Lighting Eqt Questions

[Trena]

Hey everyone, I'm planning to get the Oly TG6 and want to start with a smaller budget. I want to do a lot of macro images and video, some wide angle of course. I was planning on getting the Oly housing and the Backscatter M52 81 deg wide angle air lens. I'm thinking about the Kraken 5000+S for a single video light, as it also has strobe capability (7500 lumens) and red and blue filters, as well as several output settings. I'll add another light/strobe in future if needed, but for now want to start with just one. My questions are:

1) what's your opinion on the Kraken, or should I go with a video light like an L&M Sola instead?
2) If Sola or other, what make/model or lumen output would you go with?
3) If I went up to a 10,000 or 15,000 lumen video light, could I do without a strobe?
4) Is shoe mount sufficient, or do I really need to put it on an arm?
5) If use shoe mount, how important is it to have tray/handles for stabilization?
6) Any other advice you have, I'm all ears! Thanks!

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I would recommend a tray with flex arms. you can get very good macro shots with video lights. I have used these light as well as some dive buddies with good luck.US $63.3 20% OFF|6 x 9090 LED White+blue Light 10000 Lumens Diving Flashlight 18650 Torch Underwater 100M Photography Video Camera Flashlight-in LED Flashlights from Lights & Lighting on Aliexpress.com | Alibaba Group

 

[Chris Ross]

I can't comment on the adequacy of the lights, I can say that my 700 lumen focus light (60° beam) causes many fish and other creatures to swim away so depending on what you want to shoot lights are only a partial solution - the 10,000 + lumen lights may also annoy other divers by dazzling them.

If using a strobe function light you want to be able to set it on minimum output for battery life and not scaring marine creatures and have the strobe function for the photo but with the TG-6 there there is a big gothcha - the TG-6 has no manual setting it will be metering off the the light it sees from the lower power beam, the flash goes off, the light comes to max power and the picture is over exposed. There was someone posting here about that recently, I can't see a way around that, exposure compensation may help but it's only good for -2 stops, which in that case was not enough. You may be able to kludge something using the flash min shutter speed setting but that's difficult as that setting is buried deep in the menus, so not really feasible to fine tune during a dive.

Like it or not for stills a strobe is still your best solution even the low powered S-2000 is many times brighter than the big video lights. If you really wan't to use the strobe function I would suggest a different camera allowing manual settings. Of course you can still use lights without the strobe capability.