LED light recommendations for GoPro 8?

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Mr. Dooley

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I've got the pictured tray for my GoPro 8. I want to start filming night dives and am curious if there are any recommendations for decent LED (or other format) lights to mount on this type of rig. Something dimmable would be nice I suppose. Beyond that I'm not too concerned with bells and whistles as I'm fairly new to this.

I see there are several types of diving lights on Amazon for quite cheap but I don't know anything about those manufacturers (Movo, Suptig, etc.). Hoping to have something I can take to 100 + feet if possible.

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I'm no expert on this so this could be the blind leading the blind but I'll share thoughts anyway. I just got my gopro as well and haven't tried it out as of yet. But I understand the chief thing you want to think about with lights for video is a wide dispersal, not the typical narrow 6 or 8 degree cone of a flashlight. Maybe I'm a cheapskate but some of the dive lights (e.g. sealife) that are selling for $500+ just don't seem like a great deal; can't figure out why they cost so much.

I'm looking right now at two lights that are more reasonably priced. not sure how they will perform in comparison.

OrcaTorch D530V - 140 degrees, 1200 lumens, $109
TrustFire DF50 - 150 degrees, max 6500 lumens, $144, and also has what look like interesting red and UV light modes.

Would love to hear what experienced underwater videographers on a budget have to say.
 
You want as much light as you can afford.

If you are planning any daylight filming in clear water, a light that you can put a blue filter on it helpful, as without it you will get a red cast on close up items, while everything else is very blue. As your lights are only good as a fill light, as it takes many thousands to get lights powerful enough to compete with the sun.

BigBlue is the only company that offers blue ambient filter on reasonably priced lights.
 
I have the orcatorch D530v and it is an amazing video light for the price.

I also just tried it with my rx100, which I only have one trip with it underwater so far.
 

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I have the orcatorch D530v and it is an amazing video light for the price.

I also just tried it with my rx100, which I only have one trip with it underwater so far.
Those look great. Seems like plenty of light, which was the concern I had - wasn't sure exactly how much I need. In that second shot over the diver's shoulder, is your D530V providing the fill light, with him holding a separate flashlight?
 
Yeah that was the fill on low setting and his 1100 lumen torch. On high it didn't look like a night dive. I bought this light because I was taking videos at night in Seattle and all my pictures were just all hotspots and blinding everything. I could have had great videos of some octopi.

There is no Hotspot with the d530v. On the pic below you can see how large of an area it will cover evenly and the hot area on the left of the below photo is someone else's light pointed downward from a bit back. All the light in the in the front and background is the 530 evenly spread
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I have the same Movo tray for my GoPro 7 Black. I bought it with 2 700 lumen dimmable lights and have been pleased with it. They are not as bright as some of the larger and more expensive lights, but for the money I think it takes great pictures during the daytime and at night. You might not be able to light up the entire reef at night, but for me good enough. Best thing about the tray is that it really cut down on the camera shaking while filming.
 
I have a similar setup with DF30s (cheaper than 50s). I like their light, very even and no hotspots. I had one flood from the front o-ring and they stood behind it and sent me a brand new one.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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