Light and Sola 500 question

[Junzhe Davy Zou]

Hi all

Backscatter :: Underwater photo :: lighting

Backscatter is having 100 dollars off for Light & Sola 500, 800 and 1200.

Which brings the LS 500 to a price range that I am willing to consider. at 199. I have a gopro hero3+ black. I will probably need to get a tray as well but that's for another time.

I wanted to ask people who has the LS 500, do you find it necessary to upgrade afterwards?

Previously I took the gopro diving with no filters and no extra lights beside my primary and the results are not good at all. So I am considering that it might be worth it to spend some serious money on this. so I ordered the filter from them and now saw the light deal that they got so it seems to be not bad.

Thanks
Davy

 

[sphyrnidus]

The main problem with dive lamps is that the beam is to narrow. I think the sola photo lamps have the same problem. For video you need a wide beam, more so with the wide angle Gopro. I use the sola1200 for video. It has a nice wide beam and give a lot of light for such a small unit.

 

[Junzhe Davy Zou]

The main problem with dive lamps is that the beam is to narrow. I think the sola photo lamps have the same problem. For video you need a wide beam, more so with the wide angle Gopro. I use the sola1200 for video. It has a nice wide beam and give a lot of light for such a small unit.

how about a 500 with a diffuser? Do you think that might help?

 

[sphyrnidus]

That might help, but are there any for the 500? And at what cost?

 

[Ken T]

I have the Sola 500 - it has both a flood and spot beam built into it.

The light is probably better for tropical clear water destinations than low vis northern diving.

The flood worked well on a Hawaii night dive I did.

I use the spot beam for diving locally in the mountain lakes where vis is 5-15 feet, but find it a little underpowered for this.

You will probably find the flood underpowered for your Gopro unless you have good visibility.

 

[fbk]

The 500 Photo you are looking at is not really suitable. In the current L&M range the starting point for GoPro lighting is the Dive 800 (blue one) which will give you the wide flood you need for video plus spot mode which is handy. I started with the same light (but the older 600 version), it will do fine for night dives, wrecks, under ledges etc but pretty much useless during the day in sunlight. Putting a diffuser on any light is going to make it even less useful, you won't need to if you get the Dive version. I ended up upgrading to the 2000F Video after only a few dives. If your budget is really tight look into the Gobe as well