flareside
Contributor
If you are using a narrow beam light, try spot metering on the camera. Yes, everything outside the beam will be black but what is in the beam should not be overexposed.
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Here is a video I shot on a night dive with the SRP tray and 2x sola 500's also 2x Tusa 300s at times. The Tusa lights though are a bit narrow and only produce a small diamater ring which can be noticed at times so for most shots I only used the Sola lights here. The TUSA lights also tend to create a hotspot which overexposes what they light up and the Sola lights are generally fine at full power in the dark, a diffuser is needed for the TUSA lights but everything I tried reduced the light output to a point where they dont give enough benefit to make them of much use for video work. They are great little dive torches just not ideal as video lights.
[video=youtube;P1895Nn_I5Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1895Nn_I5Q[/video]
I think the Sola range are some very good lights for the GoPro but even the one 500 will cost you more then a GoPro camera. The beam is very wide and smooth and many people also use the Sola 1200's which will give you more benefit for daytime use.
I find using the LCD screen is a huge benefit to adjust the lights angles in order to properly fill the frame, I will aim them in more for close objects and point them out a little for further away shots and 2 of these aimed properly can fully fill the 170 fov frame of the GoPro cameras.
If I have the lights up pretty high up above the camera it helps to avoid backscatter which is pretty bad in poorer vis if they are at a level closer to the camera.
I bought a GoPro tripod mount for $7.99, stainless dryer band for $1.50 and a PVC plug for .81 and had a bolt in my tool box. I drilled a hole in the top of the plug for the mounting screw and then cut the flange off, and then made four "legs" or posts. The front two are shorter than the rear two to compensate for the rubber boot on flashlight. I also cut a slit on both sides of the plug to thread the band through. I used a drimal (sp?) tool for the cutting. Seems pretty stable on land, I'll post my results including video after my first dive.