I already have 2 strobes, what light should I get

[aviator8]

wow this is enlightening. I had no idea that you had to have so much raw power to get colors to come in at such close distances. I am an avid dry land photographer and understand light falloff but an avg light of 1200-2500 lumen having to get a foot away or less shocks me. Guess i will have to re evaluate

 

[Barmaglot]

wow this is enlightening. I had no idea that you had to have so much raw power to get colors to come in at such close distances. I am an avid dry land photographer and understand light falloff but an avg light of 1200-2500 lumen having to get a foot away or less shocks me. Guess i will have to re evaluate

The big challenge with underwater photography is that the ambient light is very cool - water absorbs longer wavelengths faster than shorter ones, so as the sun's rays filter through the water column, red light disappears first, then orange, then yellow, and surprisingly quickly, you're left with just green and blue. In order to bring back natural colors, your source of white light needs to overpower the sun - i.e. the majority of photos reaching your camera sensor need to have come from your strobes/lights rather than the sun. This is done by constricting the aperture and using fast shutter speeds to limit the amount of sunlight entering the camera, and then using a very bright light source to make up the balance. You can eliminate sunlight by other means - diving at night, inside caves, wrecks, deep enough for sunlight to lose its intensity - but usually you have to contend with the sun trying to turn your shots blue or green.

 

[Pyndle]

Argg why did I buy a triple clamp?
I'll try to negotiate with the shop to exchange it vs a normal clamp and get something to mount the light in the middle.

I'll do more research on the ring but true, might not be a great light for night dives. I use a 16-50mm lens (aps-c sensor) for everything, +6 diopter for macro and 6inch dome for wide angle. Im definitely less than 10cm away from most of my macro targets at 50mm though (so 75mm FF équivalent).

If I don't get the ring, go for the 5200lumens light.

Thanks everyone for the responses!

 

[Chris Ross]

The ring lights assume you'll be really close in to your subject, the quality of the lighting falls off as you get further away and they are not that powerful as discussed above. Make sure your focus light has a low power setting, I find some subjects swim away when hit by a strong light. I use an INON LED torch for a focus light, 350 lumens with a 30° beam in the hotshoe, it's enough light for the camera to AF but it tends not to worry sensitive subjects so much

 

[Pyndle]

Hey guys,

Just an update, I ended up buying a single light for slighlty less than 200usd, the scubalamp PV32T 3000lumnens, with a horseshoe mount. I've decided video is cool but not for me atm, since I'm travelling for a long time, I can't carry around more gear than I already have (weight/size problem). So just one simple light, can be charged with usb C (so I don't need to carry an extra charger, that's a big plus!).

Happy about the light, didn't flood on the first 10 dives It's enough power for navigation at night or in dark wrecks. Not very usefull for any wideangle video but works well for macro videos, happy with that.

I'm just not sure about the horseshoe mount, so far I don't like it. When taking videos in wrecks it created a lot of backscatter just in front of the lense, I'd rather have it mounted on the arm. And also, even though it has a double screw mechanism to make sure it doesn't get loose, it doesn't feel like a very safe way to attache things to my rig.

Thanks again for everyone's input.

 

[Pyndle]

Ok, don't laugh I'm actually really angry.... It did flood on the 12th dive.
The battery compartment was properly closed and the o-rings are fine, but water still got in all the way, the battery leaked a weird liquid.
Called the dive shop who sold it to me, they say it's very unlikely that the warranty covers it. Is that normal?

It's my first flood and it's very frustrating, I'm considering selling all my photography gear, this hobby is just taking all my money for nothing

 

[WittzEnd]

Sorry to hear about the flood. SO frustrating. I’m just looking to buy all my gear and reading this gives me pause. I’m still so new I don’t know what to buy and don’t want to throw my money away.

 

[Barmaglot]

Eh, floods happen - at least it was a sub-$200 light rather than a $600+ strobe (look up the reports of YS-D2s flooding). There are some units that are advertised as flood-proof, such as SeaLife Micro cameras (fully sealed) and Retra strobes (sealed electronics, battery compartment can purportedly survive flooding) but there are always trade-offs.

 

[Interceptor121]

Ok, don't laugh I'm actually really angry.... It did flood on the 12th dive.
The battery compartment was properly closed and the o-rings are fine, but water still got in all the way, the battery leaked a weird liquid.
Called the dive shop who sold it to me, they say it's very unlikely that the warranty covers it. Is that normal?

It's my first flood and it's very frustrating, I'm considering selling all my photography gear, this hobby is just taking all my money for nothing

A warranty would not cover user error. The battery screws in so if you had tight it properly this light is quite hard to flood. This could have happened with your strobes or with your camera. There are lights sealed at the factory like Sola requiring no maintenance