light recomendations

[mangoconchile]

im looking to purchase a primary dive light under $200. my goal is to able to shoot video with a gopro mounted on top. iv'e seen some people do this using a 'pistol' type light a uk kinetics or princeton tec and the quality looks quite good. are these the 2 best lighting brands around? seems like it as they are very popular. what are some other good brands? at my LDS they have both of these but nothing else. ive seen some gopro specific lighting systems but they look like a big pain in the ass having to use both hands and all. the lights i was looking at were a uk kinetics eled light cannon or a princeton tec shockwave.

 

[Scared Silly]

If I understand you correctly you want the pistol grip light and then mount a Go Pro on top. I think you will find the results to be very poor because the light is too close and you are apt to get backscatter. As for using two hands, to be honest that is best way to shoot. Which means you need very good buoyancy. Too many divers jump in with a camera and bounce up and down like French whore from Marseilles. Leave the camera on shore unless you have perfected your buoyancy.

I think if you want to get descent results a system such as this one would be a reasonable start:

Backscatter Light & Motion Sola 500 Photo Package for GoPro Hero1, Hero2 & Hero3

 

[mangoconchile]

yes that is correct in how i would like it mounted. someone posted some videos here of how they did it and thats where i got the idea

Diving Casino Point Catalina - Giant Sea Bass - YouTube
Casino Point Catalina , Sunrise on the Sue Jac 08/ - YouTube


anyhow im not really thinking about shooting videos now, but maybe 6 months from now. in the meantime i just need a light for night diving thought i might be able to pick up something as a gopro mount with it.

 

[scubastingray]

I purchased this for $12.00
NEW-208 Sports Diving Cree XR-E Q3 195LM 1-Mode White Light Flashlight - Grey (4 x AA) - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

It just came in, and takes a little over a month. It seems pretty bright, is rated to 60m depth, and has good reviews. for $12 I figured it'd be an okay light until I needed something stronger. I won't have a chance to test it for a bit over a month.

It seems like your budget is much higher, but if you wanted to get something to use in the occasional night dive it could work.

 

[diversteve]

Here's the problem you'll have with both lights when you add the GoPro:

The GoPro has a fixed focus - 170^o lens - or 110^o at lower resolution. Most good dive lights throw a concentrated beam of 20-30^o or less unless they're video lights. So on video you'll see a bright circle of light surrounded by darkness. It's very apparent when shooting video at night or in darker conditions.

Since there's no zoom on the GoPro, you can try to get closer - but that risks spooking what you're shooting. Most fish etc. have a comfort zone unless it's macro - then they have no choice. At night you're already lighting them up for predators so they're often already on edge. I've seen a lot of things run and hide well before we get close enough to shoot any decent video.

For video you want diffuse, not focused light. There's a couple of threads in the GoPro forum about this with examples.

Both lights use different technology to narrow the beam so that they throw farther. Princeton even mentions it in their info - they call it a Collimeter. From wikipedia: "A collimator is a device that narrows a beam of particles or waves."

UK used to sell a diffuser for the Light Cannon. I know someone who had two on his video rig (not a GoPro). But since any functional light diffuser does what it's supposed to, it cuts down the light output also. Also notice both have something in the center of the lens - this might cause a slight dark spot - unnoticeable while diving but not on video.

Many of the better GoPro specific video lights have beam angles of between 70^o and 125^o to help compensate for this. Often that's why you see two lights on a GoPro rig to provide as close to full matching cooverage as the lens sees.

It's all in how fussy you are of course also. If you're shooting video for your friends to watch on YouTube - it probably works. But taking advantage of the Hero 3+'s outstanding optical resolution - I think in the long term you'll be disappointed.

That's why people typically have the dual light rigs for GoPro - or any other video camera. Of course you won't find a lot of $200 GoPro light options either - a few get close to that price for a single light. Which will cause dark shadows behind your subjects as it's a single point of light.

Personal experience - I was on a liveaboard a couple years ago. A woman had the new 3 LED Shockwave. It broke on the 2nd night dive. We dis-assembled it back on the boat and you could see partially see the problem - the return somehow had broken - it appeared a piece was missing. The owner could use it the rest of the week but she had to manually pull the trigger out to shut it off.

Thanks for posting the Sea Bass link - I'm sending it to a member to show how good Kelp diving can be.