Experienced shooters: Are you considering moving from strobes to video lights?

[MidOH]

No experience, but building a Tg6 up. Will be using a pair of Kraken Solar Mini 15,000's.

Need to start a thread on how to be as annoying as possible with them. If you cant beat them, join them.

 

[davehicks]

No experience, but building a Tg6 up. Will be using a pair of Kraken Solar Mini 15,000's.

Need to start a thread on how to be as annoying as possible with them. If you cant beat them, join them.

Be sure to shoot a few selfies on each dive so that you get a taste of your own medicine!

 

[MidOH]

Well, the lights are going to be 30" apart so....

Even muh head isnt that big.

 

[OTF]

Strobes are better.

 

[PatW]

Strobes are stronger, stop motion, and cheaper. Also fish tend to flee when approached by miniature suns. For stills, strobes are the way to go.

 

[Mike_4635]

I use dual strobe. Can adjust the intensity as needed and still have control of the f stop and exposure. Have tried using video light and found more backscatter issues and having to play more with f stop and exposure. Strobes give me better options and results.

 

[OTF]

Strobes are stronger, stop motion, and cheaper. Also fish tend to flee when approached by miniature suns. For stills, strobes are the way to go.

The miniature suns thing is a real issue. Lights are getting insanely powerful and accessible enough that divers are likely starting to do some real damage to sea creatures eyes at night. Especially the less experienced, less courteous people with cameras. Most good divers I know will limit the time they put bright lights on a fish, and try to observe using the edge of their light rather than the focused center of a bright primary. But I've seen a lot of other divers try to jam huge lights right up to fish as close as they can get them for as long as they can keep up the chase. The research is lacking, but I doubt that a fish will be doing any successful hunting for a while after such an experience.

 

[Blackcrusader]

I've been shooting with traditional strobes for decades but more and more, I see serious shooters using video lights, even for still photography. I just got back from a trip to BC and of the five "serious" shooters there, three were using *k and 10K lights. In fairness, they were also shooting video which is not something I do. In addition, they all had multiple sets of lights since a charge couldn't survive a day's shooting.

It's not something I'm seriously considering, but I am curious...

I only use video lights for my photos. Also of course video. I get 3 day and one night dive on one battery in each video light.
I do like to take video.

TG photos, Show us what you shot.

A couple from Curacao I don't think I've posted before. From a TG-5 no housing or strobe.

scubaboard.com

 

[Blackcrusader]

Can I just vote NO on the behalf of everyone else in the ocean? I absolutely hate diving in proximity to people using video lights. It blinds everyone else in the vicinity and ruins your low light vision. The really obnoxious (careless) people swim around with their rig hanging behind them so the lights blind people both behind them and in front of them.

(is there a "get off my lawn" emoticon?)

LOL The chap next to me didn't have any lights and complained his video was always too dark to he tagged along with me. He never got blinded neither did the chap taking a photo of me from the dive center. Notwithstanding I only turn on my lights when I want to take a photo.

 

[Searcaigh]

This is a very good example of how not to take photos