Hello All,

I am planning to shoot video on top of photography this summer and looking for a good light to cover both wide angle shoots, including big wrecks, and macro shoots.

The video light is below:

DIVEPRO Divelights Videolight

DIVEPRO VisionPro+ 15000Lumens 160° Wide Beam CRI 98 Unde...

Model Vision Pro+ LED 1*CMA2550 CREE LED Color Temp 5000K Beam Angle 160° Output 15000LM /7500LM / Low 1500LM Runtime 55mins / 110mins / 5500mins Battery 14.4V  6800mah Battery Pack...

Specifications are are as follows:

• 15.000 Lumens

• 160° Wide Beam

• CRI 98

This looks like a good light for me at this stage to cover both wide angle and macro scenarios and also has a diffusion filter option.

What is lacking is the cyan/blue filters for the lights to compensate for red gel lens filters but I think that can be solved via placing them in the diffusion filter.

I am planning to buy two of them.

Has anyone used this light and is it recommended to cover both shooting types?

Hey Zvonimiri,

I don't think this light is really the right fit for what you're looking to do.

The lamp you're asking about has a single, very powerful LED with a super wide 160-degree beam. It's pretty much impossible to use it for macro photography.

Just to clarify:

• Lumen = how powerful the light output is.

• Lux = how much light actually hits a specific spot.

• Lux = Lumen / area (in square meters)

So, those 15K lumens are spread out over a huge 160° area. Honestly, I'm even convinced that 160° is too wide even for wide-angle shots. For comparison, Keldan lights have a beam angle of 90 degrees!

Plus, with a wide-angle light, you'd be illuminating all the water between your lens and the subject, which increases backscatter and can even light up your lens, causing diffraction.

I really don't think a single, super powerful light (more than 10K lumens) that works well for both wide-angle and macro shooting exists. There are some less powerful models like the Backscatter Macro Wide 4300 that have dedicated LEDs for each function, but they risk being a bit of a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none."

If you really wanted to try macro with a wide-angle light, you'd need to attach snoots. Some lamps, like Kraken ones, have a standard photographic thread on the front, letting you attach things like lens hoods. That could be an idea!

Last but not least: personally, I really dislike having to control the light with just one button and having to do or remember endless sequences. Also, that specific button is known for having problems over the medium to long term. Find a light with a wheel power control.

Hey, perhaps if you share what equipment you've got and the sort of WA/macro shots you're thinking of (like Mediterranean, tropical, how big the subjects are), you can really help us excel at our core talent: getting you to spend cash! 😁

I wanted to share some additional feedback. While I haven’t used the exact lights you’re referring to, I’ve been using similar ones with 15,000 lumens and a fairly wide beam. I primarily shoot wide-angle video, and for that purpose, these lights have performed exceptionally well.

I’ve also used them for some semi-macro videography, and in my experience, they’ve worked very well for that too. Of course, they’re not a replacement for a dedicated macro light or a snoot, but whether that matters depends on how serious you want to get with macro footage. I’ve filmed various small critters—mostly during night dives and sometimes with an additional close-up lens—and the results have been very satisfying so far.

If you want to do wide-angle, as you mentioned, then high-powered, wide-beam lights like these are essential. In my opinion, there’s no way around investing in them. And as a bonus, they can still serve reasonably well for macro, even if not perfectly optimized for it.

I also experimented with blue filters on the lights and a red filter on the camera. The main challenge here was that the blue filter significantly reduces light output, and the red filter also cuts down the camera’s light-gathering capability. So the 15,000 lumen lights suddenly become surprisingly weak with the filters on. I got mixed results so far and still need to experiment a bit more in that regard.