You're wasting your money on lights.....

[ronscuba]

Funny, am I the only one that agrees with the salesman? The thing he forgot to say though is that this is very true when you are using a fisheye lens as the gopro. Unless you get very very Close you wont get much color from the 600 lumens lights. Use a red filter in tropical Waters and try to get the sun behind your back and you will get great video from your dive. Especially if you are swimming around and recording this and that and especially when recording things that aren't absolutely up Close. I have a D-SLR video rig with all sorts of lenses, from super macro to fisheye and I have SOLA 1200. But, I seldom use the SOLA when I use the fisheye.

I agree with you and salesman.

Skip the lights for now and go with the filter. Add lights later on for night dives and closeups.

Here is a clip I just shot in tropical water 70 feet deep. Hero 3 with a cheap drop in filter.

[vimeo]56843197[/vimeo]

 

[Interceptor121]

I am with ron & co. Was this a filter inside the housing?

 

[jamjam]

I'm using my UK Light Canon as a strobe for now but can't wait to get proper lighting system. Even with the best of ambient lighting, macro shots always need more lighting. And anything past the snorkeling depth seems to need lights to bring out the colors.

 

[Interceptor121]

jamjam you have a Sony RX100 that is a different set up for which you need lights for macro. Gopro is different as it does no macro
You might want to check the first 10 posts on this
Interceptor121 Underwater Video

 

[jamjam]

jamjam you have a Sony RX100 that is a different set up for which you need lights for macro. Gopro is different as it does no macro
You might want to check the first 10 posts on this
Interceptor121 Underwater Video

Cool link, thanks!

 

[ronscuba]

I am with ron & co. Was this a filter inside the housing?

Yes. Internal drop in filter. Looks like a clear pink piece of paper.

 

[Interceptor121]

Filter inside the housing will always outperform those outside however with gopro you are then stuck with it should you want to remove it outside water

 

[Mike]

So, I was all set on buying a set of sola 500 lights for my new go pro setup. I have a new go pro 2 with the LCD back, dive housing, magic filter, tray with arms ready for lights. Anyways, I make a phone call to a large online retailer asking about my choice of lights. The sales rep asked where I dive and I said mostly tropical locations i.e. Cozumel, Turks and Caicos, Florida etc.. and he said I would more than likely be wasting my money unless I wanted to get 2 sola 1200's and then it would still be a reach and only useful for underneath ledges or in deep water past 50 or 60 feet on very close filming. I would have to spend around $1,500 and it likely wouldn't make a huge difference then I was for sure out on that.

He said that lights are really good for dark water, green water, night diving etc.. His analogy was to think of shining a flashlight on a bright sunny day.. it's not very effective, but it is very noticeable at night. He said that the clear and bright tropical water is hard to punch through with lights and even powerful lights are only good for a few feet. I was a little surprised at his candid response, especially since it meant he wouldn't be making a sale. His advice was to use the filter from about 15 feet to around 60 feet and it should be more than enough for good memories. He also mentioned I should find some good editing software and I would be happy with the results. I was just surprised at his response and wondered how many other guys on here just skipped lights all together or regretted spending money on lights that aren't that effective. I'm really new to this so forgive me if I am missing something.... it wouldn't be the first time.

To me this all comes down to subject and subject distance.

He was applying a generalization in regard to lights doing you no good trying to shoot wide angle with a large distance between yourself and the subject. The opposite generalization of that lights are always better is based on applying the use to subject distances and subjects that will benefit from using lights.

Trying to say lights are useless in tropical water because they don't 'punch' through them is wrong, again based on subject and distance.

If you use an above the water example -

Take a person with their back to the sun and shoot them from 10 feet away with a wide angle with no flash, the picture is a good exposure in the back ground and the persons face is dark. Now add a flash, do the same thing and you have a good exposure in the back ground (ambient light) and a good exposure on the persons face (fill flash).

This gets applied underwater also but the issue changes from differences in exposure to differences in color. Take the same set up of the above water example and do it underwater - go down 60 ft, take a video of a subject 10 feet away with a background behind them with wide angle and no video light and you get good exposure of the back ground and subject but you get bad color on both. Add a filter and you get okay color on both subject and the back ground. Take off the filer add video lights and you get good exposure on both subject and background and poor color in back ground and good color on subject. Bring the background closer to the subject and light fall off is reduced and you get good exposure on both and good color.

This diagram shows the principle of how light loses intensity over distance. So for example underwater we are talking about color, the farther away from the light the less correct color you will see. so in our example of subject and distance. We are saying the problem is one of distance (the farther the subject from the light the worse the color.)

Saying adding a filter is better than adding lights to me is not true. It all depends on the subject and the distance.

If you're trying to take a video of the 500 ft Spiegel Grove wreck and want the entire wreck in the frame you can't light it. But you can add a filter over the camera to effect the entire scene. Colors won't be perfect but they will be better.

If you're trying to take a video of a grouper in front of the Spiegel Grove with the entire wreck in the back ground, you can shoot with no filter, light the grouper and you'll have great color on the grouper but the back ground will go blue.

It's simply all about subject and distances, there is not one or the other that is better as a blanket approach.

 

[Interceptor121]

Mike is right in the sense that depending on distance lights are more or less effective however nothing less than 5000 lumens is effective at 10 feet

I guess the issue is can the gopro really benefit from video ligths and the answer is yes but they need to be really powerful as the camera can't shoot macro (that usually you can do fine with a single light) and is not very good in lowlight

I guess the sales man wanted to avoid a customer spending 1500-2000$ coming back disappointed

 

[ronscuba]

Mike is right in the sense that depending on distance lights are more or less effective however nothing less than 5000 lumens is effective at 10 feet

I guess the issue is can the gopro really benefit from video ligths and the answer is yes but they need to be really powerful as the camera can't shoot macro (that usually you can do fine with a single light) and is not very good in lowlight

I guess the sales man wanted to avoid a customer spending 1500-2000$ coming back disappointed

Especially true considering the cost of the GoPro and how much a $3 internal filter improves color.