Absolute newbie on UW Photo/Video

[Ash176]

I was told by that Inon Z330 also has movie light. But I can't seem to be able to find any writings mentioning that.

 

[Barmaglot]

It has a modeling light, but it's just 220 lumens and narrow angle - it's there to help you see where the strobe is pointing, not to light up video. Ikelite DS-161 and the upcoming Retra Flash Pro have more powerful modeling lights at 500 lumens, but that is still nowhere near what you would need to shoot wide-angle video with - proper video lights have beam width between 90 and 120 degrees and multiple thousands to tens of thousands of lumens of output.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Consider this - the 'strobe' mode on that light flashes to 7000LM (from a normal output of 5000LM), and it costs $700. Scubalamp V6K puts out 12000LM of constant light, and costs $550. For the reference, see this old thread - two 19000LM lights are estimated to be roughly on par with a GN20 strobe like the little Inon S-2000, which retails for $365.
Having the ability to produce a brief flash rather than a constant light is useful for not scaring away critters, but it takes some truly gigantic (and expensive) LED arrays to match the output of a even a small xenon strobe - see Gates GT14, or Scubalamp V12K for examples.

I agree with this. I have strobes and lights on my nauticam rig. I wouldn’t use use anything for dual purpose.

 

[Barmaglot]

My personal experience - when I started assembling my own kit about 1.5 years ago, I balked at spending $1500 on a pair of strobes. Saw a deal on Aliexpress - two Archon D36V lights (5200lm white + red/blue/UV modes) for $470 and went that way. Did some diving with them, and the results were pretty nice, but the bright vivid colors just weren't there. Best I could get was something like this:

A year later, affordable strobes were finally available (or so I thought) - Meikon released ST-100 Pro: GN32, optical and electrical sync, manual and TTL modes, the works - and I got a pair for $460. Immediately, the results were way, way better:

However, I quickly found that they lacked the advertised power - with optical triggering, they actually worked only in TTL slave mode, completely ignoring any and all adjustments, just like, say, a Sea & Sea YS-03. Other users confirmed this issue, so it looks like a design defect, not a problem with my samples. Since the camera flash is limited to about 1ms duration, and ST100 needs about 3ms to dump its full output, this restricts them to about 1/3 of potential power output. On larger subjects, this brings back white balance issues:

So, having come full circle, a month ago I broke down and placed a pre-order on a pair of Retra Flash Pros - 1478 €, but hopefully this will resolve all the issues (when they ship in 6+ months). Alas, the four hundred and sixty dollars I spent on ST-100s are mostly wasted. The lights are quite useful for their utility value, and I might decide to learn how to shoot and edit video in the future, but unfortunately their value for still photography is very limited when compared to strobes.

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I've never used a combination of strobe and rapid-fire still. Are refresh rates on strobes generally too slow for doing, say, 5 pics in a second?

I've become (ahem) a much better photographer when I use 5 pics/second on fish. A big fish swimming toward me then turning away will almost always present a really nice profile at some point in that second, but you never know when he's going to turn. (If I were actually a decent photographer, I'd probably anticipate the fish better....)

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I broke down and placed a pre-order on a pair of Retra Flash Pros - 1478 €, but hopefully this will resolve all the issues (when they ship in 6+ months). Alas, the four hundred and sixty dollars I spent on ST-100s are mostly wasted. The lights are quite useful for their utility value, and I might decide to learn how to shoot and edit video in the future, but unfortunately their value for still photography is very limited when compared to strobes.

I love the Retra LSD..it's a really cool snoot. I never dive without it.

 

[Davidkrug]

I am a happy snapper rather than a photographer.

From what I know (I don't do video), A video light won't freeze the action like a strobe can.
As a general rule I set the exposure to get the background I want, and the strobe to freeze the action and light the subject. Thats not what a video light does.

I am also aware, that very powerful video lights are not always critter friendly. They are not used to the intense light.
When using the strobe, I don't keep blasting it at one subject, I don't think its good for the critters.
Take nothing but photos (or video) is a great punch line, but don't leave fried fish behind .


Editted
Spelling correction - thanks DavidFL

Correct, video lights only need to be bright enough to get you proper exposure with a shutter speed of 1/50-1/60th of a second. (1/120 if you are shooting at 60fps)

 

[Barmaglot]

I've never used a combination of strobe and rapid-fire still. Are refresh rates on strobes generally too slow for doing, say, 5 pics in a second?

I've become (ahem) a much better photographer when I use 5 pics/second on fish. A big fish swimming toward me then turning away will almost always present a really nice profile at some point in that second, but you never know when he's going to turn. (If I were actually a decent photographer, I'd probably anticipate the fish better....)

Strobes fire from a capacitor bank, which recharges from batteries. If you fire the strobe at full power, then it will take several seconds to recharge the capacitors before it can fire again. If, on the other hand, you fire it at low power, then it can fire again and again and again, until the capacitors are empty. At this point, your limitation is your trigger - if you're using fiber optics off camera flash, then this will be your limit. Electrical sync or an LED trigger can achieve much faster rates.

 

[Ash176]

Wow...there's so much I need to learn about underwater photograph.

So let's say, for argument sake, I want to just stick to photography, and I want a dual Strobe setup one on each side of my Nauticam handle, what would be my best bet to rig something that is:
1. Not big and bulky
2. Not too cumbersome
3. Powerful enough strobes for good lighting of big subjects
4. Has focus light capability

Any suggestions is highly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

I love my Sea & Sea YS-D2Js the retras will probably be very good as well though.