Light Cannon 100 HID for Video Light

[TheBigPhillyFish]

I have recently bought a Light Cannon 100 HID for a video light. Now, I am using a Sealife DC800 for both video and still pics right now. Just until I get some time in, and I want to upgrade to a HDV set up in the future. After purchasing the light and a lock line with the UK adapter. I find the lock line doesn't hold this heavy light in place very well. I am sure it will be a little better in the water. If I stay with this light I may decide to get ball joint arms from Ultralight control systems, I am assuming they will hold better then the lock lines. Now I didn't discover the bulb replacement cost of the light cannon till after I bought it. $80.00 is crazy for a fragile bulb replacement. But everything I have read says the light from the Light Cannon is unbeatable.

1. Do I keep the UK Light Cannon or do I return it and go with a 500 lumen LED?

2. Will the Ultralight arms hold better then the lock lines?

3. What kind of battery life, can I expect from the Light Cannon?

If someone could please point me in the right direction and advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Ed

 

[Diveralan]

I use the light cannon as a second light on my video camera and the Ultralight system works well.
The light cannon is heavy so you have to really tighten the joints to get them to hold. This makes it difficult to adjust quickly. the main drawback is the cost, but they do work well.

I don't know how long the batteries will last but I can easily get a weeks worth of night dives one one set, in addition I use it some during the day. I always start with new batteries on a trip. they do offer a rechargeable battery pack. I know it is good for at least a couple of hours.

I agree the replacement bulbs are overpriced. I guess I have been lucky and only dropped mine once.

 

[TheBigPhillyFish]

Do you know if the HID light has a better spectrum versus LED. I am really just hard pressed about what to do. I would imagine the HID will give you the closest thing to real sun light, which you would think it would give true color to the sea life. The LED I would think would better on batteries, and lighter.

I just really dont know what to do! I have seen a 500 lumen 15Watt LED going for 60.00 more then the UK Light Cannon.

Another question, If I am using a video light, do I still need a strobe for still pictures? I was thinking of just leaving my PRO flash on there, and putting on the video light also. The flash is suppose to be auto detecting.

 

[Diveralan]

Do you know if the HID light has a better spectrum versus LED. I am really just hard pressed about what to do. I would imagine the HID will give you the closest thing to real sun light, which you would think it would give true color to the sea life. The LED I would think would better on batteries, and lighter.

I just really don't know what to do! I have seen a 500 lumen Watt LED going for 60.00 more then the UK Light Cannon.

Another question, If I am using a video light, do I still need a strobe for still pictures? I was thinking of just leaving my PRO flash on there, and putting on the video light also.
The flash is suppose to be auto detecting.

I use the Ikelite video light. the light Cannon and the video light are very close in color. I have never used a LED for video so I can't compare them. The LED lights I have played with in my LDS have a very white light look like they might work well for video. Ikelite has a new LED video light coming out with a MSRP of $250.00 It is only 350 lumens but you could get 2 for less than $500.00.

I have used my video camera to take still pictures with the video light as the only light source and have got decent results. I have also used my light cannon and a small camera without a strobe and the results have been good, however it is hard to get consistent results. Your best bet if you want great results is a quality camera with a strobe.

 

[nautilusvideo]

If someone could please point me in the right direction and advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Ed, I'd recommend Light & Motion's lights. In my experience they provide the most even light without hot spots and are well designed. I use the light cannon but only for my on camera subjects as their hand held light and only with a heavy diffuser. The Light Cannon has too narrow a beam with hot spots for video (especially if you are shooting wide screen). I also highly recommend the Aquatica/TLC arms. Love 'em.

 

[nautilusvideo]

I have seen a 500 lumen 15Watt LED going for 60.00 more then the UK Light Cannon. Another question, If I am using a video light, do I still need a strobe for still pictures? I was thinking of just leaving my PRO flash on there, and putting on the video light also. The flash is suppose to be auto detecting.

A 15W light underwater won't do you much good unless you are shooting macro. The light simply won't penetrate the water more than a few feet at that power. Using video lights for still pictures works great. The sad truth about u/w lighting is that like all things you get what you pay for and good u/w video lights are expensive.

 

[TheBigPhillyFish]

Yeah thats what I am starting to gather. The good lights seem to be the expensive ones. Which I have no problem with that. I just didnt want to get all crazy untill I bought my HDV set-up. I wanna get more experience with video and still pictures before I start to invest in an HDV set-up. Thats why I was trying to keep it reasonable on the pricing right now.

So it seems the UK Light Cannon will probably be the best economical light for a video set up. Any more advise would be great, thanks guys.

 

[ronscuba]

Light and Motion lights are great, but I disagree on recommending them for the OP. Lights, just like housings run the gamut from inexpensive entry level to top of the line expensive professional.

The Sealife DC800 costs $400 for the housing and camera together. To me, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot on lights for this camera.

Since you already have the Light Cannon, I think you should stick with it. It's lumen rating is close to 500, so you're not going to see much difference with a 500 lumen LED. Both are really only useful for macro during the daytime, which is true for most video lights.

 

[sharksdelight]

I'm late to this thread but I did use the Cannons for a couple of years when they first came out. I thought they were great in the daytime but too blue at night so I carried a second set of halogen lights. Plus, the Cannons and batteries were heavy to travel with. Then I went to the L & M HID lights which I never had any issues with. Even today I think they did great. Once L & M sent me their 2000 LED lights, my L & M HIDs have been sitting in the closet unused for the last year. Anyone know what they could be sold for?
Steve

 

[Blazinator]

From the standpoint of low cost, I use the Darkbuster 24 Watt HID as my video light and am very pleased with every aspect of the light, definitely getting richer color than LED. It may be twice the cost of the UK100, (its $390.00 on Scubatoys.com) but outputs 1750 lumens (more than 3X the UK100 output). Just in case you are still thinking of exchanging the cannon.

It has the lithium ion rechargability that you want - 3 hrs burn time. It comes with an amber filter for perfect color balance, and of course is a great all around dive light when I'm not using the camera.

The only issue is the hot spot with a cheap suede textured film diffuser. I Should be able to resolve that soon with an idea I have. You can order the Darkbuster with a video reflector though.

Here's an example - notice the tiny yellow spots from other divers halogen lights when I swim up to things with this monster light:

(turn down the sound - bad editing software)

[vimeo]5069794[/vimeo]