Anyone familiar with Scubalamp P53 light/strobe?

[DANDM]

Anyone familiar with the Scubalamp P53 LED Video/Photo Strobe Light?

This is my first underwater camera set up, and I am thinking of getting a strobe for my olympus TG-6. I want to do some macro photography, so I am considering the option of getting a snoot too. Two dive shops here in Australia are offering me similar packs for almost the same price (and within my budget), so I can't decide which one to get.

I can find a few great reviews about the Backscatter mini flash with strobe (option 1), but I can't seem to find much at all about the Scubalamp P53 (option 2). The P53 seems neat as it's both a video light and a strobe. However, I am familiar that sometimes these kind of hybrids aren't always that great. Anyone here have a review or thoughts about the P53?

 

[Lewis88]

My 2 cents, I wouldn't get either of these. The backscatter mini flash is great but for a very limited usage case. The P53 is only 5k lumens, where typical strobes are 40k+ lumens.

I would start with a single video light, and either a sea and sea YS-01 or Inon S-2000 strobe.

 

[bvanant]

Well the scubalamp is supposedlyn 10K lumens in strobe mode. This is a bit brighter (on paper) than the Kraken ringflash which works fine for small stuff.
I use the Backscatter ministrobe extensively for macro stuff, it is fine for that not so much for wide angle stuff
Bill

 

[Chris Ross]

Video lights are no where near as powerful as strobes, not even close. With the TG-6 it is less of an issue as it only has two apertures on wide f2 and f2.8 though on macro it is slower when zoomed in but compensates as you are a lot closer to your subject. f8 is an ND filter. Here is a comparison between strobe and video light: Tested: Strobe vs 14k lumen Video Light; Sea & Sea YS-D2 vs. Gates GT14

You might think, great I can shoot at f2.8 on the TG-6 but the gotcha is that the strobe mode is 10,0000 lumens for 1/2000, while the reference shot in the link was 1/250 which is 3 stops less light. The light will work for macro but will struggle for wide angle unless you are really very close. The other point is that video light will cause a lot of critters to leave when you point it at them. Some fish I find i need to turn off my focus light which is only 700 lumens otherwise they swim away as I approach. In addition balancing the exposure between the foreground and background is not really feasible with a continuous light.

The plus side of a video light is that when snooting aiming is relatively easy. For macro only I would say many video lights will work and specifically they will work well for shots with 100% illumination by your light, however shots including BG illuminated by ambient light or open water is more difficult, you may also find it difficult to use in bright shallow water - the light needs to be much brighter to balance against ambient light.

The little INON S-2000 strobe would make a nice match for the TG-6. You can put the camera flash in manual and shoot the external strobe on manual and it will all work together quite well. This was also published this morning and covers these issues well. Wetpixel Live: Lights or Strobes?