Red focus light vs strobe focus lighting vs auto shut focus light

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Scubanel

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Messages
7
Reaction score
1
Location
Singapore
# of dives
200 - 499
Hello gurus out there,

I am considering which to purchase. Wanted to convince myself on the approach both economically and practicality.

1) typical red lighting to act as a constant focus light. Flash fired will typically flood the red so that photo will have not much difference.

2) strobe focus light which automatically turns off when strobe is fired. To choose this option I would have to let go my current strobe and buy a new one.

3) A focus light which will autoshut when it detects a strobe being fired. The reaction of the sensor is dependent on the angle where the strobe thrown the light. Would not work if snoot is introduced to my strobes.

Hope the experts here can throw some light. Thank you in advance.
 
For the most part a spotting light is a non-issue when shooting with a flash. Unless the spotting light is very bright and the shutter is very slow, you won't see it in a photo. Auto turn off features are not helpful or necessary imho. A red light is mostly used with a skittish subject, and they are nearly always wide angle floods.

Occasionally, i do want to illuminate something with a fixed light. I change my kraken spotting light from low-flood to high-spot mode and lower the shutter.

Just get a good flood light with easy control of the power level and you wont have issues.
 
I use the Weefine 3400 Smartfocus lamp: it has auto "flash-off" function and in addition you can switch to red light, when you need it. On nightdives, this lamp is by far strong enough to serve as a full diving light and when I discover a skitish subject, e.g. shrimp, I turn the light to red and make photos. It requires, however, to get accustomed (and also AF sometimes struggles) - making photos in red light reminds me at the old days when I was developing negatives and positives in the darkroom...:)

I almost never use the build in focus light on my strobes (Z330), as practically never I point the strobes directly on the subject (and then the light would be white and scare away the subject). No need to buy a new strobe because of this...

The situation may be different, when you use a snoot, when you use the build in focus light of the strobe to see where the light will be going. But as far as I remember there exist snoots that have build in lights too and in any case you can buy one additional strobe for snooting, in case you find out that you need it...

Wolfgang
 
I use the Weefine 3400 Smartfocus lamp: it has auto "flash-off" function and in addition you can switch to red light, when you need it. On nightdives, this lamp is by far strong enough to serve as a full diving light and when I discover a skitish subject, e.g. shrimp, I turn the light to red and make photos. It requires, however, to get accustomed (and also AF sometimes struggles) - making photos in red light reminds me at the old days when I was developing negatives and positives in the darkroom...:)
I have a weefine 1000 smartfocus. It has similar features, but much less power. I have not tried it underwater yet, but my plan is to try something similar. One thing I noticed is that the light is noticably dimmer in "flash-off" mode.
 
I have a weefine 1000 smartfocus. It has similar features, but much less power. I have not tried it underwater yet, but my plan is to try something similar. One thing I noticed is that the light is noticably dimmer in "flash-off" mode.
Interesting. With Weefine 3400 I do not notice a change in light intensity, when switching to "flash-off"...
(But I can dim the lamp at four different intensities by pressing a button)

Wolfgang
 
As others have mentioned, you really are confusing the roles a strobe target light and a focus light do. The strobe lights are for aiming them. A focus light is for illuminating your subject and allowing you to see and frame it and the camera to catch focus much faster.

A red mode is useful at night or with critters like crabs, octos, shrimp and squid that don't see red light waves. It also preserves your night vision.

Auto on/off is really only useful with very long shutter speeds - less than about 1/100-125 below whioch you may start seeing the red or focus light beam.

Hope that helps,
Jack
 
I use the Weefine 3400 Smartfocus lamp: it has auto "flash-off" function and in addition you can switch to red light, when you need it. On nightdives, this lamp is by far strong enough to serve as a full diving light and when I discover a skitish subject, e.g. shrimp, I turn the light to red and make photos. It requires, however, to get accustomed (and also AF sometimes struggles) - making photos in red light reminds me at the old days when I was developing negatives and positives in the darkroom...:)

I almost never use the build in focus light on my strobes (Z330), as practically never I point the strobes directly on the subject (and then the light would be white and scare away the subject). No need to buy a new strobe because of this...

The situation may be different, when you use a snoot, when you use the build in focus light of the strobe to see where the light will be going. But as far as I remember there exist snoots that have build in lights too and in any case you can buy one additional strobe for snooting, in case you find out that you need it...

Wolfgang
That's great. It support my reason not to get another strobe. Thank you so much.
 
For the most part a spotting light is a non-issue when shooting with a flash. Unless the spotting light is very bright and the shutter is very slow, you won't see it in a photo. Auto turn off features are not helpful or necessary imho. A red light is mostly used with a skittish subject, and they are nearly always wide angle floods.

Occasionally, i do want to illuminate something with a fixed light. I change my kraken spotting light from low-flood to high-spot mode and lower the shutter.

Just get a good flood light with easy control of the power level and you wont have issues.
Very good point on the dimming of focus light. My torch has two step dim. Hopefully it is adequate. Perhaps I can just try add some red filter to reduce the glare further.
 
For the most part a spotting light is a non-issue when shooting with a flash. Unless the spotting light is very bright and the shutter is very slow, you won't see it in a photo. Auto turn off features are not helpful or necessary imho. A red light is mostly used with a skittish subject, and they are nearly always wide angle floods.

Occasionally, i do want to illuminate something with a fixed light. I change my kraken spotting light from low-flood to high-spot mode and lower the shutter.

Just get a good flood light with easy control of the power level and you wont have issues.
May have one lying around as that was one of my video light for my gopro. Maybe can try that also.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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