Mounting focus light on Canon's S110 housing?

[tie]

I'm planning on getting Canon's housing for the S110. I'm planning on using it primarily for macro, with the internal strobe. For night dives, I expect a focus light mounted on the housing would be useful. (In the past, I've held my camera in my right hand, and aimed a dive light with my left, but that's quite awkward.)

It looks like the Fantasea 44 LED light is a pretty good deal, and it comes with a "mounting ring and stainless steel wing nut." Will this work with the housing's diffuser? Is there a way of mounting this light (or other lights) on the housing's hot shoe mount?

Basically, I have no experience with focus lights, and am wondering what people normally do. I have a few old dive lights with no mounting hardware that I could also try, but am not really that handy at rigging things.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Interceptor121]

The housing cold shoe needs either a locline or ball base
One of those is ideal Cameras Underwater Ltd - Epoque EL-1000L
The fantasea small lights are useless the beam is too narrow and you will eventually flood them better to spend more money and have something that will last few years

 

[tie]

Thanks for your help. It is the "nano" 8-LED light that has many bad reviews, for flooding. (Although people seem to avoid floods if they turn it on and off above water, the beam is still narrow and dim.) The 44-LED light has good reviews: it is much brighter, has a wider beam, and doesn't have flooding problems. That's a good deal for $60, but I also ordered the $86 Bigblue AL 1X5M — which has similar brightness and beam shape but better construction. Neither has adjustable brightness levels, but the Bigblue is supposed to shut off when it detects preflashes, a minor feature. I'll compare and return one of them.

The cheapest hot-shoe adapter I could find was the Bigblue Sea & Sea Hot Shoe Light Adapter ($27 at B&H Photo). It doesn't rotate, unlike the $39 Fisheye FIX Rotary Hot Shoe Base, so I'll probably have to be careful about knocking the light, but that is okay. (These prices are ridiculous considering a hot-shoe to tripod-mount adapter is $2.50.)

 

[Hetland]

You'll be disappointed using your internal strobe on any camera underwater. It just doesn't work.

 

[Interceptor121]

Buy the adapter that rotates as the other will crack
Also forget the internal strobe and get a focus light with at least 500 lumens that will give you better pictures than the internal strobe
Going bottom cheap on uw photography just means spending more over a longer time
I can tell you because I have completed that journey myself
There are good options out there such ad the epoque el-1000 that with 300$ work very well also for macro video
Spend $150 and you are left with something that will last 50 dives before going into the bin

 

[tie]

You'll be disappointed using your internal strobe on any camera underwater. It just doesn't work.

Thanks for your advice. But I've been shooting with only the camera's internal strobe for years, and for my purposes it has worked out fine. Here's one where I could have used a focus light:

(Now admittedly, I'm a terrible photographer; but if you want to see good photos taken with the internal flash, check out Brian Mayes's Flickr photostream: Flickr: Brian Mayes' Photostream .)

 

[Interceptor121]

You can use internal strobe at very short range this ends up being boring as you only have one type of shot which is what is in those galleries
A strobe gives also depth to the photos as when you light from the front subjects look flat as in that Flickr gallery
With a strobe you can be creative and illuminate from the sides from top and back and give different effects
Obviously if you are just happy with pictures of nudibranchs there is nearly no need for a strobe especially if you just do fish id work