Primary Night Dive Light: 85 or 125 Degree Angle Better?

[AshleyAshna]

I really appreciate all the feedback. You all have been very helpful. So if I understand correctly, for proper video lighting, I'm going to need more than 1 wide angle light at 1000 lumens. However, what I am a bit confused about is what you all are recommending for a night dive light/day dive to look inside the nooks and crevices. Sounds like a narrow beam, with an 8-10 degree angle is best but are you all saying a 1000 lumens are too much or not enough?

I will be focusing my diving mostly around places like Cozumel, Belize and the Cayman Islands.

 

[tbone1004]

For video a single 1k light at wide beam isn't going to do anything for you, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it just isn't. You need at least two and hopefully you don't have a lot of ambient light and the water is clear. Most will say you need at least 4-6k lumen total as a minimum for open water. The narrower angles are better for you looking into things but they create hotspots in the video and don't have enough spill so it looks like you are looking through a tube.

https://www.divegearexpress.com/lights/backuplt.shtml
These are all decent lights for the money, commonly used as cave backup lights and a pair of the video angles can be used for a gopro with pretty good results in a cave, but that is usually crystal clear water with 0 ambient light. I don't have experience with these in open water to comment on how they'd work in the ocean during the day or even at night with the moon

 

[Kharon]

For me, the narrow beam is way too narrow for night diving. I got a 125° beam and found it way too wide. I replaced it with a 75° beam and that's just about perfect for me.

Suggestion. Take 6 sticks about 3 feet long and set them at 10°, 85° and 125° and consider what they would illuminate if it was a light.

(Sorry - thought the question was about a light for diving at night - not video).

 

[AshleyAshna]

For me, the narrow beam is way too narrow for night diving. I got a 125° beam and found it way too wide. I replaced it with a 75° beam and that's just about perfect for me.

Suggestion. Take 6 sticks about 3 feet long and set them at 10°, 85° and 125° and consider what they would illuminate if it was a light.

(Sorry - thought the question was about a light for diving at night - not video).

kharon, that's exactly what I was asking! Thank you!

 

[exposure]

Night dive light and video light are two different things. For Night dive you will need a light that will give you the possibility to communicate with your buddy. If you try to draw a circle with a 125° beam, you'll see that there is some limitations. 10° will be way better and you will be able to use that light during the day to check for small things. For the lumen, I would say that you don't really need a lot as in night dive there is no light obviously. I am not an expert in that range but I would say that more than 600 lumen in 10° beam will do the job. For video, here you'll need a lot of power and specially during day time. You'll also need two light to cross there beam in front of your lens so that you don't have the dirt floating in front of you. To give you a brief idea, here is a video at night with one video light 125° 15000 lumens (yeh that's a lot) but you'll see that it is not full clear. Having just one light even on the right side of the camera is not the ideal world

[video=youtube;JBUei4cRAwE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBUei4cRAwE[/video]

 

[Freewillow]

It is true exposure. Your lamp is a piece of s............ . If you do not like it, I am not living too far away from you, in Brussels . Great video . Viz in wrecks is not always optimal, but I got your message.

 

[exposure]

I let you to buy one so that we can dive together with two. Deal? I love it actually but the price tag is high so I am waiting to buy a second one plus it is pretty big and have a big canister.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lucca brassi]

very clever with single 15 l tank through El Faroud at night at - 30m

....have been there

 

[Freewillow]

I agree with Lucca. I will not buy a bigger light in order to go with you and penetrate a wreck @ more than 30 m with a single tank at night. :. I admire, but not for me. I am a wimp .

 

[drbill]

I use my Sola 1200s and 2000s for shooting video at night. I usually have them set at the 500 lumen level. People on the boat while I'm in the water say it looks like daylight. The 1200s also have the spot setting although I almost never use it. I dive solo at night (and day) so there is no one to signal anyway.