LED is not a bad choice.
These guys have some very good ones.
Nocturnal Lights SLX video light setup demo unit
These guys have some very good ones.
Nocturnal Lights SLX video light setup demo unit
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
Halogen is older technology but so what ? It works, it's reliable and it's inexpensive.
$3000 is a lot of money to spend on video lights. If you have a $1200 camcorder, it doesn't make much sense to me to buy $3000 lights.
The light needs to be in the 5500K range to look natural! Some are too hot and look blue, not good in Blue water! 5500K is the color temp of the sun! I agree about the angle of the beam is another reason the 4ft is a good target! Narrow beams shine further! But create hot spots!
LED lights looks very promising with it's warmer color temperature, ability to instantly turn on/off, adjustable power, better efficiency and longevity of the diodes.
The temperature goes up with the spectrum in Kelvin scale 2800 is Tungsten lights very blue and the higher you go the hotter toward red you go with a flattened histogram.