Primary Light beam spread - what should I look for?

[Gombessa]

Excellent! I know it's time consuming to get out there, set up and make these kinds of comparisons, so I'm really glad to see what you've done. If you still have the lights, would it be possible to get some video or shots with the camera equidistant to each light, with beams and hotspots visible? Many of these clips are either severely cropped, and/or have the camera much closer to one light than the other, or the lights pointed in different directions at different targets, which when combined with the low-light signal boost of the camera, really blow out whichever light source is closer. Case in point, for much of the video the 10W HID looks 3x brighter than the LED, which in turn looks 3x brighter than the 21w HID.

I think this significantly skews the perception of each of the light's effectiveness.

I've only tested the EOS against a 21w abovewater, and my perception is that the LED is a great light, and has a significantly wider beam than the HID, which means it lights up close-range better but doesn't punch nearly as far.

 

[DiverLaura]

i did the best i could without lining people up. at some point i will try to do 'better' but you have pulled single shots out of 2:30 min of footage, specifically supporting the disparity you describe, but other shots show the opposite. this was meant to be taken as a whole, watch the clips, see the lights in real world. i'm not recommending any light over any other, just showing them in the water.
in the second screen grab, although the eos is indeed closer for that moment, what i was showing was her signaling over the 21w in the distance. taken in context it is actually a good picture of the two lights in action.

i was doing what i could shooting and trying to chase my buddies 10w hid, which is why it may look 'cropped'.

for some reason the EOS is a lot closer than you'd expect to the 21, based on what you see on the surface. its beam is equivalent to the 21w on about middle tight-ness adjustment of its beam.


NO clips were cropped or edited. thats how they came out of the camera.

 

[Gombessa]

NO clips were cropped or edited. thats how they came out of the camera.

I was talking about the composition and focal length (and of course that's limited by lens, in-water magnification and distance available by viz) and not suggesting that the footage was manipulated in any way.

I get what you're saying, I do quite a bit of beam shot comparisons and understand how difficult it is. For someone not used to geeking out on this stuff though, it's REALLY easy to be unintentionally selective and draw the wrong conclusion.

 

[DiverLaura]

this is part of why i only showed one mfg brand then no one can scream 'unfair!' 'biased!!'