Video light or Strobe

[bvanant]

I think it is all a matter of what you want your pics to look like and how serious you are. Strobes are at least an order of magnitude brighter than any reasonable video light (not the 38,000 lumen one, maybe) so you have complete control of your lighting i.e. you can shoot for large DOF and still get a reasonable shutter speed to get a black background while with a video light you get slow shutter speeds and large apertures and shallow DOF. In my experience at least, the video light makes no appreciable difference when you use a strobe and in fact if you look at many UW videos shot with 2 lights any time a strobe goes off nearby the video is totally blanked out.
I am in the process of writing a short article about this shot here in California with examples mostly of macro since most WA uses significant natural light and video lights are not really a factor there.
Bill

 

[Smudger]

Thanks Gents

I think I'm leaning toward a strobe. Can I ask, I noted above that interceptor mentions going for a strobe with TTL. Can all housings make use of TTL. How do you connect the strobe to the camera? I've had a look at my housing Fantasea FG15. It has a fibre optic cable adaptor but I can't see a way of making a direct connection to the camera.


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[Interceptor121]

Fibre optic is fine as we are talking about digital slave ttl

 

[Smudger]

Any opinions on the sea and sea YS110a or the YS90DX


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[rob1967]

bvanant is quite right that strobes are way, way brighter than video lights. Like maybe 10,000 times brighter. Storbes release an incredible amount of light in less than 1/2,000th of a second. With my strobes at only half power, I can shoot at ISO 100 and high apertures and get nice crisp shots with black backgrounds. Shutter speed is high and therefore ambient light is blocked out. (it is desirable to block out ambient light because it is a washed out blue colour as you get to depth).

With video lights, you are talking about a much, much lower amount of light, but continuous. So to properly expose the shot, you will not only have to slow your shutter down, but you will also have to increase ISO and open up your aperture. I know because I have done a few dives with no strobes and only my (fairly bright) focus light (Sola 800) as a light source. It is possible to get some decent macro shots with only this light source, but it is very difficult because it is not really quite enough light. Plus the slow shutter will mean lots of ambient light getting in your shot (unless you are night diving), so forget getting dark backgrounds. So for stills, you definitely want a strobe, and 2 is even better.

As for TTL, I never use it, and am perfectly happy shooting full manual. I have a YS-02 and a YS-01 (long story), but I wish they were both YS-02. The only difference is the YS-01 has TTL and a modelling light, both features I never use, and sometimes the switch on the YS-01 will accidentally go to TTL, which is a nuisance.

 

[Interceptor121]

As for TTL, I never use it, and am perfectly happy shooting full manual. I have a YS-02 and a YS-01 (long story), but I wish they were both YS-02. The only difference is the YS-01 has TTL and a modelling light, both features I never use, and sometimes the switch on the YS-01 will accidentally go to TTL, which is a nuisance.

For someone that has never used a strobe DS-TTL is a great help and will ensure many shots are useable right away. The feature of course depend on how good is the interaction between the camera and the strobe. In the case of Canon G and S series they work well together and unless you shoot extremely large objects at wide angle almost all shots can be taken using TTL
If the camera does not work well with the strobe then this is an entirely separate matter and that is why Inon developed systems like external auto where the strobe has its own light meter. Sea and Sea don't use this feature so if DS-TTL does not work for you than you have wasted money on the feature. However for most canon compacts it works just fine

 

[Smudger]

Thanks for all the input on this. I'm going for a strobe. I'm going to have a look around now and see what I can get for my budget.

Thanks all.


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