Review: Big Blue CB15000P 15,000 Lumen COB Light

[JackConnick]

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Review: Big Blue CB15000P 15,000 Lumen COB Light

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[DavidFL]

After seeing a presentation at TEKDIVEUSA in Orlando last year by Pete Mesley, I bought two Bigblue 15K lights, mine are the VL15000PPMTC models. I had the same approach after seeing some of Pete's work in wrecks : use the lights, continuously on, for both still photos and video. I have been using mine for about a year now with a Canon G-15 rig and an Olympus TG-5 rig. Testing to the FL-1 standard on wetestlights.com (admittedly a site setup by a competing light manufacturer) shows a pretty rapid falloff in lumens over time, and a measured beam angle considerably less than the advertised specs. Notwithstanding 'specmanship' I've been really happy with the results. I have my two lights on ULCS-and-ball-joint arms to help deal with backscatter and shadows; I'm mostly shooting the TG-5 with 4K video selected; and when I want to take a still I'm using the same settings that I've entered for the 4K video. I'm using my strobes less and less. And as mentioned in this review, I have the sense that at least some creatures will come over and take a good look at the lights....
The video clip and the still photo from the same camera with the same light / settings; drift dives in Jupiter.

And to add a photo taken by someone else of the rig.....this photo courtesy of Kona Aggressor's crew photographer/videographer Morgan while I was attempting to use the red LED's on the same lights together with a Sola NightSea dark blue light at night with the Manta's....