Anyone using Big Blue VL8300P video lights?

[rmrobbins]

Looking at a pair of Big Blue VL8300P lights for GH5 Nauticam video rig. Has anyone used these? Looking for review, comments, etc. They run just over $600 each. Same price point for Light & Motion gets me only 3800 lumen per light...half the output. These also have removable/replaceable batteries.

 

[ronscuba]

I have the Big Blue VL7500 video lights which are the predecessor to the 8300. They work great.

Light and Motion make good lights, but the Big Blue gives you more lumens for your dollar. I also prefer a metal casing to plastic and removable/replaceable batteries.

 

[tphelps]

I used to have SOLAs but now use Big Blues and have been very happy with the switch. I also have the VL7500s and love them. I'm amazed by the value, output, and burn time mine have given me! While the SOLAs are "sealed," I've had too many problems with the charging contacts over the years, and the service on them is not cheap. O-rings are cheap, and prudent maintenance will get you a long life out of Big Blues, they're fantastic!

 

[pinshootr]

what lights did you end up with RMRobbins? I ordered a pair of VL30000 but they are on back order till this week as some dude from CA bought 10 of them last week!!!! OUCH!!!

 

[rmrobbins]

what lights did you end up with RMRobbins? I ordered a pair of VL30000 but they are on back order till this week as some dude from CA bought 10 of them last week!!!! OUCH!!!

I ended up with the Big Blue VL8300P. Bought two. I called Leisure Pro to place the order and they only ended up being $400 each....well worth it. Not sure if they're still available at this price. Battery life so far seems excellent. I've done two dives on one set of batteries running at full power. Probably have made 8 dives with them so far. Build quality is good. They seem rugged. Well threaded and heavy double o-rings. Very bright. Color of the lights is slightly cool, but they include a yellow filter. This is mostly unnecessary if you're color balancing in camera for lighting and depth anyway. Lots of output for a compact package. Your dive buddies will need sunglasses. I'd buy two more.

 

[tbone1004]

keep in mind that Big Blue lights are not as they seem and you have to take a serious grain of salt when evaluating them.

Making some VERY broad assumptions
Battery pack is 18650x4, so assuming batteries are full and you use 100% of them, you get 51.8wh of capacity
The light uses Cree XML's which have an absolute max efficiency of 158lumens/watt
Assuming they are telling the truth about burn time, at 2.5hrs, then the light is drawing roughly 21watts.
21watts*158 lumen/watt is 3318 lumens average. A FAR cry from 8300

Using some real numbers, you will only have access to about 80% of the battery, which assuming they are using 3400mah cells is about 40wh. The actual efficiency of the lights are going to be between 100-120 lumens/watt, and since I have no reason to assume they are lying about the burn time, but will assume that it may kick to "low" for the last half hour you have 40wh/2hours is 20watt consumption. 20*120 lumens/watt is 2400 lumens average across the burn time.

do NOT assume that because it says it puts out 8300 lumens on level IV and that level IV has a burn time of 2.5 hours that you actually get 8300 lumen for 2 hours. IF it actually hits 8300 lumen, it's only for a minute or two then it tapers down very quickly so you have to treat that light as somewhere around a 2000 lumen light when comparing if you want it across the whole burn time. You can't argue with the math.
Chart is attached below from the VL15000P which is much closer to a 10,000 lumen light across the span of the burn and you can see how it falls off steadily as a function of burn time.

The L&M's have a constant output driver which is why they may seem conservatively rated, but when it says it puts out 2000 lumen for 2 hours, every minute of that 2 hours is at 2000 lumen which will give you a better quality shot. Even optimistically, that light is only capable of putting out 3300 lumen on average but more likely around 2500 lumen, so compare it to the Sola 2500 when doing a cost comparison on it instead of getting tricked by their marketing department.

Nothing against the quality of BB, I own a couple BB backup lights, I don't own any L&M's, but be an informed buyer and do the math. My big lights are all UWLD, primary and video, and woah baby is the difference huge. I've had my 6000lm video light from UWLD in a cave with a 10,000lm big blue and aside from the initial shock, after about 10 minutes the UWLD blew it out of the water. Granted it is a lot more expensive, but it is a 6000 lumen video light that will burn for around 3 hours. Keep this in mind, it takes UWLD 10x 18650's to make a light burn at 6000 lumen for just over 2 hours. How does BB thing they can do over 8000 lumen with 4?

 

[rmrobbins]

Great info here. I had done some research on this exact topic prior to purchase which made me aware of issue of dimming over burn time. I suspect for some lights with greater load on battery this is big concern to be factored into purchase decision. For me it was bang for buck an flexibility of swappable battery.

For first few dives I've done, I've not seen noticeable dimming over burn-time...but certainly this is non-scientific. I'll be curious if this changes over the lifespan of the batteries. That being said, I did buy two extra batteries. My personal plan is to switch them after each dive to maintain max intensity levels.

 

[BDSC]

You will be very happy with your Big Blues. They are excellent quality and like you said, you get a lot of bang for the buck.

If you are using the lights for video as you said you are doing, the whole "burn time" becomes somewhat meaningless. I have been doing video for years and quickly learned that lights are good if you are doing some close up stuff but really aren't a lot of use for other shooting unless your subject swims right in front of you. My fully charged video lights will last me for multiple dives during a trip because I only turn them on when I'm doing a close up shot and turn them back off. Maybe there are on for a minute. Most of the time less than that.

 

[tbone1004]

Great info here. I had done some research on this exact topic prior to purchase which made me aware of issue of dimming over burn time. I suspect for some lights with greater load on battery this is big concern to be factored into purchase decision. For me it was bang for buck an flexibility of swappable battery.

For first few dives I've done, I've not seen noticeable dimming over burn-time...but certainly this is non-scientific. I'll be curious if this changes over the lifespan of the batteries. That being said, I did buy two extra batteries. My personal plan is to switch them after each dive to maintain max intensity levels.

had a discussion with a professional videographer friend of mine who swore up and down they didn't do it because he had never noticed it *not a cave diver, does deep wreck stuff where it is more for color correction than anything*. It wasn't until he actually set his DSLR up to take pictures at constant aperture/iso/shutter speed at something like 5 minute intervals did he notice it.

The only point that I want to stress when people ask about big blues and they start comparing them is that the lights are not "8300 lumens for 2.5 hours" like it may seem from the spec sheet. It's not that they're bad, it's just that what they are trying to mislead you into believe is leaps and bounds beyond the capability of current technology so it is only fair to compare them to something more similar.

an extreme example.
You're looking at buying a BIG video light, so you go to look at the Big Blue VL15000P which is a monster light.
You look at the page and say "man, I can get 15k lumens for an hour out of this thing, it's self contained on a ball mount and is only $850!" That's a great deal
You then start searching and you come across UW Light Dude who makes the real mac daddy of video lights and you check out their equivalent. It's "only" 10k lumens, and the medium battery will give it a go for an hour but it costs $2200. You start scratching your head going "what gives".

so you start digging a bit more. Big Blue is claiming they can make that light put out 50% more light for the same amount of time as the UWLD and their battery is 7 18650's. UWLD needs 10 to do the same thing so something has to be wrong. You run the math and find out that there's no way the BB can do what it claims because the battery would have to be almost twice the size as it is to do it. Wrong to make that comparison under the assumption that it's 15k lumen. If you go in and say it's a 10k lumen light which is closer to reality, then it's a brilliant option based on the price, just have to make sure you are truly comparing apples to apples

 

[ronscuba]

For many of us, we start with a $ budget, then see what can we get for that $.

I agree with BDSC, experienced videographers are not recording video continuous for an hour or more. Video is recorded in clips of 1 minute or less much of the time. Continuous even light output for 1-2 hours is not needed for videography.