ikelite ds-161 and 125

[devonsteele]

So i am going to buy the ikelite ds-161 for my nikon d7000 for the movie mode, but i also have the ds-125. I can upgrade the 125 through ikelite to the 161 but the question is, do i need to? Will two movie lights be just to much light underwater or will the one movie like be perfect and use the 125 as a second photo strobe?

I want to do the beset possible combination and i do not mind upgrading it, i just figured if it is pointless then why do it!

Thank you very much for all the help

 

[jdandvalerie]

I have had dual 161s for about 4 years now. Can't say enough good things about the 161 strobes from a still photography standpoint. However, I've said this many times on this forum before, the 161s are not all that useful as movie lights. Even with both on, you can only adequately light up a small portion of reef or critter. I get much better results from manual WB at anything less than 80 feet or so. I dive basically every weekend and switch back and forth between stills and video. There is too much light drop-off from the 161s...it looks very unnatural. Where I dive the average vis is about 40-50' and I live in sunny Florida so conditions are more favorable for Manual WB. With proper underwater exposures and techniques, you can get great results with no lighting.

If I was just shooting video and felt I needed lighting, I would invest in true high power video lighting, however I would need to be doing video full time and getting paid for it to make that jump as I enjoy the still photography side too much.


Have you tried Manual WB and exposure settings and have been unhappy with the results?

 

[jdandvalerie]

Here's a post from over on the video forum. I was actually trying to remember what Dan Volker shot with from a lighting aspect and fotunately he posted this morning. He shoots great stuff. Here is his post:

When I decided to start shooting video ( about a year and a half ago...) I wanted to approach video with the assumption that I would like it, and that it was something I could take to a high level....this meant I did not want to begin with a low end system, be limited by it, and then end up having to scrap it and start over with a better system.
Many of the SLSR's on the market appeared ideal for me, however, I ended up with the canon 5 d mark II for it's spectacular low light capabilities ( important in many underwater scenarios) and for the lens choices I would have.
I also knew that to get good colors in my videos, I would need powerful lights....I elected to go with Apollo lights from Halcyon...you wear a big cannister ( the battery part) on your waiste, this becomes part of your actual weighting for the dive, and if you breathe through a long hose primary, it is perfect to route the long hose under. The dual light heads of the big appollo produce great light, and allow me to disperse it as much as desired...you still need to be a foot or so away from your primary bacjdrop to ge the rich colors you want--this is true with any lighting system. Good video of a shipwreck, means being right on it--litterally a foot or to away from decks or walls. Same with a reef.
Get 10 feet away and you get blues dominating on all but the shallowest dives, and a general lack of the impressive color we want to capture.
I went with an Aquatica Housing....good to 400 feet, and very rugged ..i.e., unlikely to leak.
I use Vegas Video to edit, and cineform ( NeoHD) to convert the canon format ( h264) to a cineform avi....much bettr to edit with, and the cineform system has a program called First Light that can apply a white balance or color correction instantly to a clip, whether 1 minute long or 1 hour long.....While I run the canon with lights on AWB ( auto white balance) , whenever the colors don't look right, it is instantly fixed in First light.

Here is one of my short compilations:
6 minute Tour version of "Why Divers prefer Palm Beach" video - YouTube ( ps... my friend Jimmy Abernethy shot the aerial with a Go Pro on his Flying Boat)

 

[Larry C]

Might think about keeping the DS125 and adding an L & M 1200 as a focus and video light to go with your DS-161. Then you can switch back and forth between still and video and be equipped for both. BTW, I don't do video and don't care to.