other thread, a buddy of mine which has 2x3600 lumen lights made a very nice movie with just an old Gopro hero 3.

I'd like to be able to film at that kind of quality. I am not really interested into artistic issues, correct color temperature, true color or other professional/advanced topics. I just want a clear video, with no high-ISO noise, while filming wrecks (inside and outside), in which you can see the objects/interesting things.

If you can give me an advice regarding required power (and maybe a hint of some European brand, which would be probably cheaper for me) it would be nice. I don't have a clear budget in my mind right now, but I'd like to spend as little as possible for that kind of image quality.
 
remember that light can only penetrate as long as it has a clear path. i.e. 3m visibility is still 3m visibility whether you have 100 lumen, or 10,000 lumen.

I'm not familiar enough with that kind of water, but I'd say for clear video you need at minimum 2k total lumen from 2 light sources, and preferably closer to 4k, the more the merrier
 
I do understand that visibility is visibility, full stop. The only thing is that it seems having some light helps the video camera sensor to capture the movie with less ISO-sensitivity related noise (the picture is more clear at low ISO). But unfortunately I am not an expert photographer, and I just have no idea how many lumens are required in order to provide enough help to the camera sensor.
 
Tbone's numbers are a good guideline to start with.
 
Here in SoCal we often have days with 2 meter visibility. The problem is that I think you are wanting to do something that on the surface of it seems very tricky. You want to shoot a wreck in low vis. If the wreck is 20 meters long you better have 25 meters vis or more otherwise you will have dreck. For shooting big things also remember that your video light even at 5000 lumens will not let you light up terribly big things. A 10,000,000 lumen strobe for example will only light things up a few meters from your camera if it has a GN of 24. Of course video cameras typically have higher sensitivity than still cameras and better DOF but still you will have some issues.

For very inexpensive lights try these
https://www.amazon.com/SOOJET-Flash...r=8-5&keywords=scuba+video+lights+3000+lumens
at say 60 Euro for 3000 lumens. Once you go to the brand names the price can go way way up.

Cheers

Bill
 

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