GoPro Lighting

[DivingSD]

I am looking to add a pair of lights to my GoPro tray, and would love any advice. I'd like to stay around $200 per light, and would ball mount them. Here is what I'm learning and comparing...

L&M Sola 2500 Flood - lightweight compact size, good light quality, true consistent output, battery not replaceable, 60 degree beam might be tight even with 2 lights (I only use linear & wide modes), good sale right now
Sea Dragon 2000F - great reviews, proprietary mount, true consistent output, on the expensive side with ball mount but on sale now
Kraken LTD 2500 - reviews are a solid light, true consistent output, don't need spot function and potentially extra fiddling

Any suggestions for me?

Thanks, I appreciate it!

 

[DanielM85]

Hello,
I have a similar request - Even more on Budget.
Do you have any recommondation for chinese lights ?my colleague is living in China Right now and could buy it locally - but I have No idea which Brand to look for

 

[Blackcrusader]

You often find buget lights simply do not have enough power.
I had cheap lights before and they really were not useful unless on a night dive.

 

[Thunder Struck]

I got a pair or Orcatorch D710V video lights. The lights come with a ball and ring to affix to standard arm clamps and have a nice flat flood pattern. They also have a red light and UV mode as well. Hit up @rob.mwpropane for pricing.

 

[GDHLEWIS]

ORca D710V lights are great video lights, use two of them with my gopro all the time. I personally wouldn't go with the Orca tray and ball joints as mine rusted badly after one years use, but the lights I cannot praise highly enough.

 

[nudi_hunter]

I got a pair or Orcatorch D710V video lights. The lights come with a ball and ring to affix to standard arm clamps and have a nice flat flood pattern. They also have a red light and UV mode as well. Hit up @rob.mwpropane for pricing.

View attachment 894391

Looks great! Have you got much use out of this setup in the months since?

Which camera tray did you go with here? Based on plenty of negative reviews, I won't be going for the OrcaTorch tray, but going with a more robust product elsewhere.

 

[Thunder Struck]

Looks great! Have you got much use out of this setup in the months since?

Which camera tray did you go with here? Based on plenty of negative reviews, I won't be going for the OrcaTorch tray, but going with a more robust product elsewhere.

I've gotten a fair bit of use from it. The UV function on the light is pretty slick as some reefs, particularly where we were at in Fiji really lit up with a lot of fluorescence, even visible to the naked eye.

The tray that I'm using is from Backscatter. I've also added the arch to the top as well as a bayonet mount for their sharp wide lens and for the +10 macro lens to make it easy to switch on the dive. Also on top of the arch I added a ball mount to put a 360 camera on and have it elevated off the rest of the rig some.

Most recently I upgraded the video lighting to a pair of Kraken Solar Flare with fiber optic links and a remote control unit. A bit overkill for the GoPro, but the intent is to use them on my Sony A7SIII that I need to get a housing for. They are crazy bright, perhaps annoyingly so for those downrange of them, but have a nice pattern. Heavy too for the GoPro. But with some arm floats from Backscatter, and the Kraken floats for the lights, the whole rig is about a pound-and-a-half negative in fresh water. I'll be doing a dive on the Lake Mead B29 next month with them and looking forward to that. Unfortunately the Sony likely wont get a housing until sometime in the beginning of next year.

I'll try to post a pic of the current setup with the arch in the next couple days. If I forget, hit me with a DM to remind me.

 

[nudi_hunter]

Hey, thanks for the reply. That sounds like an awesome setup. I'm heading on a Raja liveaboard trip in Feb and don't plan to dump a pile of money into a big camera rig, but would like to beef up my GoPro with lighting and better stability.

I wasn't too sure how effective the UV would be for reef lighting, so happily surprised you had good results with that. I'll likely get a couple D710V lights and mount those to a rack similar to yours and run with that.

 

[Thunder Struck]

Hey, thanks for the reply. That sounds like an awesome setup. I'm heading on a Raja liveaboard trip in Feb and don't plan to dump a pile of money into a big camera rig, but would like to beef up my GoPro with lighting and better stability.

I wasn't too sure how effective the UV would be for reef lighting, so happily surprised you had good results with that. I'll likely get a couple D710V lights and mount those to a rack similar to yours and run with that.

Been very happy with the Backscatter frame. It makes it easier to hold stable underwater in addition to mounting the lights and whatnot.

I recommend filming everything at 60fps so you can slow footage down to 30 fps for a nice smooth slow-motion. You’re moving the critters are moving, stuff in the water is moving, and the slow-mo makes it less distracting and appears more polished.

However, in low light you may see positive results dropping the frame rate to 30fps if at 4K, or staying at 60fps and dropping resolution to 1080.

 

[Thunder Struck]

Looks great! Have you got much use out of this setup in the months since?

Which camera tray did you go with here? Based on plenty of negative reviews, I won't be going for the OrcaTorch tray, but going with a more robust product elsewhere.

Here’s a picture of the rig as it is now: